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  • Four downcast young women, each with their own affliction find their way into a realm where wishes can come true. When Gemma, the chosen one, learns that her mother was not who she said she was, she hastily brings the magic into her home realm. Here, for every wish there is a consequence and where t ... Continue

    Four downcast young women, each with their own affliction find their way into a realm where wishes can come true. When Gemma, the chosen one, learns that her mother was not who she said she was, she hastily brings the magic into her home realm. Here, for every wish there is a consequence and where there is magic things are not always what they seem...

    I thoroughly enjoyed this story. I agree that it reminded me a bit of a Harry Potter 'type' of story which takes place at a boarding school for girls.

    

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• ― Angie (angiebro) said on Jun 3, 2007 about the Paperback edition| Add your feedback

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  • I have read this book so many times, and unfortunately it shows, but I could read it so many more times!

    

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• ― Acsharp said on Jul 31, 2008 about the Paperback edition| Add your feedback

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  • A Great and Terrible Beauty

  • A wonderful Gothic-Victorian adventure fantasy with a touch of teen romance; headed up by a cast of strong female characters.

    

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• ― Readingrat said on Jun 20, 2008 about the Hardcover edition| Add your feedback

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  • This kind of reminds me of a female Harry Potter type story. We ended up reading this for book club and they loved it. The sequel came out in 2005 (long after I had read it).

    

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• ― SheReads said on Mar 5, 2007 about the Audio CD edition| Add your feedback

It’s 1895, and after the suicide of her mother, 16-year-old Gemma Doyle is shipped off from the life she knows in India to Spence, a proper boarding school in England. Lonely, guilt-ridden, and prone to visions of the future that have an uncomfortable habit of coming true, Gemma’s reception there is a chilly one. To make things worse, she’s been followed by a mysterious young Indian man, a man sent to watch her. But why? What is her destiny? And what will her entanglement with Spence’s most powerful girls—and their foray into the spiritual world—lead to?


From the Hardcover edition.

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