The Strangely Beautiful Tale of Miss Percy Parker

From Amazon.com and Publisher's Weekly:

Six young men and women are called to protect the living world from the dead in Hieber's Gothic romance debut. Mysterious powers give Alexi and his peers the mission of keeping the restless dead in line and seeking a prophesied seventh guardian. Miss Percy Parker, an albino orphan with a talent for languages, fills none of their expectations, but Alexi is drawn to her all the same. Hieber draws Victorian London as beautiful and grim, with depictions of Jack the Ripper as a nightmarish many-headed hound alongside charming descriptions of the Athens Academy, Percy's boarding school, and Greek mythology that smartly draws together various elements of the story. The supporting characters are nuanced and appealing but given short shrift by the narrow focus on Percy and Alexi, though future sequels may give them more room to play. Hieber's debut shows great potential, and readers will want to revisit her intriguing world.
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"The Strangely Beautiful Tale of Miss Percy Parker" is a beautifully written story, one I very much enjoyed. Leanna Hieber writes the most lovely prose, and conveys such a sense of atmosphere with her words. Truly marvelous. The closest book I can think of to compare to "Percy," a book with the same Gothic fantasy tone, is "The Graveyard Book" by Neil Gaiman. I applaud the author for her delicate, delicious writing.

I won't say too much to spoil the plot of this one, because this is a special book. But while I loved the character of Percy Parker,  I think I love Alexi Rychman more. He is steadfast, unselfish, and powerfully loyal to his friends and the work he has been given to do. Because of that, I think that his longtime friends should have trusted his judgement when it counted. I am hopeful that they find a way to make amends in the sequel. 

Rating: 5 stars