OK - well written, supernatural elements within a good plot

I picked up this book based on a recommendation in a magazine article on promising YA authors. I am not the author's intended audience, but once I started reading, I couldn't put the book down. Gemma Doyle, a young woman coming of age in India, longs for a far away life in London, that she only knows from her grandmother's letters. On an outing with her mother for her own birthday celebration, Gemma rebels against the controlled life expected of her and is separated from her Mother in the throngs at the market. She runs blindly, to escape her Mother's ire and finds herself hopelessly lost, and on her own. In a swoon she has a vision and among the many things she sees, she witnesses her Mother's murder. Coming to her senses she discovers that her vision is all too real... She is sent to London, under the guidance of her Grandmother and is enrolled in Spence, an exclusive boarding school which turns young girls into England's future wives and mothers. Among the elite young women she begins to develop her gift to enter 'the realms' and explore freedoms unknown to her elsewhere. But is this her path? Or just a convenient diversion? I can't possibly do justice to this amazing story of a young woman living in the Victorian era. The characters are drawn so well and truly emotionally complete you can't help but be drawn to them. Each, in her own way adds a strand that helps complete the story's web. This is book one of a planned trilogy. I'm looking forward to more adventures. I suggest you enter this world. You'll be glad you did.

This is one of those books that's good to read in the summer. An enjoyable enough book, with plenty of shivery bits.

First book in a trilogy that is everything Bewitching Season and Betraying Season should have been but sadly were not. This is the story of a strong female character, secret societies and magic, with just the right touch of romance, whereas the "Season" books were more romance with less than enough magic and other content.

I loved this book! Libba Bray wrote this book perfectly!

While writing in present tense can be extremely annoying to read, especially in a book with a historical setting, Libba Bray pulls it off beautifully. Each character starts off with less than obvious problems but later grows and develops into her own unique person. Like real people, they learn, grow, and continue living. All in all, it's a great read if you want a book you can ruminate on.

The book stuttered at the beginning and took a bit to find it's legs. There was a bit of an awkward dance to get the least liked girl suddenly hanging with the cool crowd. A decent enough book, not spectacular though.

Really enjoyed the book. I found that the book had a good flow to it and there was rarely a moment in which there was an awkward; everything had a purpose to it, almost as though the author planned it that way. Even though the characters may have seemed rather self-centered, they were actually quite developed and fairly rounded out. While I don't read a lot of thrillers, there was portion of the book towards the end of the book that got me a little creeped out that I had to put the book down and go to bed. Overall a pretty good book.

Exciting even if the plot didn't get going until halfway through.

This book was pretty good and interesting, but it was very similar to a lot of other books I've read. Example: Something bad happens to girl, girl is sent to boarding school, discovers her powers, something bad happens to her friend(s) because of them, meets a boy she likes but knows they can never be together, almost dies, etc. The only differences were the time period that it was set in (which I thoroughly enjoyed), and the realms.