Bray, Libba. A Great and Terrible Beauty. NY: Declorate Press, 2003. 416 pages. (Fantasy / Romance)This book is about a girl named Gemma Doyle who has returned to England to go to Spence Academy, a boarding school that teaches girls how to be a proper wife in the 1800’s, after her mother’s tragic death in India. She has just discovered that she has the ability to go into other realms and can see visions. She then learns about the order, a group of people who have the same abilities that she does, that have been lost thanks to Circe, an evil power-hungry thing that wants all order members dead, especially Gemma. Along the journey of her visions, Gemma encounters a little girl who gives her the diary of Mary Dowd. To Gemma’s surprise the diary’s still with her in the morning when she wakes. Soon Gemma befriends Felicity, Pippa, and Ann. They decide to start an order of their own. Now all magic of the realms is loose and trouble could be at hand, but that doesn’t concern her. She will leave those troubles out of her mind for at least little while, hopefully.
If I had to describe this book in one word it would be astounding. This book was all around amazing. It had a romance, mythical, and very dramatic theme to it. With the loving realistic characters and well written plot, all most anyone would enjoy this book.
So1cc5er
