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4.01 of 5 stars
Ah, Christmas! Gemma Doyle is looking forward to a holiday from Spence Academy, spending time with her friends in the city, attending ritzy balls, ... read full description

reviews

Dec 16, 2009
Maddie rated it: 5 of 5 stars
AMAZING AMAZING AMAZING AMAZING AMAZING AMAZING AMAZING AMAZING AMAZING AMAZING AMAZING AMAZING AMAZING AMAZING AMAZING AMAZING AMAZING AMAZING AMAZING AMAZING AMAZING AMAZING AMAZING AMAZING AMAZING AMAZING AMAZING AMAZING AMAZING AMAZING AMAZING AMAZING AMAZING AMAZING AMAZING AMAZING AMAZING AMAZING AMAZING AMAZING AMAZING AMAZING AMAZING AMAZING AMAZING AMAZING AMAZING AMAZING AMAZING AMAZING AMAZING AMAZING AMAZING AMAZING AMAZING AMAZING AMAZING AMAZING AMAZING AMAZING AMAZING AMAZING AMAZ More...
11 comments like (54 people liked it)
Feb 13, 2009
(G)Emma rated it: 5 of 5 stars
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here
1 comment like (9 people liked it)
Feb 23, 2011
Beth F. rated it: 3 of 5 stars
So I emailed a friend today and explained that the only way I could think of to describe this series was to imagine tossing Mean Girls & The Craft (both of the cheesy teen movie persuasion) into a blender with the whole Harry Potter English boarding school concept just to see what comes out. And what results is an addicting, fast-paced story that is difficult to put down.

I’m actually a bit shocked by how engrossing this story has become. Libba Bray wields literary red herrings qu More...
0 comments like (8 people liked it)
Jul 22, 2008
Jenny rated it: 5 of 5 stars
I love this book. I love the entire series. I found them first in seventh grade, but the third one hadn't come out yet. I was scanning my middle school library's shelves, when I noticed an interesting cover near one of my favorite book series. I read the back and I thought the plot was interesting. So I decided to give it a chance and read it. I thought they were great. I mean, I really didn't consider them as some of my favorite books. Eventually, I went on with my life and sort of forgot about More...
0 comments like (8 people liked it)
Jan 27, 2011
Lowed rated it: 3 of 5 stars
I'm surprised she did not see it coming! If you have read my review of the first book, you'd see at how I might be inconsistent with it. With a really good prose [this time], this is an excellent follow up of the first book.

It's good seeing the development of the characters, although I still think they are a hateful bunch. But it was still nice enough to make me want to read the last book in the series.!
6 comments like (4 people liked it)
Jun 29, 2010
Stray rated it: 3 of 5 stars
Book Name: Rebel Angels
Author/s: Libba Bray
Language English
Original Title:Rebel Angels
Publisher, year: Simon and Schuster, 2007
Page total:548
Date Read: june 27-28
Genre/s: YA, fantasy, paranormal, historical fiction
First line of Book:"Herein lies the faithful and true account of my last sixty days, by Kartik, brother of Amar, loyal son of the Rakshana, and of the strange visitation I received that has left me wary on this cold English night." More...
2 comments like (3 people liked it)
Sep 02, 2008
Summer rated it: 5 of 5 stars
OMG. Okay. I have to get The Sweet Far Thing. Like. now. Blast... it's only in hardcover... I don't know what to do. My brain isn't working.

So far I love this series way too much to be healthy. You know you've got me hooked when I start going all delusional and forget that there is this thing called reality, and that I shouldn't be sitting in bed with my eyes closed trying to picture a door of light.

But more than just the fantastical element... I really enjoyed how much More...
2 comments like (5 people liked it)
Jan 31, 2008
Jennifer rated it: 5 of 5 stars
In this is sequel to Libba Bray's excellent YA fantasy novel, A Great and Terrible Beauty, Gemma, Felicity and Anne venture to London over the Christmas holidays. Gemma finds a new love interest among the peerage and Felicity and Anne undertake a daring deception about Anne's social status. Amid the social whirl they continue to venture into the magical land of the realms, seeking to escape the strictures of their lives. But Circe's agents are closing in, hunting Gemma and a way to claim the mag More...
0 comments like (4 people liked it)
May 27, 2008
Shannon rated it: 4 of 5 stars
I think the story is getting even more interesting, and also a bit sad. It didn't take me long to read it either! Truly, these are such fun books, and the world behind the door of light is getting more and more interesting. In this sequel to A Great and Terrible Beauty, set two months after, a new, mysterious teacher has arrived at Spence, three ghostly girls are trying to give Gemma a message, and Kartik tells Gemma she must find the Temple and bind the magic that she let loose when she broke t More...
0 comments like (3 people liked it)
Jul 01, 2009
Julie rated it: 3 of 5 stars
After reading the first book it was good enough to keep reading the other books although I didn't love it. I really liked the second book, but after the whole series was finished I was rather disappointed. I thought the story was compelling, but if you're looking for a book appropriate for you teenage girls I didn't think this was it. There are far too many points of view that conflicted with my beliefs. I really wanted to like these books, but after the insertion on homosexuality (hinted at i More...
3 comments like (4 people liked it)
Oct 15, 2008
Emma rated it: 5 of 5 stars
********Don't read this review if you haven't read the book!!!!!**********


This book's way better than the second, because she gets away from Spence, and there is more action. I like the fact that Simon's there (Kartik has some competition!), and that he's still going to be there in the next one. I don't think much happened with Ann, but nothing much CAN happen to Ann. Well, now that I think about it she does pretend to be Russian royalty, and has to go home in May, so I guess More...
0 comments like (3 people liked it)
Nov 22, 2008
Emily rated it: 3 of 5 stars
The series still offers the kind of fluff stress-relief I need right now. The novel is very readable: the pages fly by and you can read it in a couple of bedside sittings.

It's greatest strength is still there: the young women retain their complex, realistic relationship as they struggle to figure out if a balance is possible between what is expected of them and the opportunity to find out what they want out of life.

The downside? Three "twists" that aren't twists More...
0 comments like (2 people liked it)
Dec 03, 2009
Tatiana rated it: 4 of 5 stars
I enjoyed "Rebel Angels" just as much as I did its predecessor - "A Great and Terrible Beauty."

In this book Bray continues exploring constraints of Victorian society, and their suffocating effects on young women's lives. This time we go beyond the borders of the finishing school - Gemma, Felicity, and Ann are in London for their Christmas holidays. We accompany them to opera, ball, and various social events. To add to already dark Gothic atmosphere of the story, More...
9 comments like (2 people liked it)
Aug 10, 2008
Susan rated it: 5 of 5 stars
Rebel Angels is the second book in Libba Bray's Gemma Doyle trilogy. After reading the first book, A Great and Terrible Beauty, I wasn't all that excited to finish the series. I just felt that the book promised something that it couldn't entirely deliver. I'm really glad I gave the series a second chance though, because Rebel Angels was really terrific!

In this sequel, Gemma continues to pursue her destiny as the one who can bring order back to the realms. This book takes place over t More...
0 comments like (2 people liked it)
Dec 14, 2008
Erin rated it: 5 of 5 stars
Rebel Angels is the second book in the Gemma Doyle Trilogy. I finished the first, Great and Terrible Beauty, earlier this month and was not intending to read this one so soon. I read a few other books then found myself wondering what was going to happen to "the Order." Ashley was also reading them and told me how they all get better. It was true. This one was so much more exciting than the first.

I love how it is a girls Fantasy that is based in the late 1800s. It combines s More...
1 comment like (2 people liked it)
Oct 19, 2010
Elizabeth rated it: 2 of 5 stars
There is a never-ending fascination with women in Victorian England, particularly among fantasy writers. I'm not sure why as I am not overly intrigued by it myself. When I first saw these books in the bookstore (the first in the series is A Great and Terrible Beauty), I thought, "Oh no, not another story of 'magic' in a Victorian boarding school." (You know, it may be Edwardian-era. I don't remember exactly). But I started reading it anyway, in the bookstore, and the writing was good e More...
2 comments like (3 people liked it)
Jan 02, 2008
Laura rated it: 3 of 5 stars
548 pages (counts as two books)
My opinions on this book changed with almost every chapter. When I first started, I was somewhat disappointed. What I liked so much about the first book in the series, A Great and Terrible Beauty, was how realistic the dialogue and narration was for the time period. I felt like the voice of the main character, Gemma, was believable for the 1800s. It seemed to me that Gemma lost some of her credibility in the second book. She had more of a modern " More...
0 comments like (2 people liked it)
Oct 02, 2008
Lisa rated it: 5 of 5 stars
As good or better than the first book. This one is getting a reread from me because it's still twisting around in my brain. Geez, all the MacBeth imagery! Libba Bray should give writers' seminars on how to drop elements from classic literature pieces into your own works; she is a master. Fair is foul and foul is fair, indeed! Those three girls in white......hmmm, witches, witches. And I knew there would be more examination of religion! So good to THINK about things instead of just blindly f More...
2 comments like (2 people liked it)
Jul 29, 2007
Kate E.A. rated it: 4 of 5 stars
This is the sequel to Libba Bray's debut novel, A Great and Terrible Beauty, and I have to say: better than the first. YA in genre, Bray's style is really fresh and easy to read. She combines gothic elements with the supernatural and the Victorian period in a very compelling way and has obviously done some research into the time period -- always a good choice.

The same compelling character from GTB return in Rebel Angels, from the mysterious and handsome Kartik to the lost friend Pipp More...
0 comments like (1 person liked it)
Apr 17, 2008
Kirsten rated it: 4 of 5 stars
As Gemma Doyle continues her education at Spence Academy for young ladies, she is set to a new task. After setting to magic free in the realms it is up to Gemma to find the temple and bind the magic again. She is told to trust no one, but as this tangled plot unfolds she will find help in the strangest places and learn that some of those she does trust may not be what they seem.
I loved this book. I enjoyed it much more than the first book in the trilogy, A Great and Terrible Beauty. I More...
0 comments like (1 person liked it)
May 08, 2011
Debora rated it: 5 of 5 stars
Angeli Ribelli è il secondo di una triologia che ti cattura ad ogni pagina.
Dove non ci sono buoni o cattivi, dove il bianco ed il nero spesso finiscono con il confondersi e mescolarsi senza alcuna apparente logica.
Dove l'amicizia è vera, quella reale di tutti i giorni fatta di luce ed ombre, di pregi e difetti e dove l'amore non è una classica favola dove il principe azzurro arriva cavalcando un bianco destriero.

Libba Bray, nella sua bravura, ci mostra un mondo fatto di balli, carrozze, cavalli More...
Oct 11, 2010
Erica - rated it: 3 of 5 stars
I actually started this book before reading A Great and Terrible Beauty only to find out that this is the sequel. After about 30 pages I had no idea what was going on, so I decided to stop and read the other book first. I'm glad that I read A Great and Terrible Beauty first because I would have been so lost through most of this book. I didn't enjoy this book as much as A Great and Terrible Beauty because it was a bit more fantastical that the first book. I guess I have a hard time reading someth More...
Dec 23, 2008
Kellista rated it: 5 of 5 stars
I just finished this last night and my head is still spinning. I found the first one, A Great and Terrible Beauty interesting but not as riviting as some of my friends. Honestly, there were times I thought about putting it down. I'd just came off of the Twilight series so perhaps this great switch in storylines and setting was hard to adjust to. So when I bought the second one I opened it with a great sigh...hoping it would be a tad more interesting. I was pleased to see by just a few pages in I More...
Nov 26, 2008
Elizabeth rated it: 5 of 5 stars
Ah, Christmas! Gemma Doyle is looking forward to a holiday from Spence Academy, spending time with her friends in the city, attending ritzy balls, and on a somber note, tending to her ailing father. As she prepares to ring in the New Year, 1896, a handsome young man, Lord Denby, has set his sights on Gemma, or so it seems. Yet amidst the distractions of London, Gemma’s visions intensify–visions of three girls dressed in white, to whom something horrific has happened, something only the realms ca More...
Dec 25, 2011
Sid rated it: 3 of 5 stars
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here
Dec 22, 2011
Ren rated it: 4 of 5 stars
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here
Dec 06, 2011
Kamaria rated it: 5 of 5 stars
Have you read the first one yet-A Great and Terrible Beauty? If you havent, I just cyber smacked your face!! If you have, we would be great friends. Libba Bray has done the impossible and made the second book even greater than the first!!!! In this continuation of the story, Gemma has come to terms with her mothers final death, and Pippa's. Or so she thinks. Gemma thinks shes learned most everything there is to know about the realms, and the magic of the Order. Then she finds out that by her set More...
0 comments like (1 person liked it)
Nov 26, 2011
"Rebel Angel" is a perfect title for Gemma!! I feel like she's about to pop from over-confinement. Safe to say, I never would have survived in Victorian England.

I'm still not sure I trust Felicity. She's still very power hungry in this book, and her jealousy over the status that Gemma holds is very apparent. We do learn more about her past that helps you understand her attitude. You learn more about each girl, actually, and Gemma explains the connections beautifully. For exam More...
Nov 19, 2011
TG rated it: 4 of 5 stars
I didn't love the first Gemma Doyle book when I read it a year ago. Part of the problem was that it was the book I read after The Hunger Games and honestly, what wouldn't suffer in comparison? But the main issue was my dislike of most of the characters: I can see that, for Gemma's friends, Libba Bray meant to create realistic girls who are flawed, but the particular personality flaws (Felicity is a snob, Pippa is an airhead and Ann is bitter and self-pitying) happen to be ones I can't abide, so More...
Oct 28, 2011
Greta rated it: 4 of 5 stars
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here