Madame Askew and The Grand Arbiter

The Strangely Beautiful Tales of Miss Percy Parker by Leanna Renee Hieber

Our August book club read is the gothic and lyrical, “Strangely Beautiful Tale of Miss Percy Parker,” book one of the Strangely Beautiful series by Leanna Renee Hieber. (This collection combines the first two books. We are only reading book one.)

A happy reminder that you do not have to finish the book to attend book club but there may be spoilers

Madame Askew hosts book club on zoom and the link will be posted the day of the meeting on the Facebook event page and patreon. Whenever possible, book club also streams directly to our Facebook page.

Goodreads blurb:

Originally published as two books, Strangely Beautiful unites Leanna Renee Hieber’s critically acclaimed novels in a single revised volume, restoring the author’s original vision for the work.

Miss Persephone Parker—known as Percy—is different, with her lustrous, snow-white hair, pearlescent pale skin, and uncanny ability to see and communicate with ghosts. Seeking to continue her education, Percy has come to Queen Victoria’s London, to the Athens Academy. What she will learn there will change her life forever.

Athens Academy is the citadel of The Guard, an ancient order that battles the forces of evil. The Victorian Guard, led by professor Alexi Rychman, is incomplete. They cannot defeat Jack the Ripper— who is more than the serial killer he appears to be—or the greater monster his appearance heralds.

Percy’s lifelong habit of concealment combined with Alexi’s fevered search for the Guard’s missing seventh nearly prove disastrous as ancient Greek myths begin playing out in modern, gaslit, Victorian London. Percy and her new friends and allies must overcome their preconceptions about each other and their own histories before they can set the world to rights.