Strangely Beautiful Tale of Miss Percy Parker

The Strangely Beautiful Tale of Miss Percy Parker Leanna Renee Hieber

In Victorian London, there are six members of the Guard, tasked with The Grand Work. The Grand Work involves keeping the spirit world at bay, keeping the human world safe. But things are getting harder. Hell hounds have been unleashed. The Ripper stalks and attacks the alone and defenseless.

The Guard waits for their prophesied seventh. The one who will bring a war, but will also enable them to win it.

Percy Parker has always been different. Not only can she see and hear ghosts, but she looks like one with bone white skin, ice blue eyes, and white hair. When she arrives at Athens Academy, she is thrust up against the Guard their enigmatic leader, the dark and somber Professor Rychman.

Amazon kept recommending this to me because I liked Soulless so much, so I checked it out from the library. It's no Soulless, but I did enjoy it. I liked the way Hieber works British History (such as Jack the Ripper) in with the spirit world and how it's all related to Greek Myth. (I won't say which ones, because that gives some things away, but lots of warped Greek myth here.)

I was a bit taken aback, because this is, technically, a romance novel. It doesn't get that steamy and while there is definitely a love story here, I feel it's almost secondary to the grander plot of the Guard finding their seventh and fighting back the forces of evil. (Also, it's a rather chaste love story.)

Rychman, however, a great romantic hero. He reminded me a bit of Snape in that dark aloof professor always swooping about the school. But he's more in the lines of Darcy-- smoldering and stand-offish that takes awhile to get to know the soft gooey center. Ok, maybe not gooey, but you know what I mean. (I hope.)

I also really liked the secondary characters. I most loved how the rest of the Guard (lovingly) mocked Rychman, which gave the reader most of our information about his character and appearance. Elijah thinks that Beethoven should start spontaneously playing whenever Rychman appears, so they start singing it when he enters and exits, much to his chagrin. It was those small moments that made the book for me.

Book Provided by... my local library

Links to Amazon are an affiliate link. You can help support Biblio File by purchasing any item (not just the one linked to!) through these links. Read my full disclosure statement.