The Perilous Prophecy of Guard and Goddess is a prequel to Leanna Renee Hieber’s Strangely Beautiful series. Fans of the series will have many questions answered especially about how The Guard came about and how the war between Darkness and Light came to be.

The Perilous Prophecy starts in 1867 where the Goddess Persephone, her beloved Phoenix and the Muse’s begin to choose the new Guard. Persephone has a vision of a young boy with dark hair on his way to London. He is to be the Leader of the Guard and his name his Alexi Rychman but at the moment he is too young.

With The Grand Work drawing the Muse’s to Cairo they find a group of young adults who can carry out their work.  Young Beatrice Smith is chosen by the Phoenix as the Leader, Ibrahim Wasil as Intuition with Ahmed, Verena, George, and Belle as Heart, Healer, Artist and Memory, respectively. As The Guard gets acquainted with their new powers and purpose Persephone fights her way in the Darkness.

Persephone sees visions about what’s coming and she needs to prepare for the war.  The vision shows the war taking place in an abandoned school in London so The Guard must move its location to London. Beatrice and her guard travel from Cairo to London but they are not as strong as they were in their home. Sensing the struggle to fight the Darkness the Muse’s abandon Beatrice and her Guard in favor of a Guard from London. And there is a alteration in the Guard, instead of six there is to be seventh that will be coming to join them.

While Beatrice makes an appearance in The Darkly Luminous Fight for Persephone Parker this is her story and the story of her Guards and the Goddess they serve. It is also about Beatrice and the journey she her beloved Ibrahim take to find each other’s love.

 Even though Beatrice lost her Phoenix muse to Alexi she still has The Great Work to do. Persephone needs Beatrice to help make sure her plans succeed. And one never knows when The Grand Work may call you back. They may have lost their Muse to the new guard but a whisper of the power they had still lingers.

I was so excited to read this. I knew there were going to be many questions answered about The Guard. I also enjoyed seeing Alexi and his Guard we know from The Strangely Beautiful Tale of Miss Percy Parker. You get a great sense of who they are and how they came to be. Also, the mystery of Percy Parker becomes clear from beginning and you see the series in a whole new light.

Oh, and the reason Alexi wears a red cravat… well that’s a surprise I’m not going to ruin.

Leanna Renee Hieber draws you in with her wonderful writing. Her style is distinctive and despite the multiple storylines it was perfectly woven together. I was enchanted by the mystical and paranormal aspects but also blown away with how it wove so well with the romance.  And there is romance. I fell in love with the characters and I was sad to see their journey end.

If you have read any of the Strangely Beautiful then The Perilous Prophecy of Guard and Goddess is a MUST read! If you haven’t read any of the books then I still say this is a MUST read. Leanna Renee Hieber is a truly talented author and is not one to miss.

~ Jamie