Heartless is the fourth installment of Gail Carriger’s Parasol Protectorate series. Set in Victorian London with plenty of Steampunk elements, the series lets the gadgets take a back seat to both the story and the slew of paranormal characters. This is particularly the case in Heartless. Well, usually.

For those of you who missed the first three books in the series—Soulless, Changeless, and Blameless—here’s a quick recap. Despite being highborn, Alexia Tarabotti was always a bit of an outsider, in part because of her status as “soulless”. Vampires, werewolves and ghosts are abundant, and are the direct result of people who had excess soul during their mortal existence. Alexia finds her well-matched opposite in Lord Maccon, the Alpha of the werewolf pack Clan Woolsey.

Alexia and Lord Maccon marry, and she is soon pregnant with a child that could possibly be a “soul-stealer.” Panicked vampires repeatedly attempt to take care of the unborn inconvenience.

At the beginning of Heartless, Alexia is five months pregnant and perpetually in danger of vampire attacks, one of which includes a horde of…zombie hedgehogs? They are certainly vicious hedgehogs, at any rate.

Lord Maccon suggests a plan: let Lord Akeldama adopt the child. Akeldama, in addition to being London’s most flamboyant, stylishly-dressed vampire, is also its highest-ranking, thanks to his position on Queen Victoria’s Shadow Council, Her paranormal advisory team.

What’s more is that Lord Akeldama is owed a “debt of honor” from London’s vampire hive (ruled by the conniving Countess Nadasdy) following some events in the third book. If he adopts Alexia’s baby, he reasons that the vampires will leave the babe alone.

The reasoning behind the adoption seems like simply an elaborate excuse for Alexia and her husband to relocate from their home outside of London to a townhouse right next to Lord Akeldama, in the heart of London proper.

Alexia’s new home is rather crowded: first a flighty ghost pops up, warning about a conspiracy to kill the Queen, and then Alexia’s sister Felicity moves in. As Alexia searches for the Queen’s would-be assassins, she is drawn further into the world of both her husband’s past and the Order of the Brass Octopus, a conglomeration of scientists. Meanwhile, Alexia’s friend Madame Lefoux invents some sort of large transport, but her secrecy about the project and withdrawn manner give her a suspicious air.

Whew. Sub-plots run wild in this book, from discoveries about former lovers to plotlines that reach back as far as book in the series. Heartless ties up a lot of loose ends, but promises that the fifth installment, Timeless, will plunge readers right into Alexia’s next crisis.

I said it when I reviewed the first three books of the series, and I’ll say it again: some of Carriger’s characters are so outlandish that they start to be annoying. I’m all for a caricature, but I prefer it in small doses (say, in the space of something like The Importance of Being Earnest). After four books of Lord Akeldama’s “mincing” instead of walking, detailed descriptions of his outrageous outfits, and his speech patterns—in which so much of his dialogue is emphasized—I’m pretty tired of him.

Thankfully, at least some of the characters who threatened to become annoying or downright boring in the previous books are actually more interesting in Heartless. This book gave both Alexia’s friend Ivy Tunstell and the werewolf pack’s Beta, Professor Lyall, a chance to develop and grow.

Even after four books (and my growing annoyance with Lord Akeldama), I am still enjoying the Parasol Protectorate series. When so many books, particularly in the paranormal category, are poorly written, it’s refreshing to read Carriger’s work. She has a distinct style, her pacing is good, she injects some humor into her work, and the relationships between characters are well developed.

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Beth Dolgner is a writer, editor, and overly-enthusiastic costumer. She is the author of the Betty Boo, Ghost Hunter paranormal romance series as well as two non-fiction books (Everyday Voodoo and Georgia Spirits & Specters). Beth's young adult Steampunk novel, Manifest, debuts in the summer of 2012 from Redglare Press.