Full review can be found here. 
 The plot in this one was a sight better than that of Changeless and Blameless. Unfortunately it still wasn't that great and some of the more defining moments were based on Alexia uncharacteristically overlooking important things, which was somewhat of a disappointment. I enjoyed her pregnancy and some of the humorous situations that came from it. The best part of the story may have been when Alexia initiated Ivy Tunstell into the Parasol Protectorate. On the down side, she then sent Ivy off to Scotland and she didn't make another appearance in the book; a shame as Ivy is a fun character. In fact, a lot of the previously important characters took a bit of a backseat for this book: Madame Lefoux only had a limited role as well as Ivy and Felicity was kind of there but ignored most of the time. 
 The humour remains the same in each book and it is becoming tired rather than really remaining amusing. With this book I noticed that it is often very dependent on similes and usually the images conjured up are more cringe-worthy than actually being funny. The book did, however, contain what is possibly the best quote of the last three books: "By the end, Rafe wore the long-suffering look of an eagle being ordered about by a flock of excited pigeons." The only laugh out loud moments were towards the start of the book and there were only two or three of them. 
 I would have liked to have seen an actual resolution to Felicity's subplot, but, as always, she is just cast to one side and conveniently forgotten about. 
 Ok, diving into the humour debate here. This is not British humour. It irks me to see it classed as British humour. I am British, I think I know what my humour is like. I am a firm believer that, though it is possible to come to appreciate another culture's humour, it is not possible to adopt that humour as your own. Your humour will inevitably be that of the culture that you were brought up in. This is dry American wit. That I didn't find this particularly funny coupled with the fact that a lot of the reviews I scanned where people claim to have giggled their way through the book came from American reviewers and not British ones, seems to back up my point. I actually found the dark humour in Darkly Dreaming Dexter to be far funnier than the dry wit presented in The Parasol Protectorate. 
 It has come to my attention that the language in the book is strictly American English because the publishers require it to be so. Why?! Would the poor American audience really be that stumped if they come across "travelled" instead of "traveled"? Because obviously it cannot possibly mean the same thing if the word has an extra 'l' in it! What about "the top step" instead of "stoop"? Stoop is actually a word that a lot of British people do not know because it comes from the Dutch word 'stoep' (meaning pavement or sidewalk depending on which side of the pond you come from) and entered American English from the Dutch settlers there. Dutch hasn't had much of an influence on British English so this word is not part of our vocabulary. Frankly, it is annoying to be faced with British aristocracy who speak a mix of present day American and period English. It should be one or the other, not a mix of both. 
 Mediocre. Better than books 2 and 3, probably about on par with book 1. I cannot say I really enjoyed it but I didn't feel like it was a mental slog to get through it either. 3 stars. 
 Book five is currently planned as being the final book in the series. It's got to the point where it needs to wrap up so this is probably for the best.