From the Bookshelf of Nothing But Reading Challenges…

A Great and Terrible Beauty (Gemma Doyle, #1)

Libba Bray

Start date: October 1, 2011

Finish date: October 31, 2011

Discussion: Books of the Month

Why we're reading this: We voted and this one was chosen as the October YA BOM. Link to discussion;
http://www.goodreads.com/topic …more
[close] We voted and this one was chosen as the October YA BOM. Link to discussion;
http://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/6...

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What Members Thought

Dec 23, 2014 Gremlin rated it liked it

Shelves: ya

I'm pretty sure that if I had a chance to hangout with Libba Bray, we'd get along really well. She's clearly a smart feminist lady with a sense of fun and adventure and I've loved many of her books.

That being said, this one was a little more middle of the road for me. The story takes place at a female boarding school in England in the late 1800s and focuses on the eventual friendship formed by four girls (each with their own back-story baggage) as they recreate a magical "order" and research a f ...more

1 like · Like · see review

Feb 22, 2009 Maggie rated it really liked it

Shelves: young-adult, paranormal-fantasy, historical-fiction, read-2009, 2009-spring-challenge

I was a little worried at first that maybe this was just going to be a sort of typical teenage/young adult whine-fest sort of book. It started off a little bit "mean-girlsy" for me. But in all honesty, that really is how high school girls are a lot of the time. Trust me, I know, I substitute teach part time at an all girls private school! And then, I was worried it might take a sort of Harry Potter turn, and I was getting all: "Ugh, I've read this story already!"

But, I kept with it, and it reall ...more

1 like · Like · see review

Dec 16, 2008 Jen B rated it really liked it

Shelves: 2009

Enjoyed this one far more than I thought I would. A bit Harry Potter-esque (i.e. Lonely, orphaned child sent to boarding school where they unlock magical powers they never knew they possessed), but the Victorian-era spin and girl's perspective give the story a fresh twist. And Gemma's racy fantasies about the mysterious Kartik might leave you a little hot under the corset. Looking forward to the next books in the trilogy. ...more

Like · see review