This was delightful and just the fluffy, light-hearted read I needed. This book made me laugh out loud several times.

Things I liked:

- The language and writing style. Without it, this would probably have been a pretty mediocre read, but the Victorian language and constantly applied manners are extremely entertaining.
- The heroine is an adult and knows who she is, which makes for a welcome change in this genre. She's also not conventionally beautiful.
- The whole 'science' of 'missing a soul', because Alexia does have traits you would usually associate with having a soul, for example emotions. It was nice to not have the universal truth dumped on you, but get an explanation that fits the setting of the book, which is Victorian scientists explaining something they don't quite understand.
- No problematic relationship stuff that's sold as romantic. HUGE PLUS! More so because the main love interest is an alpha werewolf, which usually leads to all kinds of (at best) cringe-worthy stuff. And although I don't care about the romance in urban fantasy novels, I found this one to be actually entertaining.
- The secondary characters! A lot of them are pretty one-dimensional, but it was still well done and I didn't expect more, so the amount of secondary characters who had more to them than met the eye actually surprised me. Of course I am a big fan of Lord Akeldama, as everyone. He's not the vampire we deserve, but the vampire we need.
- The worldbuilding. I liked the concept of the Vampire hives and the take on Werewolf romance that actually involves consent (shocking, I know!). And I enjoyed the explanations of how Vampires and Werewolfes have shaped the culture and current societal rules, it all fit very well and, in combination with the steampunkt elements, made for an enjoyable world which I am excited to learn more about in later books.
- The references to 'THE incident'(TM), because I just love that trope.

Things I didn't much care for:

- The sex scene. Well, I usually don't. I also have no problem with them, they just tend to make me cringe. But I understand people want to read a payoff to all the buildup, so I won't take any stars off for it.
- A lot of characters were, as I mentioned above, one-dimensional. But this is the first book in a series and so it can't focus on every character there is as much as they would deserve.

I will take one star off because the plot didn't get as much focus as it should have. It's good, and there are no massive logic bugs, but it doesn't reinvent the wheel and only really develops (and is resolved rather quickly) at the end of the book. I just wish a bit of the focus on language and romance would have been directed to the development of the story.

I hope to read more about the other characters and the world in the next books.