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31+ Works 1,773 Members 123 Reviews

About the Author

Includes the names: Leanna Hieber, Leanna Renee Heiber

Series

Works by Leanna Renee Hieber

Associated Works

The Mammoth Book of Futuristic Romance (2013) — Contributor — 71 copies
The Stories: Five Years of Original Fiction on tor.com (2013) — Contributor — 38 copies
Giving the Devil His Due: Special Edition (2021) — Contributor — 15 copies
The Mammoth Book of Gaslit Romance (2014) — Contributor — 11 copies
Spirits Unwrapped (2019) — Contributor — 8 copies

Tagged

Common Knowledge

Canonical name
Hieber, Leanna Renee
Birthdate
20th Century
Gender
female
Nationality
USA
Birthplace
Ohio, USA
Places of residence
New York, New York, USA
Education
Miami University
Occupations
playwright
actor
Agent
Nicholas Roman Lewis

Members

Reviews

So far am enjoying this story very much - although I am not fond of the hero. Hoping he grows on one.
 
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Shelley8059 | 33 other reviews | Jan 25, 2024 |
To be clear I only read the Leanna Renee Hieber story since that was an epilogue (of sorts) to Percy Parker's books.

Prelim review: This was a riff on Dickens' classic story "A Christmas Carol", with Jane (and a couple other familiar spirits) helping to make Rebecca and Michael see their worth and future happiness.

 
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lexilewords | 3 other reviews | Dec 28, 2023 |
I'll be very honest with everyone, in some ways this was a hard novel for me to read and review. The very reason I wanted to read the book, Natalie's selective mutism, also gave me pause because I was afraid that something would be missing from it. Social anxieties are often hard to translate to page--the awkwardness and inability to convince the reader of the difference between 'can not' and 'will not'.

So I was touched when Leanna offered to let me give her some input into an early draft of the novel. Like Natalie for me writing--whether its a note, text message or blog entry--is my outlet to let my words flow. Its rare for me to 'hold back' what I'm feeling when I write, unlike in real life where the anxiety I feel over making a mistake or committing some sort of social faux pas that is obvious to everyone but me paralyzes me.

Having been a big fan of her Guard books, I expected a tone similar in nature when reading Darker. And while there is an obvious recognizability to her turns of phrase or emphasis on the smaller details, Darker is a much more intimate book then the Guard books. Told from Natalie's point of view, as journal entries and letters mainly, we get a much firmer sense of how life affects Natalie. The eeriness she feels when first seeing Denbury's painting, the hurt she felt over Maggie's thoughtless comments and the pain she feels over not being able to converse.

Natalie's driving forced seemed to be her need to feel connected to those around her despite her inability to talk. Her ability to talk with Denbury inside of the painting had less to do with her insecurities and frustrations and more to do with how she perceived herself. She perceived herself being in this magical world--outside of reality, with a companion who felt larger then life to her and immediately connected to and thus the problems she had in the real world couldn't touch her (at least, this is how it felt to me).

Even more than the Guard books, Darker is driven by the characters. Their motivations, interactions and how they affect Natalie. As this is meant to be Natalie's journal (and later it makes sense why she goes into so much minutiae) we get a lot of day-to-day things that have everything to do with her and less to do with the mystery plot line. This is a tense book, because you can feel that Natalie is building to something though not necessarily what. This is not necessarily an action-packed one however. There are action scenes, especially at the end, but the book doesn't focus on that.

In all this is a thoughtful, mystery laced book with a heroine who isn't super-powered or mystical or perfect. She's flawed, she makes mistakes and she recovers from them--a much more relatable and admirable heroine any day of the week.
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lexilewords | 41 other reviews | Dec 28, 2023 |
This prequel to the Persephone Parker books (set about 21 years before those books) gives us back story on the Goddess' fight against the Darkness as well as the Guard directly before the Persephone Parker Guard (plus background on the Goddess herself).

Interestingly it should be noted that this book is set in 1867--the year that Alexi's crew become the Guard--but months before when a cadre of young people in Cairo come into possession of that duty. This other Guard, a more disparate group of young men and women then the Guard we know, share similarities with Alexi's crew, but are cut from a wholly different fabric.

I'll say this upfront--I adore Leanna's writing. I have since the very first page of the first book. That said there were times when I'd grow impatient with the Cairo Guard because of their reactions and actions. They're younger then Alexi's Guard (at least, younger then when we see Alexi's Guard working. Comparatively speaking they receive the Summons to Duty later in their age then Alexi's Guard), and are from several different religions and nationalities so their responses to things would by nature be different. Intellectually that all makes sense. Doesn't mean I wasn't glaring at the screen of my e-reader demanding they get their heads on straight however.

I can say this for the Cairo Guard though, it was fascinating watching how they learned to work with each other and mesh their various beliefs. Alexi's Guard, maybe because they have two decades on the Cairo Guard or maybe because they are all (to my knowledge) Christian of some nature, rarely had the problems the Cairo Guard faced. For instance when Ibrahim moves in with Ahmed's family or even when the Guard first meet each other, cultural misunderstandings are voiced. However the Grand Work smooths out a lot of the troubles as the teens find themselves suddenly given a place in the world.

I appreciated that Leanna used this book to also illustrate better the other side of being called to duty. Most of the members of the Cairo Guard had families--mothers, fathers and siblings who could never know about their new roles. Deliberately Leanna shows us what this toll has on those members especially with Beatrice who until her call to arms was very close with her father. She muses at one point that there was now a distance that couldn't be bridged, not a painful one, but an instinctual one both her and her father felt. Ahmed expresses a similar feeling, though with less wistfulness I believe.

The book is really two sided--we see the Cairo Guard (of whom we met Beatrice in the Percy Parker books previously), but we also watch Persephone (aka the Goddess) as she begins to fade more and more. This is a more realized Persephone, one who isn't perfect and doesn't present herself as perfect. In between her encouraging speeches to the Guard she begs to see the sights or becomes desperate as the Underworld eats away at her. Ultimately this book also sets the stage for why Persephone finally took human form (in the form of Percy Parker) and paves the way for the fourth book (Miss Violet and the Great War).

This should be read as the third book in the series if only because though this is about an earlier Guard, Leanna treats this not as a true prequel. We are given background, but the foundations are not addressed. The assumption being that the reader has read the Percy Parker books beforehand I think, so Leanna doesn't feel as great a need to elaborate on the Grand Work. Partially I think this is because the Cairo Guard are treated almost as placeholders for Alexi's Guard. We know this Guard doesn't last an extraordinary amount of time, we also know that what transpires is mainly set up for when Percy is born and the Grand Work is truly in play.
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lexilewords | 3 other reviews | Dec 28, 2023 |

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Works
31
Also by
10
Members
1,773
Popularity
#14,522
Rating
½ 3.5
Reviews
123
ISBNs
65
Languages
1

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