Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #68689 in Books
• Published on: 2007-07-02
• Binding: Paperback
• 560 pages

Synopsis
In this thrilling sequel, Gemma continues to pursue her destiny to bind the magic of the Realms and restore it to the Order. Gemma and her friends from Spence use magical power to transport themselves on visits from their corseted world of Victorian London (at the height of the Christmas season), to the visionary country of the Realms, with its strange beauty and menace. There they search for the lost Temple, the key to Gemma's mission, and comfort Pippa, their friend who has been left behind in the Realms. After these visits they bring back magical power for a short time to use in their own world. Meanwhile, Gemma is torn between her attraction to the exotic Kartik, the messenger from the opposing forces of the Rakshana, and the handsome but clueless Simon, a young man of good family who is courting her. This is the second book in Libba Bray's engrossing trilogy, set in a time of strict morality and barely repressed sensuality, about a girl who saw another way.

Customer Reviews

Okay so I actually give it 3++ stars...
...the only reason it doesn't get 4 is because other books that I've reviewed on here and given 4 are better. Fairs fair.

Okay, this book, along with 'A Great and Terrible Beauty' are good, pretty gripping books (to a certain extent), and i'll certainly want to read the third one. However, I only bought this book because I was out of my mind with boredom and I couldn't find anything else that I fancied. Also, I found that I could quite willing leave the book for a break to go and watch TV or something. Coming from me, a girl who lets nothing (including uni work) get in the way of finishing a good novel, I think that speaks volumes!

The lead character is a girl who has a modern personality in a novel set in the 18th century, or around that time anyway, and everytime she has a bit of modern rebelion I think it jarrs a bit with her setting. I'm all for a fiesty heroine who wants to escape the bonds placed on her by society, but make it a bit more believable please...

Her 'friends' consist of a girl who bullied her in the first novel, and continues to show flashes of that cruel streak throughout both the novels, making me wonder why Gemma was friends with such a back-stabbing, malicious and spiteful little girl in the first place! This really bugs me. It makes for good reading, granted, but to me it doesn't quite ring true...Gemma is not meek enough to be following the crowd or sucking up to this girl because she's scared of her, so why does she stand for it??
However, that said, a secret is revealed in this novel about Felicity which goes some way to explaining why she pushes away and aims to hurt those closest to her.

A new love intrest is introduced in this novel which makes things a tad more exciting, however how it ends is very frustrating and makes the reader wonder why Gemma doesn't just try to articulate herself better, or think of better lies! Wanting to know how her love life sorts it self out is one of the main reasons i want to read the third book, because as a novel about magic and 'other worlds' it's not one of the best.

To conclude:
The magical stuff is good, the storyline is pretty original as far as I know, but I didn't fall in love with this book (or it's predesesor) and for me that says it all, as I fall in love with books and characters very easily :)

Something to Exclaim About
At 549 pages, this is a big read, and rather a stretch for my fingers to hold. But I'll forgive the author because there's a lot of interesting stuff in here: Opium! Absinthe! Felicity's family secret! Anagrams! (Yes, I have to exclaim those, though the book didn't.) Now who wouldn't want to read about them?

Beyond Brilliant
My friend lent me 'A Great and Terrible Beauty' and 'Rebel Angels'. She confirmed to me that the books were incredibly good so I was very keen to read them. Both books left me speechless.

The Second book was slightly different to the first, it focused on the relationships Gemma had with different characters from the book. The realms seemed to be lacking the positive atmosphere they had in the first book and the author highlighted possible rivalries for future books. Gemma experiences confusion throughout the novel, which sometimes leads her astray. The twists in this book makes the book extremely mysterious, secrets start to unfold as they did in the first book.

Set in the late 1800s the author uses this time to capture the old fashioned lifestyle that Gemma had until she became aware of her powers, the author uses a range of descriptive, historical information to create an image in the reader's mind.