HISTORICAL
ROMANCE |
VICTORIAN ROMANCE
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HORROR
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"A Suspicious Character," from The Illustrated London News for
13 October 1888 carrying the overall caption, "With the Vigilance
Committee in the East End"
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Entrance to the Egyptian Avenue at Highgate
Cemetary, London, England
Photo credit: John Armagh
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Phoenix from Aberdeen Bestiary
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BOOK
ILLUMINATIONS
From Medieval Book Reviews
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The Strange Beautiful Tale of Miss
Percy Parker
by Leanna Renee Hieber
Imaginative and refreshing!
Miss
Percy Parker was always the outcast in Victorian society with her
albino white hair and ghostly pallor. With no hope of marriage, she
enters Athens Academy hoping the academic institution will be different
than the convent, a place where being herself, visions and ghost
friends included, led to a priest's attempt to destroy her very
uniqueness. Miss Percy Parker knows nothing of the dark history of the
academy nor the group bound together to protect the world from the
encroaching evil. Many years ago, a prophecy was given to Alexi
Rychman and his friends, charging them with a mission and duty to guard
the boundary between dark and light and await the coming of the last
member. As the world darkens with a Ripper prowling the streets
murdering young women and supernatural terrors threatening all around,
the now Professor Alexi Rychman awaits the fulfillment of the
Prophecy. Will the last member of their group ever appear?
Has his entire life been based upon a hoax or a misunderstood
memory? Has he been waiting for her, the one woman whom he could
love, in vain? As the darkness comes closer and closer, will he
discover the answers before it is too late? When Miss Percy
Parker goes to Professor Alexi Rychman for tutoring, their closeness
sets in motion a path that will give her an education beyond the
textbooks and lead her to the very path that marks the boundary of life
and death. Will she be able to confide in others her true nature
before it is too late?
THE STRANGELY BEAUTIFUL
TALE OF MISS PERCY PARKER is an exciting, imaginative gothic
romance that breaks strict genre divisions with a refreshing
originality. In combining the best of paranormal and historical
romance with a light touch of horror, Leanna Renee Hieber creates a
romance that is bold in imagery, poetic in language, and sweet in tone
despite the darkness surrounding the characters and setting.
Miss Percy Parker and Professor Alexi Rychman both share a certain
innocence of heart that just endears them to a reader. Although
both have moments when they are not perfect (and that in and of itself
is refreshing!), each has a goodness of heart that shines through their
human weaknesses. Miss Percy Parker hesitates with an uncertainty
born from the historical period and from her own vulnerabilities. Alexi
Rychman has a dogged certainty about the Prophecy that has driven him
throughout his life and about his position as professor and yet, the
purity of his heart distinguishes him from the manipulative aims
potential in a professor-student romance. As the story
progresses, Leanna Renee Hieber avoids that possible pitfall with
concrete details of Percy's characterization and the working out of the
Prophecy in a most beautiful romantic ending, leaving just enough
threads hanging to make a reader crave more of this strangely beautiful
world in another installment.
The Victorian setting gives this romance a certain charm while the
paranormal fantasy elements add a delightful twist as the forces of
good and evil make the romance of greater import than just the tale of
two individuals. Leanna Renee Hieber embeds the perfect amount of
twists and complications to keep a reader poised on the edge, eager to
discover how her characters will overcome the obstacles in the
path. Beautiful imagery and symbolism create an imaginative
world, and yet, with the historical setting and romantic complications,
the symbolism adds to the world within the romance without becoming
simplistic or dull as can often be the risk with works too heavy or
difficult in their use of symbolism. Indeed, this romance blends
all in just the right measure to make
THE
STRANGELY BEAUTIFUL TALE OF MISS PERCY PARKER a romance that
captivates from first page to last.
Reminiscent of the friendship binding together
the youth in the earlier Harry Potter novels with the prologue tale of
the youthful Guard charged with protecting the world, THE STRANGELY BEAUTIFUL TALE OF MISS PERCY
PARKER takes off in a new exciting direction all its own.
This reader was captivated by the lyrical language, the characters and
the setting but above all by the creative originality of this
romance. THE
STRANGELY BEAUTIFUL TALE OF MISS PERCY PARKER is a
romance that will refresh the spirit, appealing especially to romance
readers looking for something new and different than the typical.
Hats off to Leanna Renee Hieber for this exquisitely beautiful
imaginative romantic tale.
Publisher: Leisure
Historical Fantasy
(September 2009)
Author
website
Reviewed by Merrimon,
Merrimon Book Reviews
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