Gothic, Gaslamp Fantasy & Ghostly Non-Fiction via Tor & Kensington Books!
Non-Fiction:
A HAUNTED HISTORY OF INVISIBLE WOMEN
Co-authored with Boroughs of the Dead founder Andrea Janes, is a 2022 Bram Stoker Award Finalist for "Superior Achievement in Non-Fiction"!
Order: Bookshop.Org - Powell's - Barnes & Noble - WORD, NYC - Amazon
From
the notorious Lizzie Borden to
the innumerable, haunted rooms of Sarah
Winchester's
mysterious mansion, this
offbeat, insightful, first-ever book of its kind explores the history behind America’s female ghosts, the stereotypes, myths, and paranormal tales that swirl around them, what their stories
reveal about us—and why they haunt us…
Sorrowful widows, vengeful jezebels, innocent maidens, wronged lovers, even the occasional axe-murderess—America’s female ghosts differ widely in background, class, and circumstance. Yet one
thing unites them: their ability to instill fascination and fear, long after their deaths. Here are the full stories behind some of the best-known among them, as well as the lesser-known—though
no less powerful. Tales whispered in darkness often divulge more about the teller than the subject. Riveting for skeptics and believers alike, with humor, curiosity, and
expertise, A Haunted History of Invisible
Women offers a unique lens on the
significant role these ghostly legends play both within the spook-seeking corners of our minds and in the consciousness of a nation. "A
Haunted History of Invisible Women looks beyond the legends
of maligned female ghosts and gives us their real histories. It is both a meditation on the misogyny of a ghost-hunting culture that capitalizes on false narratives of sex and death, and a
fascinating look at the flesh-and-blood women behind the ghost stories. This book is a long-overdue search for historic truth, yet it recognizes that “When it comes to ghosts, truth is as elusive
as the spirits themselves.” —Chris Woodyard, Author
of The
Victorian Book of the Dead.
Afterword by
Bram Stoker Award-winning author Linda D. Addison
Latest Fiction:
GHOSTS OF THE FORBIDDEN
(Contemporary Gothic Romance)
Now Available via Castle Bridge Media
In Digital and Trade Paperback
"Paying homage to the over-the-top, spine-tingling gothic novels of the 1970s, Hieber (Strangely Beautiful) treats readers to a deceptively light contemporary love story shrouded in an atmosphere of the fantastic…. filled with all the high drama and family feuds fans of the genre expect… infused with just enough lightness and humor to make the quirky premise work." -- Publishers Weekly
"If you love all
things both goth and Gothic and want to see the
mid-century-style Gothic romances brought into the modern day, you
absolutely do not want to miss this." - The Gothic
Library
She should run. But can
she?
When newly unemployed writer Lillian Anders tries to escape her personal demons by running off to Glazier's Gap for a writer's conference hosted by a reviving Gothic romance publisher, she lands
right in the middle of her own Gothic novel. Her life begins eerily reflecting one of the early-'70s "women running from houses" books in the publisher’s archive. Striking 19th Century ghosts
haunt darkened halls and carriage-house mirrors, startling Lillian with dangerous secrets. As a hungry, violent force lurks in the mountains and the abandoned silver mine, Lillian’s presence
rekindles old flames and reopens aching wounds. When charming journalist Nathaniel Lynd arrives in town, he and Lillian forge an immediate bond when intimate memories surface from another
century. Evil forces that killed star-crossed lovers in the past seek to destroy Lillian and Nathaniel in the present. It will take fortitude, ingenuity and unexpected help from the strange town
itself to make sure the demons of the past don’t destroy a passionate future; destined to set old wrongs right.
STRANGELY BEAUTIFUL:
Miss Percy Parker and The Guard are back in a new edition featuring NEW scenes & extra content! Books 1&2 now in 1 new volume!
Book 3 & 4, Perilous Prophecy & Miss Violet and the Great War now available!
Order the new edition in Digital or Trade Paperback, now available from TOR: IndieBound - Amazon - Powell's - Barnes & Noble - Signed, Personalized copies via Etsy - Originally published as two books, (The Strangely Beautiful Tale of Miss Percy Parker & The Darkly Luminous Fight for Persephone Parker) Strangely Beautiful unites Leanna Renee Hieber's critically acclaimed novels in a single revised volume, restoring the author's original vision for the work. * 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 Queen Victoria's London, to the Athens Academy. What she will learn there will change her life forever. Athens Academy is the citadel of The Guard, an ancient order that battles the forces of evil. The Victorian Guard, led by professor Alexi Rychman, is incomplete. They cannot defeat Jack the Ripper-- who is more than the serial killer he appears to be--or the greater monster his appearance heralds. Percy's lifelong habit of concealment combined with Alexi's fevered search for the Guard's missing seventh 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.
A Strangely Beautiful prequel (Strangely Beautiful # 2)
Order the new edition in Digital or Paperback from TOR: IndieBound - Amazon - Powell's - Barnes & Noble
Winner of the Prism Award for Best Fantasy Novel! “Tells a love story with exquisite detail.”—TrueBlood.net
Cairo in the 1860s is a bustling metropolis where people from all walks of life mix and mingle, mostly 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, who is stronger of will than Beatrice, the one in charge? 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. This enchanting prequel to Leanna Renee Hieber's gaslamp fantasy, Strangely Beautiful, returns to print after more than a decade, edited and revised for Tor's publication.
(Strangely Beautiful 2.5)
An achingly tender second chance at love thanks to the harrowing paces of the spirit world... A Dickensian tale starring Headmistress Rebecca Thompson and Vicar Michael Carroll of Athens Academy.
(Strangely Beautiful # 3)
From childhood, Violet Rychman has dreamed of a coming war, of death and battle on an unimaginable scale. She has seen and heard ghosts, who have loved and guided her. Now the future she dreamed has come to pass. World War I rages across Europe. Millions of people are dying; entire villages are disappearing. A great and terrible vision sweeps over Violet, offering powers heralded by the Muses of antiquity. 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. These and other gifts once belonged to people Violet loved. Now they are hers, and she must use them to attempt to stop death itself.
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THE SPECTRAL CITY
THE SPECTRAL CITY (Spectral City # 1)
- Amazon
- Audio Book via Tantor, narrated by Tavia Gilbert
In turn-of-the century New York City, the police have an off-the-books spiritual go-to when it comes to solving puzzling corporeal crimes . . .
Her name is Eve Whitby, gifted
medium
and spearhead of The Ghost Precinct. When most women are traveling in a gilded society that promises only well-appointed marriage, the confident nineteen-year-old Eve navigates a social circle
that carries a different kind of chill. Working with the diligent but skeptical Lieutenant Horowitz, as well as a group of fellow psychics and wayward ghosts, Eve holds her own against detractors
and threats to solve New York's most disturbing crimes as only a medium of her ability can.
But as accustomed as Eve is to ghastly crimes and all matters of the uncanny, even she is unsettled by her department's latest mystery. Her ghostly conduits are starting to disappear one by one
as though snatched away by some evil force determined to upset the balance between two realms, and most important—destroy the Ghost Precinct forever. Now Eve must brave the darkness to find the
vanished souls. She has no choice. It's her job to make sure no one is ever left for dead.
A SANCTUARY OF SPIRITS (Spectral City # 2)
Now available from Kensington Rebel Base Books in digital & trade paperback!
-Kobo
-BN
New York, 1899, and the police department’s best ally is the secret Ghost Precinct, where spirits
and psychics help solve the city’s most perplexing crimes . . .
There’s more than one way to catch a killer—though the methods employed by the NYPD’s Ghost Precinct, an all-female team of psychics and spiritualists led by gifted
young medium Eve Whitby, are unconventional to say the least. Eve is concerned by the backlash that threatens the department—and by the discovery of an otherworldly realm, the Ghost Sanctuary, where the dead can provide answers. But is there a price to be paid for Eve and her colleagues venturing beyond the land of the
living?
Searching for clues about a mortician’s disappearance, Eve encounters a charismatic magician and mesmerist whose abilities are unlike any she’s seen. Is he a link to mysterious deaths around the
city, or to the Ghost Sanctuary? Torn between the bonds of her team and her growing relationship with the dashing Detective Horowitz, Eve must discern truth from illusion and friend from foe,
before another soul vanishes into the ether . . .
A SUMMONING OF SOULS, Spectral City # 3, Now available from Kensington Rebel Base Books in digital & trade paperback!
The ethereal denizens of New York owe a great debt to Eve Whitby, the young
medium who leads an all-female team of spiritualists in the police department’s Ghost Precinct. Without her efforts on behalf of the incorporeal, many souls would have been lost or damned by
means both human and inhuman.
But now Eve faces an enemy determined to exorcise the city’s ghostly population once and for all. Albert
Prenze is supposed to be dead. Instead he is very much alive, having assumed the identity of his twin brother Alfred, and taken control of the family’s dubiously acquired fortune. To achieve his
vicious ends, Albert plots to twist Eve’s abilities into his own psychic weapon—a weapon that not only poses a threat to spirits but to everyone she cares for, including her beloved Detective
Horowitz . . .
The ETERNA FILES Trilogy...
(Hardcover, Digital, Paperback)
Gaslamp Fantasy
(PG-13 rated content)
Order: From Leanna directly via Etsy (Signed copy!) - Barnes & Noble -
Praise for ETERNA:
“Hieber’s formidable imagination is given free reign in this smart, boundlessly creative Gaslamp fantasy. She blends historical fact and paranormal fiction with ease, creating a world that is lush and fascinatingly strange, and reveals her secrets sparingly, keeping fans on edge for more information about these intriguingly powerful characters and the ties that bind them together. Patient readers will be well rewarded for letting this haunting novel unfold around them and savoring the expansive world and complex plot that Hieber has constructed.” – Bridget Keown for RT Bookreviews Magazine
ETERNA & OMEGA (Eterna Files #2)
Now available in Hardcover, Digital & Paperback from Tor Books:
Amazon - Barnes & Noble - Leanna's Etsy
Hieber's gaslamp fantasy series continues and the action ramps up in Eterna and Omega.
In New York City, fearing the dangers of the Eterna Compound--supposedly the key to immortality--Clara Templeton buries information vital to its creation. The ghost of her clandestine lover is desperate to tell her she is wrong, but though she is a clairvoyant, she cannot hear him. In London, Harold Spire plans to send his team of assassins, magicians, mediums, and other rogue talents to New York City, in an attempt to obtain Eterna for Her Royal Majesty, Queen Victoria. He stays behind to help Scotland Yard track down a network of body snatchers and occultists, but he'll miss his second-in-command, Rose Everhart, whose gentle exterior masks a steel spine. Rose's skepticism about the supernatural has been shattered since she joined Spire's Omega Branch. Meeting Clara is like looking into a strange mirror: both women are orphans, each is concealing a paranormal ability, and each has a powerful and attractive guardian who has secrets of his own. The hidden occult power that menaces both England and America continues to grow. Far from being dangerous, Eterna may hold the key to humanity's salvation.
THE ETERNA SOLUTION (Eterna #3)
Now Available in Hardcover & Digital from Tor Books: "The exciting conclusion to a sumptuous Gaslamp Fantasy series!
Order via:
Barnes & Noble - IndieBound - Signed via Etsy - Amazon
From Tor Books: "Leanna Renee Hieber brings Victorian London and New York to life and fills both cities with ghosts and monsters. Two groups of paranormally talented investigators discover that
the Eterna compound—thought to be the key to immortality—is, instead, a powerful protective charm. That protection is sorely needed, for both England and the U.S. are under attack by dark forces.
Having vanquished the demonic pretender to the British throne, the now-united forces of the Eterna Commission and the Omega Department reach America ready to take on a new menace. But like the
United States itself, this evil is rapidly spreading from sea to shining sea. Will the new magic our heroes have discovered be strong enough to defeat it?
With its blend of Victorian details, complex plots, and compelling characters, Hieber's fascinating historical fantasy continues to earn critical acclaim."
(Hieber's characters from the Magic Most Foul and Strangely Beautiful series star in and make cameo appearances in The Eterna Files series)
MAGIC MOST FOUL trilogy:
DARKER STILL (Magic Most Foul #1)
(Gothic Historical YA)
The shadows deepen on the gaslit streets of New York City in the year 1880. Curses and spirits, demons and rituals, blood and faith, love and danger; such is the stuff of Magic Most Foul. Find your voice... or else. -- "This smart novel will have wide appeal." - Booklist
(READ MORE) - ORDER: Barnes & Noble ORDER: Amazon ORDER: IndieBound: Shop Indie Bookstores!
THE TWISTED TRAGEDY OF MISS NATALIE STEWART (Magic Most Foul #2)
November 2012 (Sourcebooks Fire) - Trade Paperback & digital. Order from Barnes & Noble - Order from IndieBound - Order from Amazon
-
For Natalie Stewart, a normal life has never seemed so far away. Her only solace, Lord Jonathan Denbury, is wanted for murder. To clear his name, Denbury must return to England and assume the role of his demon doppelganger. But Natalie begins to doubt his true motives, especially as a new gentleman begins whispering in her ear. Natalie and Denbury may be able to visit each other in their dreams, but they can't escape the darkening shadows. Amid spontaneous explosions, friends turned enemies and dangerous secrets revealed, there's still a demon who has Natalie's scent, and someone is trying to resurrect the ultimate evil. - Watch Leanna read an Excerpt - More Excerpts and trailers!
The Double Life of Incorporate Things (Magic Most Foul #3)
"Just when we think our nightmares are over, the Society has invented a new horror. Around every corner a shadow, behind every whisper a demon. If we don't end what the devils began,
we will die haunted..."
The finale in the acclaimed Magic Most Foul trilogy: The trauma and the terror of the Master's Society has only escalated for the dashing Lord Denbury and brave, feisty Miss Natalie Stewart, and
a new terror has been unleashed in Manhattan. Together with their stalwart friends and unlikely heroes, they take the fight directly to the Denbury estate, where new evils have awakened. But are
they prepared for all the sacrifices that shall be asked of them? With their very lives and the sanctity of their mortal souls at stake, Natalie and Jonathon are past the point of no
return...
4.99 Kindle - 12.99 Trade Paperback (Amazon) - 4.99
Nook
12.99 Trade Paperback (Barnes & Noble)
MORE Award winning worlds...
THE DARK NEST CHRONICLES
Genre: Space Opera / Futuristic / Paranormal Psychic Romance
Order: Amazon/Kindle
Compiled into a single volume for the first time, discover Leanna’s award-winning Dark Nest saga of futuristic, paranormal novellas. Known more widely for her acclaimed and award-winning Gothic
Victorian Fantasy novels, Dark Nest was her very first foray into published fiction via a small boutique press in 2008. Dark Nest was awarded the 2009 Prism Award for excellence in Fantasy,
Futuristic and Paranormal Romance (First place, Novella Category)
In the Dark Nest Chronicles, newly evolved psychically gifted humans have been sent by the Homeworld on a space mission aboard two distinct “Nests”. Relationships between the Light Nest and the
Dark Nest have faltered and three distinct sets of commanding officers are sure there’s something insidious behind it. In a matter of hours, in three high-stakes tales told from different
perspectives aboard ships and under Homeworld siege, these sets of lovers will be torn apart and reunited, secret survival plans will go into dizzying effect, assassinations and revenges will be
attempted and carried out, and death-defying sacrifices must be made. Each of these visionary leaders must do their part to quickly unite their people and discover vast new powers the Homeworld
denied them, or else submit to genocide.
LEARN MORE ABOUT EACH CHRONICLE BELOW: (or order separately)
"DARK NEST" - 2009 Prism Award Winner - (Dark Nest Chronicles # 1):
DARK NEST - a futuristic fantasy with a psychic punch
Originally published in 2008 by Crescent Moon Press, Dark Nest won the 2009 Prism Award for excellence in published works of Fantasy, Futuristic and Paranormal Romance in the Novella Category
Length: Novella, 107 pages
"Chief Counsel Ariadne Corinth has just found out her long-time lover, the powerfully gifted Chief Counsel Kristov Haydn, has died. Newly evolved psychically gifted humans have been sent by the Homeworld on a space mission aboard two distinct “Nests”. Relationships between the Light Nest and the Dark Nest have faltered and Ariadne is sure there’s something insidious behind it. In a matter of hours, Ariadne must find out what really happened to Kristov, unite her people to discover vast new powers the Homeworld denied them, or else submit to genocide." -- Maria of RomanceNovel.tv says: Here's a fresh new voice on the scene. This romance fantasy novella hits all the right notes. Leanna has created a world that is so descriptive it will dance before your eyes. Set in the future, newly evolved psychically gifted humans are sent by the Homeworld to charter new territory. But as they discover betrayal, they also realize their true potential. I say pick this one up."
DARK NEST: Reckoning (#2-novella)
Originally published by Crescent Moon Press, Reckoning continues the Dark Nest Chronicles
- Barnes & Noble / Nook
- Order the full saga via Amazon/Kindle - B&N / Nook
Genre: Futuristic Fantasy
"Captain Temesia Elysse has just steered her ship through almost certain death. With the help of her gifted crew, the Dark Nest has survived. Her newly evolved psychic people are targets of Homeworld genocide. Hundreds have been killed aboard the Light Nest. Back on Homeworld soil, her people are being hunted and she knows her lover may be dead, the gifted teacher Taryn Wolfe. It will take all Captain Elysse’s restraint, with vast new psychic powers available to her and her people, not to let anger get ahead of them. But there must be a rescue mission for those still alive. There must be justice. There will be a reckoning. And the Homeworld council has no idea their persecuted victims are alive, or just how powerful they’ve become."
Buy the novella
digitally or -- Buy the Paperback edition of the full saga via Barnes & Noble - Amazon / Kindle. (Note: Please do not buy the original, out-of-print paperback edition as it is no longer being serviced by the original publisher nor are royalties being
paid.)
More about Dark Nest
DARK NEST: Song of Saire (#3-short)
Originally published in the Mammoth Book of Futuristic Romance
Dark Nest Chronicles # 3
- Order Song of Saire now for Kindle
- Barnes & Noble / Nook
- Order the full saga via Amazon/Kindle - B&N / Nook
Genre: Futuristic Fantasy
"Professors Brodin and Saire have been tested upon, persecuted, and kept apart for decades, sacrificing their own freedom and happiness to raise a generation of newly evolved humans, the Psychically Augmented, under cruel and fearful Homeworld watch. When what they have always dreaded comes to pass, a planned genocide of their people, they must put every last hidden safeguard they created into place and show their students the staggering scope of their true powers. Whether the Professors can save themselves as well as their people becomes a race against time."
Buy the novella digitally or --
Buy the full saga for NOOK, or in paperback via Barnes & Noble -
Amazon / Kindle.
More about Dark Nest