A Great and Terrible Beauty by Libba Bray

Title: A Great and Terrible Beauty
Author: Libba Bray
Pages: 442
Publisher: Random House Children's Books
My Rating: 9/10


Synopsis:
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?

My Thoughts:

The Gemma Doyle series is one that I absolutely love to read over, and over again. Libba Bray's characters are so fresh and alive, it really makes A Great and Terrible Beauty, the first installment of the trilogy, a fantastic read. The plot is full of twists and surprises, and I found it very difficult to put down. Wow. That was a pretty lame and cliche book review. But I'm serious. This is an awesome book. It combines the prim and proper Victorian Society with Fantasy and Magic. You can't say your not interested. Libba Bray is such a talented writer, and it really shows through out this book. You should go read it.

There's much more to life than...

...than hot, glittery, dead guys.

I think by now, most of the Twilight craze has died down a little. Ok, maybe not, especailly with the release of New Moon and such...
I think I should take this brief moment to point out that I can't stand Twilight. At all. I could go into a nice long rant about why I don't like it, but that might take way too long. And also, I know people who do like it, and they wouldn't appreciate it if I tore it apart on this blog*.
Alright. Enough of this.
So as you may or may not have already heard, Stephenie Meyer has her latest Twilight book to be released in June. "The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner." (Image in the right corner.) Well good for her, I say. Looks like someone knows how to make money in this economy. Jeez.
To be honest, I have had enough vampires to last a life time.
I went into Borders last week and was afraid I had instead walked into Hot Topic by mistake**
One friend of mine described it as: "Twilight threw up."
I think I have to agree.
What is happening to YA?

Some YA Books That Fans of the Twilight Saga May Enjoy

(I'm not doing this sarcastically. These are books I reccomend to people who read Twilight.)

A Great and Terrible Beauty by Libba Bray

-My rating: 9/1o

-Genere: Fantasy

Rebel Angels by Libba Bray (Sequel to AGATB)

-My Rating: 10/10

-Genere: Fantasy

The Sweet Far Thing by Libba Bray (Sequel to RA)

-My Rating: 9/10
-Genere: Fantasy

The Blood Confession by Alisa M. Libby

-My Rating: 10/10

-Genere: Fantasy/Historical Fiction.. sorta..

(Ok. So what I think I've decided to do is write up summeries of these different books, and a few others, just because these are awesome books. And my rating and the genere isn't 103% helpful... Lol. Ok. I think that's the plan.)

Happy April,

~chase

*Your welcome, Ami and Becka. Lol. jk!
**Nothing against Hot Topic at all. They have awesome tshirts. Lol.