Libba Bray

Libba Bray is one of my daughter's favorite authors.  She has written the Gemma Doyle Trilogy, which includes A Great and Terrible Beauty, Rebel Angels and The Sweet Far Thing.  I have just finished reading said trilogy.  (Where's the Snap Cup, Kate? I need me some Snaps!)

Sixteen-year-old Gemma Doyle has grown up in India, but when her mother is tragically murdered she is sent to the Spence Academy outside of London to learn how to be a proper English lady. Being a proper lady is not really her cup of tea and neither are her catty and cutting schoolmates, but things get even more difficult for Gemma when she discovers she has magical abilities.  And that she inherited them from her mother who was murdered because of her power.  And now the baddies are after Gemma.  And you thought your high school days were tough!

Now, if you have a daughter in middle school, high school or even college, they will most likely LOVE these books.  Good, evil, magic and forbidden love all make an appearance, and the Victorian era girls boarding school and social mores make the conflicts all the more intriguing.  What I found most interesting were the relationships between Gemma and her friends and the almost total lack of power women were experiencing at this time in England, even those in the upper echelons of society.

       "I think of those ladies in their stiff gowns and forced smiles, drowning their hunger with weak tea, trying hard to make themselves fit into such a narrow world, desperately afraid the blinders will slip and show them what they've chosen to close out.  'Privilege is not always power, is it?' I say."

Let's give a big "Huzzah!" for the choices we have in 2013.  I hope you or your daughters will choose to read this very entertaining series.