The Darkly Luminous Fight for Persephone Parker by Leanna Renee Hieber

Publisher:  Dorchester Books
Pages:  320

From the Cover:  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.

Percy Parker has finally found a place to belong to in this world of hers.  She has more than she ever hoped for growing up as a convent orphan.  Though well cared for and loved by the good Sisters and Mother of the Convent, she never hoped to find love, friends, and family.  Now she has it all, if only she can hold on to what she has struggled to find.  The Whisper-World calls to her beckoning her back, ready to take her as she is.  The Whisper-World doesn't like to give up those who cross into it's world, but it may be her only chance to save what she has come to love.

Percy's professor and husband, Alexi Rychman is loath to release his new young wife to the questing hands of Whisper-World, but Athen's Academy may give him no other choice.  Even with his refusal, Athen's stones and bricks are coming alive, and if Percy doesn't seek The Darkness, it may be the end of them all.  The Guard who have always give their all to The Grand Work may have no other choice than to watch their seventh and one-time Goddess return to The Darkness who had kidnapped and imprisoned her in the deepest, darkest part of the Whisper-World.  The Darkness who holds a secret key and only with this key can all The Guard be saved.  It's up to Percy to visit gray world and retrieve the key, the key to release all The Guard, both the past and the present.

The Darkly Luminous Fight for Persephone Parker by Leanna Renee Hieber is the second book in the Strangely Beautiful Series.  In this story, Persephone Parker comes into her own.  She can no longer be the innocent student of Athen's Academy, hiding beneath her layers and scarves.  She is destined for great things and greater responsibilities.  Strangely Beautiful left off with the whimsical Miss Percy Parker saving all of The Guard from an unspeakable evil, all six of her new companions laid at the brink of death, and only she was able to force the evil Gorgon away.  Already enamored and endeared to Professor Alexi Rychman, he claims her as his own, his Goddess reincarnated and his prophesied love.  But in this part of the story, the whole of greater good needs to be served.  The Guard has protected the earth bound realm for centuries, and with the departure of The Guard from this world to the Whisper-World, The Darkness has been imprisoning them, locking them away, foes for an eternity.  But there is one who can save them all, to do so she'll have to enter the Whisper-World with all it's dangers and with her captor, The Darkness himself.

Darkly Luminous is a fantastical tale of Gothic romanticism.  Once again Percy Parker is called upon to save her companions and friends.  She's such a fragile beacon of light, almost transparent, but within her resides the strength of Goddess and it's this power that both the Earth bound realm and the Whisper-World needs.  The Darkness wants nothing more to claim her once more as his own, to kidnapped her and drag her into the bowels of the Whisper-World, his prize.  But there has to be a way to save them all, the Goddess would not have taken human form only to perish and remain unrequited.  Darkly Luminous is a tale of honor, pain, need, sacrifice, and above all love.  It is with and through this love that Percy Parker Rychman may save and be saved.  Without love and sacrifice, all would be lost to The Darkness.  If you haven't started the journey of Ms. Parker, now is the time to pick up the tethers hold of this beautiful story and read.  Start with The Strangely Beautiful Tale of Miss Percy Parker and continue with The Darkly Luminous Fight for Persephone Parker, both are more than worthy of your time.  This series is one of the best I've read, it will be in my top picks for 2010.  If you haven't tried it, I'm flummoxed, I don't know how to get you to pick up the series, unless....  Hot off the press from Dorchester Publishers.....

Free E-book Download!

Looking for an awesome e-book reader app? Download B&N's FREE app then visit a Barnes & Noble near you and get the e-book of Leanna Renee Hieber's The Darkly Luminous Fight for Persephone Parker FREE! For step-by-step instructions, visit barnesandnoble.com. Offer good May 24th-June 25th.

Hot Damn, Everyone!!  Darkly Luminous FOR FREE!!!  Run, don't walk, and get your copy!  You won't be sorry.  I JUST received this as part of my newsletter...  I could not believe.  I hope everyone get a chance to download a copy.  A HUGE thanks to Dorchester and B & N!  The email doesn't say whether or not the download is international, but it can't hurt to try.  I'll be downloading it because, well, I love it.  Owning an ebook copy will be great.  LOL  I do it all the time. (PS:  there are four additional authors available too)

Also available for free download, Strangely Beautiful!!  Click HERE!

Happy Reading Everyone!
  
The trailer for Darkly Luminous does justice to the gothic romance.


And because I simply could not resist, here's an excerpt from this wonderful novel!

The Darkly Luminous Fight for Persephone Parker by Leanna Renee Hieber

Miss Persephone Parker lay deep in the honeyed thick of dreams, shifting between terrible vision and wonderful memory. The terrible vision began beautiful but ended in horror, she recalled.

She was young and powerful, standing in an endless field of perfumed flowers. The sky was what she imagined of Heaven. Eternal and wondrous, a beautiful raven-haired man held her tightly in his arms, and his great wings encircled their clinch, grazing her satin skin that ached for his touch. Phoenix was more than man or angel; he was a God, a being of sense and light, reason and truth. He was the perfect complement to her life-force of beauty, kindness, sensibility and love. Their mutual fellowship of light was blinding. Never had two beings been so suited. They loved one another not because it was destined but merely because it was right and mutually joyous. Their respective divine forces fit together as a puzzle, interlocked and stronger for it.

But jealousy set the God aflame—literally. Darkness set Phoenix on fire, and her lover died before her heavenly eyes. Screams shook the Earth. Tears enough to drown the world flooded the ground. His great form crumbled to dust, and the vendetta was born.

She turned back to the cave from whence came murder. Red eyes burned from the shadows. Vengeance flared in her heretofore peaceful breast, fueling a hallowed blue fire forged from the remnants of her one true love—and somehow the girl that was now Miss Parker knew that what she viewed here was a score she would unfortunately have to settle herself.

The scene shifted from nightmare to memory.

Here she recognized herself, her queer white skin, and remembered that friends called her Percy. A distinguished professor held her in his arms. Her body was corseted, swathed in satin, wreathed in heather. He wore a fine frock coat and waltzed with her by moonlight. His black hair lustrous in shafts of silver light, his dark eyes bright and compelling, this was her one true love. Acutely aware of the press of his hand and the curve of his lips, here was her destiny, the man who understood her, who unlocked her eerie visions and made everything strange about her beautiful.

The handsome, stoic face of Professor Alexi Rychman suddenly shifted, and in its place flashed red, angry eyes—fiery, terrible eyes—and she heard the all too familiar hissing of snakes. She bolted upright, launching herself toward consciousness before those eyes could seek her out.

Percy awoke in a large room she did not know.


I received this book from the author because she knows I loved Strangely Beautiful.  All opinion expressed are my own.