Sunday 9 December 2012

Blog Tour: The Twisted Tragedy Of Miss Natalie Stewart (Magic Most Foul #2) - Leanna Renee Hieber, Book Review (181).


The Twisted Tragedy of Miss Natalie Stewart(Magic Most Foul #2)

Publication: 1st November 2012
Publisher: Sourcebooks Fire
Pages: 332
Genre: Fantasy/Historical Fiction
Age Appropriate: Young Adult
I'm coming for you.

The whispers haunt her dreams and fill her waking hours with dread. Something odd is happening. Something...unnatural.

Possession of the living. Resurrection of the dead. And Natalie Stewart is caught right in the middle. Jonathon, the one person she thought she could trust, has become a double agent for the dark side. But he plays the part so well, Natalie has to wonder just how much he's really acting.

She can't even see what it is she's fighting. But the cost of losing her heart, her sanity...her soul.
My Thoughts...
So going into this book I was pretty excited, I loved the characters of Natalie and Jonathan 'Lord Denbury' in the previous book and I was interested to see where this book would take them on their journey to defeat the evil that we met in the first book 'Darker Still'.
This book starts off straight after the ending in the debut book in the series, Natalie and Jonathan are on a train to meet up with an old friend of his, when they arrive they discover that the Majesty Society who were in cahoots with the demon who actually imprisoned him in the painting are immersing themselves into his friends lives, they are also experimenting in 're-animation' of the dead, but they aren't exactly aware that the demon is no longer possessing Jonathan's body and so he acts the part to find out information as to what they are up to and becomes a double agent for both sides.
He plays the part so well that Natalie sometimes wonders whether it is an act, and with her prophetic dreams playing a part in all the madness, she knows something bad is coming!
As in the first book I loved how the story is told through Natalie's diary entries and letters, it's something different but really enjoyable as well.
Add in a couple of new characters to help in their fight: Rachel who was Natalie's best-friend in the asylum and who is a psychic and Reverend Blessing a friend of Mrs Northe and they have a well developed 'team' I guess you could call it.
And alas like all books in a series there is always something that happens at the end that makes you anxious to get your hands on the next book, and after the note I'm desperate for the next book.
I highly recommend this series to those who like gothic, dark fiction.
I give this 4/5.

Guest Post...
· Triple Talent:  It’s no secret that bestselling author Leanna acts, writes, and even combines the two to create a play.  Leanna describes what it’s like to be a working actress while also making a bestseller book.
I wear many different hats. And I don’t just mean cute little Victorian hats, though I do have quite a collection. I’ve always been a Jack of All Trades and it’s my varying interests that have kept me busy, employed in the arts and happy in always having a project or two to work on. The trick to doing anything well is time and discipline, it’s very hard to juggle theatrical pursuits and writing and promoting your books full time. I have to pick and choose and shift focus. While I was a full time professional actress on stage in various regional theatre productions around the country, my writing took a back seat. Today my writing is at the foreground and I do theatrical and/or film projects sporadically. The ability to shift focus from one priority to another depending on deadlines is a skill I’ve been trying to sharpen forever. The biggest challenge is self-discipline of one’s own time. It’s something I struggle with day in and day out. Storytelling is at the core of all my interests, and while I’m very selective now about the stories I tell and the mediums I use to tell them, I’m blessed to have several different avenues to pursue the stories that intrigue me. One of the most fascinating ways that my worlds have blended is in adapting my first novel into a musical theatre production with Broadway talent on board. My time as an actress and brief stints as a playwright made it easier for the production company behind the musical adaptation of The Strangely Beautiful Tale of Miss Percy Parker to approach me to be on the collaboration team. I’m uniquely suited as having experience in all these fields to weave a story together in an entirely new medium, a show. And it’s that process of adaptation and collaboration that then allows me to have fresh insights and new tricks to make an engaging story come to life when I return to my novels, such as THE TWISTED TRAGEDY OF MISS NATALIE STEWART.



About this author

Author, actress and playwright, Leanna grew up in rural Ohio, graduated with a BFA in Theatre, a focus in the Victorian Era and a scholarship to study in London. She adapted 19th Century literature for the stage and her one-act plays have been produced around the country. She is a 4 time Prism Award winner for excellence in Futuristic, Fantasy, or Paranormal Romance. Her debut novel, The Strangely Beautiful Tale of Miss Percy Parker, first in the "Strangely Beautiful" saga of Gothic Victorian Fantasy novels (Barnes & Noble Bestseller) won two 2010 Prism Awards (Best Fantasy, Best First Book) and is currently in development as a musical theatre production. DARKER STILL: A Novel of Magic Most Foul, begins a Gothic paranormal saga set in 1880 New York City, named an INDIE NEXT title; a recommended buy by the American Book Association, a Scholastic book fairs "Highly Recommended" title and is a finalist in the 2012 Daphne du Maurier awards for excellence in Mystery/Romantic Suspense. The sequel, THE TWISTED TRAGEDY OF MISS NATALIE STEWART, has recently released and she is currently working on her new Gaslamp Fantasy saga for Tor/Macmillan, THE ETERNA FILES, coming 2014. A character from THE ETERNA FILES is featured in her short story included in QUEEN VICTORIA'S BOOK OF SPELLS (Tor, 3/13).

Leanna is a proud member of member of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America, Romance Writers of America, and the International Thriller Writers. She is a proud co-founder of Lady Jane's Salon Reading Series in New York City. A member of Actors Equity Association and SAG-AFTRA, Leanna works often in television and film. She is playing the role of Deputy Kellion in Auror's Tale web-series. When not writing or on set, she loves a good Goth club, adventuring about her adopted hometown of New York City, where she resides with her real-life hero and their beloved rescued lab rabbit.


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