Review: The Strangely Beautiful Tale of Miss Percy Parker (Strangely Beautiful #1) by Leanna Renee Hieber

In the dark allies of Victorian London, phantoms, ghosts, and demons alike haunt the city streets. A group of six are chosen as protectors known as, The Guard, helping keep London and the public safe from paranormal danger. The first night of their meeting, they are told of a prophecy who will be put in their path to strengthen The Guard and make them complete not just as a group but for one member in particular–their dark, brooding leader, Alexi Rychman.

In Leanna Renee Hieber’s para-romance, The Strangely Beautiful Tale of Miss Percy Parker, we meet the shy, meek, phantasm-like name sake: Percy Parker. She arrives at the London school Athens Academy feeling quite alone in the world. Percy is quite different from the other students at the academy: she is older, gifted in languages, has few ‘friends’, and unlike most of the normal world she can see ghosts. Looking much like a ghost herself, she spends most of her day ‘hiding’ behind veils, shaded glasses, and long gloves. She is a luminescent with her pearl white hair and alabaster skin…she glows like a ghost but yet is mortal.

When she meets Alexi, her terrifying mathematics professor. Though wickedly attracted to him, she knows her feelings can never become more than fantasy but yet she is strangely drawn to him, and he to her. Though gifted at languages, she cannot grasp math to save her life. Alexi begins tutoring her in math and slowly she reveals her nature to him….she discovers she is not alone in the world, like her Alexi can also see the ghosts who haunt the city. Continue reading “Review: The Strangely Beautiful Tale of Miss Percy Parker (Strangely Beautiful #1) by Leanna Renee Hieber”

Review: The Eyre Affair by Jasper Fforde

What would you do if you had a face that could literally stop time? Or if you could really clone yourself? How about meet and greet your fav literary character? In the world of SpecOps and LiteraTec (Literary Detective division) extrodinaire, Thursday Next, all of these things are possible.

My sister recommended the book, The Eyre Affair by Jasper Fforde, to me a few weeks back…and now that she wants to commandeer the book from me, I figured I better get a move on since she will be wanting it by Christmas no doubt.

This speculative fiction book is a hodge-podge mixture of sci-fi, fantasy, time travel, YA, mystery/detective novel, steampunk, and vampire/werewolf fiction all in one…and the best part, it’s all based on classic British Literature. Set in 1985 Great Britain, detective Thursday Next (a Crimean War vet) is living in an alternative universe where time travel (among many things) are all possible.

Next is sent to investigate a puzzling case, someone has taken Charles Dickens’s original manuscript for Martin Chuzzlewit. The LiteraTec task force suspects notorious mass murderer and thief Acheron Hades…except there is one problem, no one knows what he looks like except Next. Continue reading “Review: The Eyre Affair by Jasper Fforde”

Review: Clockwork Angel (The Infernal Devices #1) by Cassandra Clare

How strange it is to have the power to literally transform yourself into other people and yet be unable to put yourself in their place. This is the problem that plagues shapeshifting heroine Tessa Gray in Cassandra Clare’s steampunk novel, Clockwork Angel. Part of a trilogy The Infernal Devices, this first book blends romance, sci-fi/fantasy, steampunk, and adventure all together churning out 400+ pages of entertainment.

When I first started the Steampunk Reading Challenge, I considered reading this book as one of my five books but then I started the Parasol Protectorate series instead. But as the year is winding down I still needed one book for the challenge, Clockwork Angel was it!

One word…HOOKED! When I started reading the book, I knew it was more YA than adult fiction…so I was expecting Twilight with gears and steam.  While some of the romance was a little Twilight-ish, it was more action, less ‘obcessive’, and the love story involves a shapeshifter and a shadowhunter (Nephilim) rather than a human and a vampire….not to mention all the great Steampunk elements.

The novel opens with a great action sequence with best friends and fighting partners, Will and Jem, pursuing a demon through the dark underbelly of Victorian London. Continue reading “Review: Clockwork Angel (The Infernal Devices #1) by Cassandra Clare”

Review: Heartless (Parasol Protectorate #4) by Gail Carriger

I managed to read another book. This time I read Heartless by Gail Carriger as part of the Steampunk Reading Challenge! Originally I selected only the first two books of Carriger’s Parasol Protectorate series, but after reading Soulless I was hooked on the series and subsequently read Changeless and Blameless.

Heartless is clearly a steampunk novel, not just because it features all kinds of dirigibles and steam powered machines but because it distinctly has  the scientific flair that defines the genre in general. Heartless picks up right where the last Parasol Protectorate left off…with protagonist Lady Alexia ‘soulless’ Tarabotti Maccon pregnant and trying to avoid all hell breaking loose in the British empire!

Alexia is assaulted by zombie-like porcupines and almost killed…knowing that she and her unborn child are in grave danger it is at that point that Alexia and her werewolf husband Lord Maccon, agree to give custody over to Alexia’s vampire BFF and fine British ‘dandy’….Lord Akeldama. Soon Alexia is visited by a ghost and informed of a plan to kill the Queen. As head woman in charge of Queen Victoria’s supernatural empire more or less, it is Alexia’s duty to solve the case.

Alexia is once again stuck in the middle of supernatural politics all set against an industrious Victorian London backdrop…..complete with all the favorite steampunk devices….dirigibles, steam powered technology, and random futuristic machines such as the octomaton, a mono-wheel cycle (complete with a steam powered propeller), and the quintessential glassicles. Continue reading “Review: Heartless (Parasol Protectorate #4) by Gail Carriger”

Review: Dead Reckoning (Sookie Stackhouse #11) by Charlaine Harris

This was on my ‘top most anticipated book releases of the year’ list! As most of you know by now, I am a HUGE True Blood fan and  I LOVE the Southern Vampire Mystery Series (SVMS) by Charalaine Harris. Saying that I couldn’t WAIT to get my hands on this book was the understatement of the year!

By lucky accident I have been sick for two days now so I have been able to be home for two days and devoured Dead Reckoning by Charlaine Harris.

The last book (Dead in the Family), the last book was a huge disappointment to me. Nothing really happened and the story just wasn’t really doing much for me…it seemed forced and thrown together…like I said, I was disappointed but still a devoted fan, I was hoping this book would be better than the last.

I was glad, this book was much better than the previous one, but not a complete resurrection. At this point in the series, I am getting kind of ready for things to unfold and move forward. Continue reading “Review: Dead Reckoning (Sookie Stackhouse #11) by Charlaine Harris”