Rating: 4/5 
 ***Minor spoilers*** 
 Alexia Tarabotti is a preternatural - she is said to have no soul. What this means, however, is that she is able to cancel out the abilities of vampires and werewolves by touching them. As a result, when Alexia is attacked by a vampire at a dinner party, the vampire's fangs retracted upon impact and was left extremely confused. In self defense, Alexia stabbed the vampire and killed him, which puts things into action. The vampire is a rove - one without a hive, yet his scent suggests he belongs to a hive. He had no idea that Alexia was a preternatural, when it's likely that all supernaturals in London know. He appeared to be newly turned, but turning new supernaturals is so difficult that it's usually accompanied by a large celebration. On top of that, vampires and werewolves have been disappearing from cities in England. Alexia, Lord Maccon (a werewolf alpha), his pack, and supernatural agents are trying to decipher what all these mysteries could possibly mean. 
 I enjoyed this novel much more than I expected to. Having previously read Etiquette & Espionage by the same author and not liking it, I wasn't sure that I would enjoy this one. I'm so glad to have been proven wrong. It seems that I much prefer her adult writing to her young adult writing. My favourite part of the book was definitely the romance between Alexia and Lord Maccon. I've read books set in the Victorian era before, but never a romance, and it was fantastic. The way women from that era were much more clueless about the whole thing than we are now (it's not like they had the internet or got sat down for sex ed class) led for their scenes together to be both humorous and endearing. My high rating is mostly due to how much I loved those two together. 
 The story was interesting enough, but wasn't nearly as good as the romance. Luckily, the romance was able to distract me from that. There is enough action throughout the book as well as an element of mystery for it to not be too annoying that most of the action happened right at the very end of the book. While a portion of the solution to the entire mystery is relatively obvious, I didn't guess the whole story. 
 Overall, I was pleasantly surprised by this book. I didn't expect to love it as much as I did. The romance was the highlight for me, and I liked both Alexia and Lord Maccon as characters. The story wasn't as good as it could've been, but was still satisfying. If I'm able to get my hands on it, I'd definitely read the next book. If you're into fantasy/steampunk (or a great romance), go for this book, it won't disappoint.