Rebel Angels

Rebel Angels is the second volume in Libba Bray???s trilogy about Gemma Doyle, a teenage girl who attends a finishing school in Victorian England. The magic she inherited from her mother, a member of the secretive Order, allows her to enter the Realms, a beautiful fantasy world where she is able to control her surroundings. In the first volume, A Great and Terrible Beauty, Gemma arrives at school after her mother???s death and deals with all the usual things you???d expect to find in a YA novel about a boarding school. At first she is shunned by Felicity and Pippa, the two most beautiful and popular girls in the school, from whom she must bravely and nobly defend her roommate Ann, the overweight unpopular scholarship student. (These characters are present in just about every YA boarding school novel I???ve ever read.) When Felicity and Pippa find out that Gemma can ... Read More: http://www.fantasyliterature.com/reviews/rebel-angels-2/

Spoilers for A GREAT AND TERRIBLE BEAUTY.

With the arrival of the Holiday season, REBEL ANGELS picks up where A GREAT AND TERRIBLE BEAUTY left off. It is approximately two months after Pippa Cross' death and despite being surrounded with Christmas decorations and her first encounter with snow Gemma cannot escape the guilt of feeling responsible for her friend's death. And unfortunately for her, despite the great danger and loss suffered the last time she entered The Realms both Felicity and Ann, Gemma's best and only friends, are anxious to return.
Gemma is of course hesitant at first but soon this hesitation takes a back seat when she receives a visit from Kartik the Indian boy who is both her guardian and tormenter. He comes bearing a message: Gemma must return to The Realms and set order to the magic unleashed by her after she destroyed the ruins, an act that both killed Circe's assassin and freed her mother.
I enjoyed this book, it was filled with both clever clues and even cleverer tricks ready to trip you up and lead you astray as both Gemma and I barrelled towards the climax. Libba Bray, as many other excellent writers, was able to balance the normal and paranormal in this story perfectly. Her characters were fantastically realistic if not a tad annoying at times and her heroine a strong young girl who grew stronger in the end. The only thing I can really say that I did not like about REBEL ANGELS was the gullibility of most of the adults in this book that had me rolling my eyes in disbelief.
Still as I watched Gemma take in and participate in the customs of her 1895 London home the pace never dwindled or the gullible adults become the centre of focus. She may have had to attend balls and makes small talk with annoying gossipy women of society but there was always a disturbing vision reminding us that everything is not as normal at it seems.

This was my first proper review everyone. Please tell me what you think :)

4.4
Continuing my re-read of this series that was once a favourite.
Rebel Angels was hindered by a slow start with too much overt foreshadowing, but redeemed by the second and third acts.
I liked the expansion of the characters and settings, and enjoyed all the main plot lines, though the romance was a bit weak. The ending was very exciting and full of action.
I will definitely be finishing off the trilogy soon.