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Leanna Renee Hieber
Award-Winning author Leanna Renee Hieber grew up in rural Ohio where her childhood memories are full of inventing elaborate ghost stories. Graduating with a BFA in Theatre from Miami University, a focus study in the Victorian Era and a scholarship to study in London helped set the course for her books. The dramatic, historic, spiritual and paranormal are the primary forces in her lyrical, eerie, atmospheric fiction. You can read samples of her fiction at Leanna Renee Hieber’s website.
Strangely Beautiful
Strangely Beautiful — (2009-2012) Publisher: What fortune awaited sweet, timidPercy 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…
The Strangely Beautiful Tale of Miss Percy Parker by Leanna Renee Hieber
As The Strangely Beautiful Tale of Miss Percy Parker opens, six London youngsters are chosen for a special destiny. Plucked from their ordinary lives, they are brought together by a mysterious goddess. Their mission: to protect humanity from the forces of evil. The goddess promises the six that, in time, they will be joined by a seventh.
Nineteen years later, timid orphan Percy Parker arrives at the Athens Academy, where two of the six "chosen ones" have made their careers. Percy is brilliant with languages, abysmal at mathematics, haunted by strange dreams, and gifted with the ability to see ghosts. She settles uneasily into life at Athens Academy, and soon finds herself infatuated with Alexi Rychman, her mathematics instructor.
Much of The Strangely Beautiful Tale rev... Read More
The Darkly Luminous Fight for Persephone Parker by Leanna Renee Hieber
Percy Parker and Alexi Rychman have finally confessed their love for one another, and they and the Guard have scored a victory against the forces of evil. They scarcely have time to celebrate and regroup, though, before trouble finds them again.
Roughly the first third of The Darkly Luminous Fight for Persephone Parker focuses mainly on Percy and Alexi’s relationship, as they announce their engagement and move quickly toward marriage. The news makes plenty of waves at Athens Academy and at the convent where Percy once lived. If you wanted more closure to the romantic plot at the end of The Strangely Beautiful Tale of Miss Percy Parker, you’ll find it here. Leanna Renee Hieber gives her hero and heroine a resolution fit for fairy tales. I can see now, too, why she waited until this book to ... Read More
The Perilous Prophecy of Guard and Goddess by Leanna Renee Hieber
In The Darkly Luminous Fight for Persephone Parker, we met Beatrice Smith, a member of the Guard that preceded Alexi Rychman’s circle. The Perilous Prophecy is a prequel, focusing on Beatrice’s time in the Guard and on the goddess Persephone as she makes preparations for the war against Darkness. While this book is set earlier than the two existing books, I recommend starting with The Strangely Beautiful Tale of Miss Percy Parker, because the Grand Work is explained there in more detail.
Beatrice is the daughter of a British archaeologist living in Cairo. As the story begins, she and five other young people in Cairo receive the call: they are to be the next Guard. At first it seems almost too easy. They settle smoothly into their new lives and couples begin to form. But then Persephone... Read More
Dark Nest — (2008-2011) Winner of the 2009 Prism Award for excellence in published works of Fantasy, Futuristic and Paranormal Romance in the Novella Category. Publisher: Chief Counsel Ariadne Corinth has just found out her long-time lover, the powerfully gifted Chief Counsel Kristov Haydn, has died. Newly evolved psychically gifted humans have been sent by the Homeworld on a space mission aboard two distinct “Nests”. Relationships between the Light Nest and the Dark Nest have faltered and Ariadne is sure there’s something insidious behind it. In a matter of hours, Ariadne must find out what really happened to Kristov, unite her people to discover vast new powers the Homeworld denied them, or else submit to genocide.
Magic Most Foul — (2011- ) Young adult. Publisher: The Picture of Dorian Gray meets Pride and Prejudice, with a dash of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. New York City, 1882. Seventeen-year-old Natalie Stewart’s latest obsession is a painting of the handsome British Lord Denbury. Something in his striking blue eyes calls to her. As his incredibly life-like gaze seems to follow her, Natalie gets the uneasy feeling that details of the painting keep changing… Jonathan Denbury’s soul is trapped in the gilded painting by dark magic while his possessed body commits unspeakable crimes in the city slums. He must lure Natalie into the painting, for only together can they reverse the curse and free his damaged soul.
Kelly: Percy Parker is an unusual heroine, both in her appearance and in her shy, timid personality. How did she first come to you? Did she appear full-formed, like Athena, or ha...Read More
We often post our chats with authors on Tuesdays, but we're trying something new today. Instead of asking one author several questions, we've asked several authors just one question. Please leave a comment and let us know how you like this format. We'll choose one commenter to win a copy of Neal Stephenson's Quicksilver on audio CDs (or something else from our stacks).
Question: Which speculative fiction writer has had the greatest influence on your own writing style and what, specifically, do you find most inspirational about that writer’s style?
I thought this was a beautifully described world, and I loved the idea of Green and the gods, but I had the same problems you did with the first two books. It just feels like the pieces don't all come together. […]
These stories sound wonderful! There's nothing as interesting than real, deep universal fears being examined through a lens of Horror. The ideas presented are inspiring. Thanks so much for the review. :-) […]
The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet: Curse you, David Mitchell!: The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet by David Mitchell
Let’s just admit it at the outset. As someone who tries to write, I hate David Mitchell. Hate him with the white-hot intensity of a thousand ...
The Thousandfold Thought: Refreshing change of pace: The Thousandfold Thought by R. Scott Bakker
R. Scott Bakker's The Thousandfold Thought, the third book in his The Prince of Nothing series, was well written and drenched in enough details that you ...
Blackness Tower: Slow starting gothic romance: Blackness Tower by Lillian Stewart Carl
For years, Lauren Reay had been haunted by a dream about a castle. Then, when her grandfather was on his deathbed, he received a calendar that included a pho...
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Award-Winning author 
The Strangely Beautiful Tale of Miss Percy Parker by Leanna Renee Hieber
The Darkly Luminous Fight for Persephone Parker by Leanna Renee Hieber
The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet: Curse you, David Mitchell!
The Thousandfold Thought: Refreshing change of pace
Blackness Tower: Slow starting gothic romance
