The Strangely Beautiful Tale Has Officially Begun!

Release Day!

The Strangely Beautiful Tale of Miss Percy Parker has arrived!


Of the lovely things people have said about this novel, something everyone seems to agree on, including me, is that this, my friends, is a Gothic Romance:

Of the Gothic Novel, WordIQ has this definition about the revival of the Gothic Novel in the 1880s - The setting of my tale:

"In England, the gothic novel as a genre had largely played itself out by 1840. However it had a lasting effect on the development of literary form in the Victorian period. It lead to the Victorian craze for short ghost stories and the short shocking macabre tale mastered by Edgar Allan Poe. It also was a heavy influence on Charles Dickens who read gothic novels as a teenager and incorporated their gloomy atmosphere and melodrama into his own works, but shifting them to a more modern period. By the 1880s it was time for revival as a gothic as a semi-respectable literary form. This was the period of the gothic works of Robert Louis Stevenson, Arthur Machen and Oscar Wilde, and the most famous gothic villain ever appeared in Bram Stoker’s Dracula 1897. From these, the gothic genre strictly considered gave way to modern horror fiction though many literary critics use the term to cover the entire genre."
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Add the sweeping romance of Wuthering Heights, a healthy dose of Greek Mythology and a lot of ghosts to influences such as those and you have Miss Percy Parker.

Something that typifies a Gothic novel is the use of atmosphere and specific locales not only as distinct setting and backdrop, but even a sense of character itself. I was honoured to find this particular quality lifted up as a high point of my book in reviews, here eloquently stated by Kenda at Lurv a la Mode:

"I’ve read a few books where the world the author has built begins to feel like a character in and of itself. It becomes almost like this atmosphere that a reader can see and feel as they become invested in the story. I felt this way with this book, as if transported to Athens Academy and this London that the author has envisioned. From the clever twist on the Ripper, to the other villains and the ingrained nature of the ghosts throughout the story, Hieber has managed to create a backdrop that has earned its place as surely as any well developed character."
Thank you Kenda, for that, and congratulations again on your award-nominated blog!

You can visit other lovely reviews on the Percy Parker facebook page or on my website.


From the back cover of The Strangely Beautiful Tale of Miss Percy Parker:

"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…"

(Read Excerpts)

I hope you'll come join me today as the STRANGELY BEAUTIFUL HAUNTED LONDON BLOG TOUR rolls into RomanceNovel.tv for a "virtual release party" with video interview, ghost story, and a chance to win a copy of the book!

I'm also The Revolving Book over at Love Romance Novels! Drop in!

Miss Percy Parker's tale is very special to me. It's been a labour of love for about 9 years and it launches the Strangely Beautiful series published by Dorchester Publishing. It is a blessed, thrilling moment. I'm very grateful and I'd love to have you with me on the journey.

I hope you'll be interested in a new take on the old Gothic!

Strangely Beautiful blessings!

Leanna Renee Hieber
www.twitter.com/leannarenee