::: A Great and Terrible Beauty (Bray)

This was not bad but not outstanding, either. Intriguing plot, a clear "female power" theme (witches, goddesses, etc.), and a great page-turner. I liked the main character (despite her being in essence a modern teenager plunked down in the 19th century!) Bray does a good job with the evolution of Gemma's relationship to the three other girls, and the revelation about Gemma's mother caught me totally off-guard -- a major surprise. The story is a bit uneven in depth; for example, the hunting and killing of the deer isn't fully explored or linked to its mythic themes. Perhaps that's due to it being a YA book; Bray's also done a collection of "sweet sixteen" stories and similar teen romance books, and there are definite echoes here. Most touching/heart-wrenching part: Pippa's choice to eat the berries and stay in the Realms. I actually got teary-eyed. Least favorite part: the anachronisms. It's supposed to be set in Victorian England but there are some glaring dialogue slips. "What was that little stunt?" is not something likely to have escaped the lips of a Victorian male, for example.