Leanna Renee Hieber – författare

From the Bram Stoker nominated author team who penned A Haunted History of Invisible Women, the first book of its kind to investigate gothic tropes that define American lore. Here is the hidden, dark history of what frightens us—and why.

The Gothic. Brooding, atmospheric, chilling, and not always the outpouring of a feverish imagination. Reality can be even stranger as borne out in this lush and ghostly look at real people who lived--and died—amidst the trappings of the Gothic. Fog clinging to an isolated mansion. A dangerous patriarch or an overbearing matron. Locked doors and forbidden rooms. Whispers of murder and madness. And a woman shadowed by omnipresent threats. You’ve guessed it. You’ve stumbled into a Gothic tale, and it will haunt you like a ghost. We often think of the enduring tropes of the Gothic in terms of fiction and film—breath-catching escapes that tap into our fears, anxieties, forbidden desires, and unsettling dreams. But what if some of these chilly vibes are rooted in the experiences of real and tragic people who danced a macabre waltz with love and death? That’s why we’re here. Take the case of teenage Mercy Brown, victim—or was it predator?—of Rhode Island’s vampire hysteria of the 1890s. Marguerite de la Roque, a French noblewoman condemned for “sexual crimes” to Canada’s long-lost Isle of Demons. What happened to her and the barren landscape itself is the stuff of legend. And “Mad Lucy” Ludwell, the decidedly peculiar eighteenth-century high-society hauteur driven mad in the Virginia estate she prowls to this day. President Helen Peabody’s spirit still stringently watches over her Women’s College, now part of Ohio’s Miami University. Ghosts of workers lost in horrific conditions while building the Hoosac Tunnel warn of imminent danger. Settle in. There are more. Welcome to the phantom ships, haunted academic halls, menacing landscapes, and family curses of America’s Most Gothic—a tour of true spectral sightings and disordered minds. But beware: it’s sure to get under your skin. The haunted—and haunting—figures herein want it that way.

This discounted ebundle includes: Strangely Beautiful, Perilous Prophecy, and Miss Violet and the Great War“Tells a love story with exquisite detail.”—TrueBlood.net on Perilous ProphecyAward-winning author Leanna Renee Hieber brings to life an exciting, romantic gaslamp fantasy in the groundbreaking, critically acclaimed Strangely Beautiful saga. Set in the Victorian era, Strangely Beautiful chronicles the adventures of the Guard — ordinary people blessed with the ability to see ghosts, heal illness, dispel demons, and more. Despite their weighty tasks, they are still human, and their lives and loves are inevitably intertwined, even as they stand between humanity and all the horrors of the underworld.Strangely Beautiful: 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 to the Athens Academy in Queen Victoria''s London, not knowing that it is the citadel of The Guard. The Victorian Guard, latest incarnation of an ancient order that battles evil in all its forms, is led by Athens professor Alexi Rychman. Percy''s lifelong habit of concealment, combined with Alexi''s fevered search for the Guard''s missing seventh member, 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.Perilous Prophecy: In this enchanting prequel to Strangely Beautiful, Cairo in the 1860s is a bustling metropolis where people from all walks of life mix and mingle in complex harmony. When evil ghosts and unquiet spirits stalk the city’s streets, the Guard are summoned—six young men and women of different cultures, backgrounds, and faiths, gifted by their Goddess with great powers. While others of the Guard embrace their duties, their leader, British-born Beatrice, is gripped by doubt. What right has she, a bookish, sheltered, eighteen-year-old, to lead others into battle? Why isn’t dark-eyed, compelling Ibrahim the one in charge? As ghosts maraud through Cairo’s streets, heralding a terrible darkness, Beatrice and her Guard have little time to master their powers; a great battle looms as an ancient prophecy roars toward its final, deadly conclusion.Miss Violet and the Great War: An adventure full of passion and power. From childhood, Violet Rychman--daughter of Percy and Alexi--has dreamed of a coming war, of death and battle on an unimaginable scale. Like her mother, she has seen and heard ghosts, who have loved and guided her. Now the future Violet dreamed is coming to pass as World War I rages across Europe. Millions of people are dying; entire villages are disappearing. Violet is nearly overcome when the Muses of antiquity offer her powers greater even than those of her parents or the Guard. The ability to impact people’s memories, even shape their thoughts. To guide their souls. To pass between the world of the living and that of the dead and to bring others through that passage. Violet must use these gifts in an attempt to stop death itself, lest the whole world be destroyed.At the Publisher''s request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

A Tor.com original short story by Leanna Renee Hieber.Eloise Browne''s leaden heart becomes softened by the entrance into her world of Mr. McGill, the owner of the nearby mill. His tragic story and her compassionate gift tangle themselves into something altogether new... and not altogether welcome."[A] subtly chilling little ghost story."--LocusAt the Publisher''s request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.