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A Great and Terrible Beauty by Libba Bray

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Title: A Great and Terrible Beauty (Gemma Doyle #1)

Author: Libba Bray

Publisher: Delacorte Books 2005

Genre: YA

Pages: 403

Rating:   5 / 5 stars

Reading Challenges:  Young Adult; Mount TBR; Semi-Charmed Challenge -- Trilogy

How I Got It: I own it!

It’s 1895, and after the suicide of her mother, 16-year-old Gemma Doyle is shipped off from the life she knows in India to Spence, a proper boarding school in England. Lonely, guilt-ridden, and prone to visions of the future that have an uncomfortable habit of coming true, Gemma’s reception there is a chilly one. To make things worse, she’s been followed by a mysterious young Indian man, a man sent to watch her. But why? What is her destiny? And what will her entanglement with Spence’s most powerful girls—and their foray into the spiritual world—lead to?

I am ashamed to say that this book has been on my shelves for almost two years.  I wanted to read this trilogy when it was published, but I it somehow kept getting thrown back on the TBR shelf.  After the move, I promptly unearthed it and placed it on my immediate TBR shelf.

The first 50 pages, I was so-so.  It didn't really strike me as amazing.  It didn't grab my attention right away.  And I felt that Gemma was a petulant 16-year-old.  Thankfully the story started growing on me.  I began to be pulled deeper and deeper in the mystery of the Order and the other Realms.  I too hated Felicity and Pippa in the beginning.  But soon, I became to see their behavior was a result of their deeper insecurities.  At the end, I felt for Pippa and Felicity.  But I never seemed to get a handle on Ann.  Hopefully, the second book gives us more.  I loved Miss Moore.  We better get to see more of her.  I found the twists toward the end to be predictable, but not so obvious as to be annoying.  A good read for an afternoon at the pool.

Gemma Doyle

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