A Great and Terrible Beauty (The Gemma Doyle Trilogy)

• By: Libba Bray
• Reading level: Young Adive realities, boarding school, Fathers-Daughters, High Society, laudanum, magic, Mothers-Daughters, mythology, psychic abilities, racism, Romance, Secret Societiesult
  
• Paperback: 432 pages
• Publisher: Delacorte Books for Young Readers, Random House 
• Publishing Date: March 22, 2005
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0385732317

Classification: Fiction

Genre: Fantasy/Paranormal/Historical Fiction

Series Title: 

Gemma Doyle Trilogy

A Great and Terrible Beauty

Rebel Angels

The Sweet Far Thing

Subjects: Alternative Realities, Magic, Romance, Historical Fiction, Secret Societies

Reader's Annotation: After the death of her mother and the stunning realization that she has visions, Gemma Doyle is sent from her home in India to her birthplace of London and a boarding school for High Society women. It is there that she realizes the full extent of her powers and the powers that be.

Synopsis: As opulent as the times, the stunning and addicting story of Gemma Doyle begins in A Great and Terrible Beauty. Starting in the marketplace of India Gemma is longing to go to London to be a proper lady for her 16th birthday. Within a temper tantrum that has her mother trying to find her in the streets of this wild arena, death comes and so does a vision. Gemma is launched into her first vision while her mother is being murdered. From this point forward Gemma is never the same. The character we meet within the first pages quickly is transformed into the Gemma we travel with throughout the entire trilogy. And at her side when her mothers dies and throughout the rest of the take, is Kartik, an indian man who is somehow connected to her mother, to her, and a secret society called the Rakshana. What begins in this story is a rich and complex story of both reality and magic, love and loss, and philosophy and race. Within the school, Gemma befriends a small group of girls that discover her new world with her and help her to discover who she really is. With her new power the world is a new place.

Notes: Lovers of historical fiction with devour this trilogy. Although it has its ups and downs, the beginning to this trilogy will not disappoint. Although not terribly difficult to read, it is dense in metaphor, magic, mythology, philosophy, and race & gender issues. Another great book that both makes you think and takes you on an adventure. Ms. Bray obviously did her homework.  

Stars: 5

Extras: The best young adult writer's website on the web. This website has inspired everything I have done since I saw it for the first time. An official book trailer is in the "parlor."

http://www.randomhouse.com/teens/gemmadoyle/index.html

Vampire Academy (Vampire Academy, Book 1), By Richelle Mead

By: Richelle Mead

Publisher: Razorbill

Publish Date: 2007

ISBN: 159514174X

Page #: 336

Classification: Fiction

Genre: Fantasy

Age Level: Older Teen

Series Titles: Vampire Academy, Frostbite, Shadow's Kiss, Blood Promise

Subjects: Vampire, Romance, Friendship

Reader's Annotation: Rose and Lissa share an fantastic friendship, even by vampire standards. Now, after two years on the run, they have been returned to Saint Vladimir's Academy, the learning facility from which they ran away only to face judgement, teasing, testing, lessons, and danger. 

Synopsis: School has never been this much fun! In Vampire Academy, Mead create new world of vampirism. Rose is the half-vampire, half-mortal best friend and protector to the Orphaned Lissa, a Vampire Princess. Hoping to leave their Vampire Academy and live out on their own, the book begins as the two try to escape an ambush. But the ambush isn’t the immortal vampire enemies the Academy trains it’s student to defend them selves from. It’s the Academy and they have come to take them back. Mead writes to a teen audience that can handle the intricacies of teenage life. Sex and Cursing abound but don’t overshadow the deeper issues that many teenagers feel: abandonment, insecurity, forbidden romance, & social ranking. Only, in the Vampire Academy, we get the added sense of royalty & reverie. Mead’s Vampire Academy is the first in a series. The following tales are titled, Frostbite and Shadow’s Kiss. The Vampire Academy is published in New York, by Razorbill Publishing.

Stars: 4

Notes: Swearing and a harsh nature appear in this thriller that is frankly a lot darker then most YA. But by the same token it is easily digestible. Parental discretion is advised.

Extras:http://www.richellemead.com/vampireacademy.htm