Review: The Strangely Beautiful Tale of Miss Percy Parker by Leanna Renee Hieber

On a grey London day in 1867, six unrelated children are inexplicably drawn to one central spot. They do not know each other and come from different backgrounds and social levels. But they have one thing in common. Each has been infiltrated with a kind of spirit. They are still themselves but now possess a higher level of awareness and each will discover that they have a new and interesting power. On that first night, they behold a goddess-like figure who gives them instructions and warns them to watch for a seventh member who will appear to complete their circle of The Guard.

Twenty years later, the children have grown up and fulfilled their roles as guardians of the portal between the worlds. Each and every day, the six of them fight evil and tame restless ghosts that only they can see. Rebecca, gifted with Intuition, is the headmistress of Athens Academy. Alexi Rychman, their leader and most Powerful among them, is the head Professor. Michael, the Heart of the group, is a Priest. Jane is the Healer and the most solitary member. Josephine's gift shines through her paintings, she is the Artist. And Elijah is the Memory, able to wipe all knowledge of any incident from someones mind with a wave of his hand.

The years have been hard on all of them, waiting for their prophetic seventh, but especially on Alexi. On that long ago day, when he laid eyes on the Goddess, he was paralyzed with emotion. He loved her from that moment and has looked for her since, denying himself any relationships outside of the guard. He feels that when the seventh DOES arrive, she will be for him. She will not just complete The Guard, but will complete him as well, and dispel the awful loneliness that he has lived with for so long.

Percy Parker, a new student, arrives at Athens Academy from a convent where she has been hidden away for her first eighteen years. She is very bright and eager to learn but is hampered by her appearance. She has snow white hair and skin, with ice blue eyes. She considers herself a freak, an impression enhanced by the stares she receives from the other students. The fact that she can see and hear ghosts, is able to talk to them like she would to any human, must remain her closest kept secret. People would think her mad if they knew.

Academically, Percy is quite brilliant, except in one subject. Mathematics is completely alien to her and she is dismayed to learn that it must be part of her curriculum. The class is taught by Professor Rychman and Percy feels enchanted by him immediately. Her progress is so poor that he requires her to come to his office for private lessons on a daily basis. At first, she is too distracted by him to learn anything. But for Alexi, something about this girl strikes a chord within him. Bit by bit, he comes to believe that she is the seventh that they have been seeking, though she herself knows nothing about it.

During the time Alexi and Percy are getting to know each other, the ghostly horrors in the city of London are growing at an explosive pace. The Ripper murders are at their height, and all of The Guard are aware that an unnatural force is at work. They have all been devoting their energies to defeating it. When a beautiful dark haired woman stumbles into their midst, everyone in The Guard believes her to be the prophesied seventh.

Everyone, that is, but Alexi.

Their disagreement causes a rift in The Guard that could not have come at a worse time. The fabric between the worlds is being torn apart, The Guard is all that is holding chaos back. Their strength lies in their unity, can they achieve it before it is too late?

This story weaves together the threads and echos of many beloved aspects of English Literature. It is steeped in Shakespeare and Greek Mythology, there are flashes of Poe, Dickens, Stevenson, shades of Gothic ghost stories and Victorian romance. Alexi himself reminded me of Edward Rochester from Jane Eyre, dark and brooding. Very well done, indeed, and filled with eloquent writing, too.

This was a very enjoyable novel for me. It is labeled "historical fantasy" and if you read my blog regularly you will know that is one of my favorite genres! I thought all of the characters were interesting, I loved the setting and the premise is wonderfully eerie. Though I did find myself a bit annoyed with Percy's timidity at times. I had to keep reminding myself that the poor girl was raised in a convent! The Strangely Beautiful Tale of Miss Percy Parker is the first in a planned series. I'm hoping that the rest of members of The Guard will get their tales told in the sequels, I'm looking forward to seeing what happens next.

Like ghost stories? Paranormal? Historical Fiction? Fantasy? English Literature? Then you will enjoy The Strangely Beautiful Tale of Miss Percy Parker, I certainly did!

For more about the Leanna Renee Hieber and her Strangely Beautiful books, please visit her website. Be sure to enter my giveaway for a signed copy...and while you are there read Leanna's fabulous guest post!

The Strangely Beautiful Tale of Miss Percy Parker is published by Leisure Books, ISBN 978-0-8439-6296-3

The Strangely Beautiful Haunted London Blog Tour day 7 (Plus a Giveaway!)

A big welcome today to Leanna Renee Hieber, author of The Strangely Beautiful Tale of Percy Parker!! I just started her book and I already love it. I am thrilled to be included in the Haunted London Blog Tour! London is one of my favorite cities and my husband and I always visit Cleopatra's Needle when we go there! Welcome, Leanna...

From the Back Cover:
"What fortune awaited sweet, timid Percy Parker at Athens Academy? Considering how few of Queen Victoria’s Londoners knew of it, the great Romanesque fortress was dreadfully imposing, and little could Percy guess what lay inside. She had never met the powerful and mysterious Professor Alexi Rychman, knew nothing of the growing shadow, the Ripper and other supernatural terrors against which his coterie stood guard. She knew simply that she was different, haunted, with her snow-white hair, pearlescent skin and uncanny gifts. But this arched stone doorway offered a portal to a new life, an education far from the convent—and an invitation to an intimate yet dangerous dance at the threshold of life and death…"

Thank you, dear Tome Traveller, for asking me to haunt your blog today, I’m thrilled to be here at such a gorgeous site as this.

Today our Haunted Tour leads us to Cleopatra’s Needle – Victoria Embankment, WC 2

For those of you just joining us, the purpose of this Haunted tour is to celebrate the release of my Gothic Victorian Fantasy Romance debut, The Strangely Beautiful Tale of Miss Percy Parker. This Tour will introduce you to some of the real, documented London haunts who “ghost-star” in my book. When Professor Alexi Rychman and his Guard of spectral police make their rounds, it is to any number of London phantasms. Since these characters are familiar to The Guard, I don’t get to tell their full story in the book, but here on the tour I can give them their due. Leave a comment and you’ll be entered to win a signed copy of the novel, first in the Strangely Beautiful series!

Cleopatra’s Needle at Victoria Embankment, WC2

The obelisk known as “Cleopatra’s Needle” first towered outside the Temple of the Sun at Heliopolis, having been erected by Pharaoh Thotmes III in 1450, BC. It was moved to Alexandria in 14 BC, then becoming “Cleopatra’s Needle” as it was brought to London in 1878 where it has stood a tall sentry on the banks of the River Thames. More suicides happen near this obelisk than at any other spot along the river. The dark granite itself seems to moan. Londoners out for a foggy night’s stroll along Embankment have seen shadowy figures hurl themselves towards the river but no sound or splash is heard.

I used the Embankment area in what has now become a deleted scene! This is Exclusive Content!

Deleted scene from The Strangely Beautiful Tale of Miss Percy Parker:

Later in the evening, Alexi felt far too restless to return to Hampstead, knowing he would only pace about his vast estate. He longed to walk dim city streets instead.

Something dank hung in the air as he made his way towards the Thames; a moisture beyond English climate alone. An elder wetness clung to his fine black clothes and impeded his lungs like a toxicant.

Dread filled him as he passed immaculately coiffed ladies and gentlemen, glittering in finery and laughing lightly as they drifted out of the Savoy, just three blocks from where a small child stood shivering on a church stoop, asking two pence for the dirty handkerchief he held in his dirtier hand. Alexi felt sure the boy was far more attune to what London had become than those who flitted about in their hansom cabs, intentionally ignorant of those who peered out from the shadows…

Those accustomed to the great city’s darknesses, surely, were the people who felt the same ugly wet air that Alexi breathed, the same cloying anxiety that still caused one to glance twice and jump at abrupt noises.

Dark eyes staring out over the water from an Embankment parapet, Alexi watched the countless spirits float over the river that had seen more woe in its days than he cared to imagine. The dim, wavering luminescence of the dead gave the Thames the odd quality of a silent ocean, the dead like lapping whitecaps atop the water. They were all looking at him. They all, perhaps, expected something of him.

The finely tuned instrument inside Alexi’s blood that alerted him to specific spectral disturbance was at a loss. The feeling he’d had of late was an unknown and dangerous variable. A man of order, though The Grand Work defied conventional reason, there was an odd science to it that he relished. But his instrument was clouded by a heavy foreboding, a helpless inevitability that something terrible was coming and he had no way to stop it.

The Professor didn’t need another handkerchief but he bought the sullied one from the disheveled child anyway. Looking down on the boy, framed in the shadows of a gothic arch, guarded by a vacant-faced stone saint who could do nothing at the sign of trouble, Alexi was greatly saddened. There was something in the child’s eyes that knew as well as he did that the nights were ripe for terrors.

I’m indebted to Richard Jones, founder of the fabulous Discovery Walks of London and author of the fantastic compendium “Haunted London” and “Walking Haunted London” published by Barnes & Noble Books, a main resource for my research. Visit him at http://www.haunted-london.com/. Come visit me at http://www.leannareneehieber.com/ to find out more about The Strangely Beautiful Tale of Miss Percy Parker and follow along on the rest of the Haunted London Blog tour! I hope you’ll also pick up the book and love it as much as I loved writing it! Be sure to comment to be entered to win a signed copy!

To enter, just leave me a comment here with the title of your favorite classic ghost story. This will be a short giveaway, enter thru midnight eastern time on September 4th (My Mom's birthday, Happy Birthday, Mom!!). Winner will be drawn at random and must have a US mailing address. (FYI-For those of you who read or have read the book, Leanna is hosting a great contest on her website - enter here through Sept. 16). Good luck everyone! And a big thank you to Leanna for stopping by today!

Review: The Devlin Diary by Christi Phillips (This is my 100th Review! YAY! Look for details of my MEGA GIVEAWAY coming soon!!)

No matter how wealthy a person might be, life in Charles II's Restoration London is still a struggle. Hannah Devlin is the daughter of two physicians and is a talented doctor herself. But she has lost so much. Her husband, her baby girl and her father, all dead in the last couple of years. And her mother has lost her mind and requires constant care. Hannah has begun to suffer debilitating headaches. Her self treatment is having limited success but she refuses to allow her own pain to interfere with her treatment of London's poor, suffering masses.

She is alarmed when she is practically kidnapped one night by Lord Arlington, the King's Secretary of State. The last thing she wants is to be brought to the attention of the powerful men who control the government and the board of Physicians. Female doctors are not allowed to practice the male dominated medical profession. Her unease grows when she is brought to the bedside of the King's most recent mistress, Louise de Keroualle, who is very ill. Hannah determines that the young woman is suffering from venereal disease and sets out to cure her, all the while trying to decipher the swirling power currents that exist within the court.

In modern day Cambridge, Claire Donovan has landed her dream job. She is to be an associate History lecturer at prestigious Cambridge University, a position that comes complete with snug quarters, meals and keys to the oldest and most interesting areas of the college. While exploring an uncatalogued collection in one of the libraries, she comes across a coded diary from 1672. It catches her interest and she shares her discovery with a fellow teacher over dinner. Turns out he is a slimy fellow teacher, he steals her idea and pursues it as his own. Claire is furious when she finds out, of course, and can't resist punching the jerk in the nose. Unfortunately his dead body turns up shortly thereafter, and he has a copied page of the coded diary in his pocket.

With the help of Andrew Kent, whom she originally met in Venice (their adventures are the subject of the author's first book, The Rossetti Letter), Claire tries to decode the diary. What information could possibly be contained within it that could inspire murder hundreds of years later?

This is a intriguing story that weaves sections of Hannah's diary in with Claire's modern experiences, with murder mysteries being solved in both time periods. The two women are both smart and confident in their professions but both have the weakness of being misled by a charming and unscrupulous man. If they could reach out and meet across the years, it feels like they would have been friends. I love the author's treatment of the value of the written word and the importance of its conservation. Here is my favorite passage from the book:

"Although she was a logical, practical person, she believed that in books there existed a kind of magic. Between the aging covers on these shelves, contained in tiny, abstract black marks on sheets of paper, were voices from the past. Voices that reached into the future, into Claire's own life and heart and mind, to tell her what they knew, what they'd learned, what they'd seen, what they'd felt. Wasn't that magic?"

Indeed it is magic! If you love historical fiction or historical mysteries, add The Devlin Diary to your reading list!

Many thanks to Sarah at Pocket Books for sending me the review copy. For more information on the author and her books, please visit her website. This review is part of a blog tour, for a complete list of the blogs participating, please click here.

The Devlin Diary is published by Pocket Books. ISBN 978-1-4165-2739-8.

Saturday Suggestions: London!

We just got back from five days in London, it was a wonderful trip! It is easily my favorite city, I love being steeped in history. The architecture is beautiful, everywhere you look there is something interesting to see. And we were blessed with the most beautiful, sunny days! No rain at all and temps in the seventies. It was lovely, I never tire of spending time there. If you ever get the chance, GO!

The official reason for the trip was to attend the London Book Fair. I have never been to a trade show before and I had assumed that LBF would be similar to what I have heard & read about Book Expo America but I wasn't sure what to expect.

I can say that it was a very interesting experience. There were booths from all over Europe, representing every conceivable facet of the publishing industry. Most big British publishers were represented and many smaller ones, too, all with their latest and upcoming titles on display (mostly on posters or graphics, there weren't that many actual books around).

Statue of Boudicca, warrior Queen, on the banks of the Thames

Maybe it was because I didn't know anyone there, but I didn't really enjoy it much, unfortunately. There didn't seem to be much of a focus on authors or readers, I saw scheduled perhaps ten or twelve author interviews/signings/appearances over the entire three days. (The lists of author events at BEA that I have seen so far exceeds 500). My badge said "Book Reviewer/Blogger" and people were definitely looking at badges but not one person initiated a conversation with me. The people I spoke to were all very nice but it seemed to me that the focus was all on the selling (which is completely understandable) and not at all on the publicity aspects, which one would think was important, too.

So, I am very much looking forward to BEA. I am hoping that the experience will be a bit different, since I know a lot of bloggers and publicists that will be attending.

Plaque at 84 Charing Cross Rd, site of Marks & Co. Booksellers

We did quite a bit of sightseeing and then went book shopping...I can't go to London (or anywhere, actually) without shopping for books!

This is my favorite guide to book shopping in London, it is packed with every new and used bookshop in the city, plus outdoor bookstalls, libraries, book fair info and much more.

We bought some great books and had to buy and extra bag to pack them into to get them home!

Review: The Victoria Vanishes: A Peculiar Crimes Unit Mystery by Christopher Fowler

Something terrible is happening in the old pubs of London. Women are being gently killed in the middle of crowded and noisy nightspots. The first couple of deaths are not tied together right away. But then the similarities are noticed by Arthur Bryant of the Peculiar Crimes Unit and the hunt for a murderer begins.

Bryant and his partner, John May, are an unusual pair. They are in their eighties and have been solving London's oddest crimes for years. They are an anachronism, solving cases the old fashioned way (with Sherlock Holmes-like detection) rather than with modern technology. The Home Office has been trying to close their unit for years.

While walking home from a gathering, Bryant sees what turns out to be one of the victims leaving a pub, The Victoria Cross. When they later go back to investigate, there is no pub there. The property in question is now a grocery, the Victoria Cross has not existed for eighty years. This does not bode well for Bryant's employment status, the Home Office will definitely use his apparent hallucination as a reason to disband the unit. The case must be solved satisfactorily to preserve the PCU.

The entire team at the PCU is quirky and interesting. They work together well despite their totally divergent personalities. There is a creative mystery that has a satisfying resolution.

Embedded in the narrative is a lovely homage to the classic old London pubs, which are fast disappearing due to high property values and development schemes.

"The pubs of London are taken almost completely for granted by those who drink in them. Every single one has a unique and extraordinary history...these places hold the key to our past, and therefore present. They're and unappreciated indication of who we are, and a sign of all we've lost and remember fondly."

This is the sixth, and I think final, entry into the Bryant & May mystery series. I'll be going back to read the first five, this last one peaked my interest. I am looking forward to reading the rest of the adventures of these unusual detectives.

My thanks to the Library Thing Early Reviewers program for sending me this book!

The Victoria Vanishes is published by Bantam Dell. ISBN 978-0-553-80502-4

Order The Victoria Vanishes from Amazon