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Reading the Strangely Beautiful series has been one of the highlights of my year. Yes, the 2010 year. Not only are these books so eloquently written, but it feels as if every single word was painstakingly chosen to resonate with the feel of the entire series. It is with great pleasure that I introduce Leanna R Hieber to all of you today. Oh, and if you have not yet had the opportunity to delve into these books? You are truly missing out on some something spectacular.
"Award winning, bestselling author, actress and playwright Leanna Renee Hieber grew up in rural Ohio inventing ghost stories. Graduating with a BFA in Theatre from Miami University, a focus in the Victorian Era and a scholarship to study in London helped set the course for her Strangely Beautiful series. The Gothic, dramatic, historic, spiritual and paranormal are the primary forces in her lyrical, eerie, atmospheric fiction. While performing in the regional theatre circuit she adapted works of 19th Century literature for the professional stage and her one-act plays such as Favorite Lady garnered national attention and continue to be produced around the country.
She hit the fantasy fiction scene with her novella Dark Nest which won the 2009 Prism Award for excellence in Futuristic, Fantasy and Paranormal Romance."
Connect with Leanna:
Allow me to introduce myself. I am Persephone “Percy” Parker (if you know me beyond my first tale then you know I take the name of my beloved). I am nineteen years old in the year 1888. I see and can speak with ghosts, in every language, I’ve an uncanny ability with light and its power to keep darkness at bay. I can open doors to the Whisper-world. I have been called a freak throughout my life. I’ve no colour anywhere; not on my skin, my hair- my eyes alone have slivers of blue. I always thought I should belong with ghosts, but instead, I belong with the Guard, mortal arbiters between the living and dead. And I belong to my hero, Professor Alexi Rychman, who rallied me from self-pity and helped me grow into the woman I want to be. Through his acceptance, the grace of his love and my own fierce sense that fate wanted something great from me, I have come into the full scope of my powers.
I understand that Miss Tori and this fine, assembled entourage is talking about qualities of strong heroines. When I began my journey, I would hardly have considered myself a pillar of strength. In fact, I was a trembling mess. As I got to know Professor Rychman, he challenged me to find the inner strength he knew I possessed, but that simply needed the right touch to bring it forth. And oh, dear reader, does he have the right touch.
Strength comes in many forms. I beg you to imagine what a life of being called a freak will do. It will make you cringe at the world. It will strike you to the core when people are startled simply by looking into your eyes, when they regard you with a mixture of fascination, fear and pity. When you’re told very matter-of-factly that you’ll never be a wife, a lady, a normal woman, you believe it. Why wouldn’t you, when you don’t look like anyone you’ve ever met, other than the dead? I will credit myself with inner strength enough to climb out of my bed to face the day and find beauty in all manner of strange things. To treat the world with kindness, not bitterness. There is strength in love, in passion and in kindness. I’ve always been a passionate, loving girl, fierce in the knowledge that I was meant for a fate as uncommon as my ice-white body. Strength of purpose, the desire to ascertain my mysteries, drove me to great lengths. I am proud to say that when dangerous tasks were given me, I did not shirk them. I walked into the very heart of Darkness. And I triumphed. Timid though the world once made me, I will fight to the death for those I love.
As for whether or not I, as you say in this age, “kick-ass”, well that would depend. If you are a Gorgon, a Hell-hound or other minion of Darkness that dares lay a hand upon my beloved Alexi, my light will blaze forth and you- and your ass- will be reduced to cinders, thank you very much.
Remember what a holy man once said; “the meek shall inherit the earth.” Do not underestimate the meek if they are put to the test.
With love and blessings,
Miss Percy Parker Rychman
Leanna is generously offering one lucky winner a copy of her second book in the Strangely Beautiful series.
With radiant, snow white skin and hair, Percy Parker was a beacon for Fate. True love had found her, in the tempestuous form of Professor Alexi Rychman. But her mythic destiny was not complete. Accompanying the ghosts with which she alone could converse, new and terrifying omens loomed. A war was coming, a desperate ploy of a spectral host. Victorian London would be overrun. Yet, Percy kept faith. Within the mighty bastion of Athens Academy, alongside The Guard whose magic shielded mortals from the agents of the Underworld, she counted herself among friends. Wreathed in hallowed fire, they would stand together, no matter what dreams or nightmares—may come.
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About the Author
Thank you for the giveaway.
ReplyDeleteSue B
I really wanted to read this the first time I heard of it but I never managed to get around to it. Thanks for the great giveaway!
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