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Seriously, it was strange.This is a book I would definitely recommend. .but it was still a very enjoying read. Gemma has her flaws, but she doesn't cower in the face of danger. Pippa and Felicity seem heartless at first, but when I stopped reading for a few weeks in the middle (I was busy at the time-I regret not sitting down and reading it from start to finish in one sitting)., it was like they were different people. I will be looking forward to reading Ms. The romance.
I read the other two books as well, and this series does not disappoint. Libba Bray creates a three-dimensional world full of three-dimensional characters. Wow. Just right. It wasn't too sappy, but at the same time, there was chemistry. Great job.
bray's other books.
I am very willing to read books for entertainment value only, not every book needs to be a literary masterpiece, but this book just fails in every way. The writing is flat and uninteresting, the characters are lifeless, and the story held less interest for me with every page. I know youth fiction isn't usually multilayered but I was able to predict the book's ending before I was halfway through. Also the setup for the next book was not subtle, it's more like the author took one book and chopped it into pieces to end up with a small series.However, from the number of positive reviews I am in the minority, so perhaps my opinion can, and should, be ignored.
3.5 StarsGemma Doyle desperately wants to leave India and live in her home country that she never knew, England. What frightens Gemma however, are the visions she started having right before her mother died and which seem to be increasing.There is also the fact that a boy has been following her, all the way from India. And when her mother dies, she gets her wish and is enrolled at a boarding school in England. She leaves India with her father, and finds her older brother who had been sent to England previously changed.Boarding school life isn't what Gemma had imagined, with cliques and a social outcast for a room mate. When he does choose to speak to her, it only leaves her mystified. An interesting read; the kind you can finish in a day.
Gemma Doyle was raised in India in the late nineteenth century. As if toying with the supernatural wasn't difficult enough, Gemma and her friends are faced with the decisions that every teenage girl must make. The character of Gemma is strong, independent, and utterly interesting. Gripped by despair, guilt, and terrifying visions Gemma finds herself an outcast at the academy. A Great and Terrible Beauty places these fantastic characters in a glowing green English countryside, throws in a little magic, and we find ourselves at the start of what is sure to be a wonderful adventure. She then befriends a group of Spence's most powerful girls, and Gemma finds that she is able to control her visions and transfer herself and her friends to a supernatural world. After the mysterious death of her mother, Gemma is sent to the Spence Academy in England to finish her schooling and learn how to become a lady. Confusion over boys, the pressures of school, and daily quarrels with each other can make the lives of the Spence girls seem downright dramatic.Libba Bray creates loveable and sometimes despicable characters that are so true to reality they might have been modeled after our own high school friends.
It's there she learns that she is connected to a group of powerful women known as the Order. Gemma must decide whether to trust her instincts and pursue her powers or listen to the warning of the mysterious young man that is following her.A Great and Terrible Beauty is both a beautiful and frightening tale of young girls on the brink of womanhood and the choices they must make. It was almost hard to believe she would struggle to make friends, since I wanted to call her up and have drinks (if not of course for the small obstacle that she is only sixteen and in fact not real). Thank goodness there's a sequel.
There were so many great characters, supernatural beings, romance, and just great storytelling. I enjoyed these books so much, I could not stop reading.
I devoured her books, reading the ones in my school's library over and over until they would get a new one. Her books are some of the ones, after I was old enough to buy my own books,that I would buy and they are among the ones I saved from my childhood.
When I was young, my favorite author was Victoria Holt. Once you read the first one, you will have to move on to the second and third.
She opened a genre to me that I have never given up.Recently this trilogy was suggested to me on an Amazon discussion and when I read that the time period was Victorian England and there was a supernatural realm to be explored, I grabbed them up. I am writing this review about the whole trilogy, but putting it here.
I was sorry to see them end. I recommend them highly to the audience that Amazon lists they are for, young adult, but if you are like me, and just love great stories with the things I mentioned above, these are for you.
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