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The Strangely Beautiful Tale Of Miss Percy Parker (2009)

by Leanna Renee Hieber(Favorite Author)

3.46 of 5 Votes: 2

ISBN

0843962968 (ISBN13: 9780843962963)

languge

English

genre

Romance

publisher

Leisure Books

series

Strangely Beautiful

review 1: It wasn't as bad as I thought. After reading some scathing reviews, I very nearly didn't keep the book in my library, but the premise was just a little too attractive to chuck. A few days ago I was in need of a nice fluffy read, and maybe a laugh, so I started it. Oy...I started highlighting, in my ereader: blue for How Very Snape-ish This Is, and elements from other literature; pink (alas, no red) for Grammar Both Foreign and English and Also Wrong (peruse does not mean browse!! It means examine or read in depth!!!); and green for a couple things I actually liked (waltzing and Mozart's Requiem). There are a lot of blue highlights. And the dedication "for Alan, the muse"?? Hello Severus Snape fanfic with the names changed.(By the way, I am totally okay with Romanticized!Sn... moreape in general, just admit it. There are support groups.)Alexi Rychmann/Severus Snape/Alan Rickman and his Guard of ethnically typecast friends are so discouraged and paranoid of mistaking the prophesied seventh member that they mistake the prophesied seventh member of the group. Gahhhhhh for the whole book!!! The so secretive secrets! And wordy while being secretive! How is that possible?!Persephone Parker is such a shrinking violet, a delicate trembling lily snowdrop that I have such a hard time believing that she can be the magical seventh that seals the group and wins the war (in the next book which I won't read). The war against the entire underworld. I should have counted the number of times she fluttered and bit her lip and shirked at Professor Sexyman's "kind patience" with her incredible idiocy regarding MATH and ALCHEMY (science/chemistry). WHY do we have to have so many leading ladies in fiction that are bad at math??!?! The only thing worse is if she'd been brilliant at allthethings.Oh, the words. Modern-victorian purple flowery poetic prosey ca-ca. The thesaurus is not always your friend. Sometimes it is, and sometimes your editor is your friend, when he or she tells you that after the seventeenth private tutoring session she is bound to refrain from the shoe-kissing overwrought self-deprecating gratitude that pours out. Every time.The reactions to certain events were sometimes off. I felt that Percy would have been more emotional over her ghost friend Constance moving on. Or Gregory, her adopted father figure coming to dance with his big grown up woman at her first ball. Those were touching moments and this well of uncontrollable emotion named Percy just trotted off la-di-da.There could have been some really good meat to this story with a couple rewrites. Maybe a couple years to refine the scenes, tighten everything up, discover Google Translate, or meet some high schoolers with a basic grasp of foreign language grammar to help out. Ma amie, indeed. More develoment of the Greek mythology, please, as it was teased and alluded to in very muddled ways so as to be unclear (still) by the end of the book. There is a balance between leading into the next volume and being too vague to give meaning. I enjoyed the general premise. The Guard, the Work, exorcisms and ghostbusting. Fine. Seven people, fine, as long as the characters are balanced and developed and all that basic writing stuff. Victorian era, boarding school, London, all great. I have a list of great premise bad follow through (on my own computer) that this certainly fits into.
review 2: This author is coming to Phoenix Comic Con in June. That is what prompted me to read this book. I was expecting a Steampunk novel. I would not classify it that way. It is more aligned with supernatural fiction set in a historical time period with a great nod to mythology. It was very enjoyable to read. I think the plot was clear and I loved the relationship between the professor and Percy. Who hasn't had a crush on a professor? I would have liked to have more supernatural battle scenes that would shown how each of the 6(7) contributes to the team. less

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