Soulless

A rough start, I had to struggle through the beginning of the book. Once farther in, it proved to be a fun read.

There are some glaring inconsistencies around the main character of the book, Alexia Tarabotti. Alexia is supposed to be soulless, and at the beginning of the book that is put forward as the reason for her socially out-of-step choices; that because of her soulless state she does not feel the shame and embarrassment that helps keep most people socially in line. And yet at the end of the book she seems to be experiencing emotions just like the average ensouled person. I suspect that shift resulted from the romance that was thrown in, and which proceeded as one would expect, complete with all the required emotional response from the female. I wish the author had stuck with the nature of the soulless as originally presented. It would have been interesting to read a romance where the female cannot have the standard emotions. Instead what the reader gets is an unusually (for her time) independent and daring female.