Review: The Perilous Prophecy of Guard and Goddess by Leanna Renee Hieber

Title: The Perilous Prophecy of Guard and Goddess
Author: Leanna Renee Hieber
Publisher: Dorchester Publishing
Pub Date: 05/16/2011
Category:ADULT: Romance: Fantasy

Five stars to this beautiful, passionate, sophisticated and moving gothic fantasy set in Victorian England. Leanna Renee Heiber’s language is like poetry in prose form, evocative, beautiful to the ear and rich with many-layered meaning. A memorable book.

 ‘The Perilous Prophecy of Guard and Goddess’ is the third in the award-winning, bestselling ‘Strangely Beautiful’ series’.  It’s a prequel to the first book, ‘The Strangely Beautiful Tale of Miss Percy Parker’ – which I awarded an M-Award to – but you can read this either before or after the first two. I recommend after, because the previous books have wetted our appetite for the details revealed in this one.

The blurb says simply –

The goddess Persephone begins her quest to be reincarnated with her true love, and more secrets of The Guard are revealed.

In this story, we discover more about Beatrice and about her role in the grand plan that leads to the events at the end of book two. Most of all we come to know and love the goddess Persephone as she was before she incarnated as Percy Parker. In parallel with Persephone’s tale is the story of Beatrice and Ibrahim and the trials and dynamics of the Guard before the one led by Alexi (as it was in the previous two books).

The first novel in the series was so captivating right from the start, that perhaps it is too much to expect that any book not starting with Alexi Rychman and Percy Parker could compete with the instant fascination I had for ‘The strangely Beautiful Tale of Percy Parker.’  We’re given a tantalising taste of the young Alexi in the prologue, but Beatrice and Ibrahim carry the story in the beginning and for a start, I found it not so engaging as the previous two books, though probably simply because I was thirsting for Alexi. My engagement soon warmed up as I got to know Persephone in her Goddess form and began to see in her character aspects of the mortal woman she was to become. When the story began to explore Persephone’s fascination with Alexi, I became totally, blissfully, enraptured by the interactions she made him forget!  It was all the better for the wait.

Favorite quotes –

‘But truly, the gods are such shameless flirts.’

‘One must meet darkness with joy. It lessens his power.’

This is a book you can immerse yourself in like a warm scented bath, and I recommend the series for everyone who loves romantic gothic fantasy, the Greek tale of Persephone and the underworld, and beautiful language. This book also set the scene for another in the series, one that, it appears, will follow Alexi and Percy’s daughter. I look forward to that as avidly as I did this one.

Give Away 25th to 31st May

Leanna has kindly offered a copy of the first two books in this series to give away to one lucky winner anywhere in the world. Come back on the 25th of may for a  chance to win these two gorgeous books.