Genre: Historical Fantasy

Release Date: August 20^th 2009 {334 pages}

This book was given to me to review by the author.

What fortune awaited sweet, timid Percy Parker at Athens Academy? Hidden in the dark heart of Victorian London, the Romanesque school was dreadfully imposing, a veritable fortress, and little could Percy guess what lay inside. She had never met its powerful and mysterious Professor Alexi Rychman, knew nothing of the growing shadows, of the Ripper and other supernatural terrors against which his coterie stood guard. She saw simply that she was different, haunted, with her snow white hair, pearlescent skin and uncanny gift. This arched stone doorway was a portal to a new life, to an education far from what could be had at a convent-and it was an invitation to an intimate yet dangerous dance at the threshold of life and death…

There aren’t enough words the Internet Thesaurus dictionary can describe for how ‘in-hearts’ I am with The Strangely Beautiful Tale of Miss Percy Parker.  This book is a re-imagined homage to the Victorian romantics such as Jane Austen and Charlotte Bronte mixed with the supernatural aspects of Sherlock Holmes.  This book brought to life what is so often missing in contemporary romance, the ability to build romantic tension with nothing more than stolen glances and a poet’s heart. I was swept away back to the times where a single touch of the hand was more deliciously erotic than any sexual act. I will say, it’s not easy to fulfill the appetite of contemporary readers who are used to the more physical interactions of the characters as a necessary form of romantic fulfillment. I cried, I laughed, and was strangely fulfilled, even though the biggest climax of the book was when they kiss.  This brought me back to why I fell in love with romance in the first place.

I think we’ve all felt at some point in our lives a little awkward, needing to be accepted and the painful journey towards finding that  acceptance.  Timid, ghostly-looking, Percy Parker tugs at your heart with her quiet strength and resilience; who’s shyness and tender heart make the reader love her even more.   Raised in a convent, Percy is accepted into the Athens School at the late age of 19. Excited and nervous to venture outside of her convent, Percy braves her new adventure with a quiet determination and steadfastness. Despite her ghostly looks, Percy desperately wants to fit in and finds herself thinking that she just can’t help feel that she is destined for something bigger.  Something, extraordinary.

Mathematics Professor Alexi Rychman is part of a prophecy and his life is not his own. He is part of a group of guardians that have been awaiting the 7th installment of their group, one who will save the world from the prophesized evil that was revealed to him as a young man.  Alexi has lead an emotionless life, keeping all his feelings to nothing more than a cold politeness. He is on the brink of despair. He is getting older and has lost faith that his goddess will not return to him and reveal their 7^th member. This 7^th person is destined to be the woman he is fated to fall in love with, he just doesn’t know he’s already met her.

Enter Miss Percy Parker, gifted with languages, a lover of literature and wretched in mathematics and science. She is destined to die a painful, slow death of embarrassment from her regular tutoring sessions from the delicious Professor Rychman.  She despises her ineptness and each day falls a bit deeper in love with the Professor.

If you are yearning for something more fulfilling then what’s currently on your bookshevles, the odd, yet beautiful adventure of Miss Percy Parker is a romance not to be missed.

Rating

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