Review: Perilous Prophecy by Leanna Renee Hieber

Title: Perilous Prophecy
Author: Leanna Renee Hieber 
Format: Paperback
Publisher: Tor
Publish Date: June 20, 2017
Source: Author

What's the Story?:

From Goodreads.com: "The Goddess:
In the beginning, there were lovers: a winged deity of power and light, and a queen of grace and beauty. Phoenix was murdered, his beloved stolen away to the Whisper-world. But their passion inspired the Muses. Through great sacrifice, it could live again.

The Guard:
There are always six, mortal hosts for the divine. Battling spirits through the ages, they defy Darkness, Lord of the Dead. In 1867, a shadow rises. The tide turns against them, and all hope falls on a child of prophecy, an eerie, snow-white girl yet to be born. But her path must be cleared. A Great War is coming, and song, wind and stars whisper that the eighteen-year-old Beatrice Smith must give everything to prepare."

My Two Cents:

"Perilous Prophecy" is the prequel to the two books in Ms. Hieber's Strangely Beautiful books. I have not read the other two books in the trilogy but after reading this book, I definitely want to read them! I've heard this book described to me as "gaslamp fantasy," which is the perfect description. You have the history of the Victorian age combined with a paranormal bend that made even the familiar seem different and new.

In this book, we meet Beatrice, a young woman, who is called up to perform the ultimate duty as the leader of the Guard, a group charged with protecting our world from another. This book does not go that much into the legend behind the Guard, which I was very much interested in. I would love to see if the other books talked more about this and gave some more background. We see how this group storms when they first get together to eventually getting to a better place where they begin to function, which is interesting. Each member of the guard is unique and many of them come from different places with different customs, which take awhile to get to where they understand each other. I loved that part of the journey.

One of the things that I really liked in this book is the setting and the way that the author weaves together the real and unreal. Set in 1800s Cairo and London, this book was off the beaten path for me. I read a lot about London but Cairo was relatively new for me, especially with a historical setting. I loved the detail that the author used to bring everything to life! This book makes for a great story to get lost in. I love how the real and unreal become one in this fantasy. This book is a great start to what promises to be an interesting trilogy!