Review of The Sweet Far Thing

The Sweet Far Thing

Finally! and hooray! the entire Gemma Doyle series is done! *claps* First and foremost. It is strongly recommended you read A Great and Terrible Beauty, and Rebel Angels before you read this one. Events carry one after another in these three books so to avoid feeling lost, it’s better if you read them all in order. Second. All three covers of this series were beautiful. I love corsets!

The Sweet Far Thing carries right after the events of Rebel Angels. Alliances have to be made. The magic has to be given equally to all tribes but Gemma hestitates. She loves the magic too much and likes helping her friends and loved ones by using it. Yet bad terrible things are happening in the realms and there’s a strange eerie power that’s growing in the dreaded Winterlands.

Be forewarned, this is a BIG book. It’s slightly over 800 pages. So give yourself ample time to read it. This is a lot to read through and I’m afraid to say it, but it does seem to drag a bit. The girls go into the realms, then they’re back to reality. This goes back and forth a lot and it gets tiring a bit. The reader can’t help but get frustrated but, when you progress through the novel, the ending and the climax makes up for it tenfold. That being said though, there’s a lot of action in this book. Fans of Victorian gothic and magic will love this. There’s a good balance between the “real world” of Victorian England and the “other side” where magic, and fantasy come to life.

I still adore Gemma. She’s not afraid of breaking any rules of propriety and does not care what the world thinks of her in their social circles. I like that about her. She wanted to run her life as she saw fit and didn’t care what others thought of a woman running “loose and free” in society. She hasn’t lost her wit (in fact it increases ten fold in this book) and her innermost thoughts still make you chuckle. What I didn’t really like about her, is it seemed as if her friends just used her for her magic, and I thought Gemma was a lot stronger than that. Then again she’s afraid of being lonely and is only doing what they ask for to please them and to let them stay with her. That being said, underneath that selfishness her friends end up staying fiercely loyal to her and they really do value her as a friend.

Aside from the constant travelling back and forth between the worlds, the last book of this series does a good job tying up loose ends and you’re left with a satisfying yet bittersweet ending. There was only part that left me misty eyed. Not telling you which part though.

Overall a good albeit long book. A great closing to a wonderful trilogy and a must read for fans of Victorian Gothic books.

I give it an 8 out of 10.

Sunday Salon: More Finishing up to do.

I love Sundays. I get to catch up on reading and it’s a great day to stay in (it’s raining). Today I plan on finishing up some books and trudging along in some other ones:

Finishing up:

The Light of Burning Shadows – Chris Evans

The Blue Notebook – James Levine

Trudging along:

The Sweet Far Thing – Libba Bray

When Christ and his Saint Slept – Sharon Kay Penman

Getting started (not sure if I will read today):

Intertwined – Gena Showalter

So what’s everybody reading today?

Sunday Salon Finish and Playing Catch Up

I have lots of reading to do. This week I couldn’t do much (living in a house with three needy men and two needy boy kitties is very difficult!) and I was getting a little moody as it felt as if I wasn’t reading AT ALL. So! for this Sunday I’m going to play catch up and try and finish some books:

Wicked Lovely by Melissa Marr (need to finish)

Dark Time – Dakota Banks (almost there!)

The Sweet Far Thing – Libba Bray (catching up)

When Christ and His Saints Slept – Sharon Kay Penman (catch up)

the rest is all up in the air. Need to read a lot for Sunday! *hangs up do not disturb sign and locks door*

Review of Rebel Angels

Rebel Angels

First things first, I love the title “Rebel Angels” it’s magnificent. It just sounds..awesome. Second I love the cover. I liked the first cover (A Great and Terrible Beauty) and this one is just as good. Enough about that let’s just get on with the review.

It is strongly recommended that you read A Great and Terrible Beauty first as it introduces you to the characters and the actual start of the big picture. I really enjoyed this book a lot more than the first one as I had so many unanswered questions left when I finished it which is why I rushed like mad to find Rebel Angels. It does a good job giving you more information on The Order and the Rakshana and their little magic world that’s just behind “that door”. So now with that good amount of information the plot in this book goes very smooth and combined with the action and mystery, it makes for a very good Victorian Gothic style book to read.

There is enough mystery and intrigue in this book to keep you guessing who’s really the “bad guy” here and when you finally do figure it out you might probably feel a bit of shock at first because you thought you knew all along or you may not be surprised at all. It’s hard to say. I had quite a few guesses but my first initial guess was wrong so I suppose it was a pleasant surprise for me. If I was right it would have been predictable and perhaps boring. However I liked how you were given options on who might be behind it all so chances are maybe it’s meant to be written that way so it won’t be so predictable.

Gemma is extremely more likable every time she opens her mouth or has a witty thought. If you liked her in the first book, you’ll like her even more here. I liked her sense of independence and she did have this extra spark in her personality which made her stand out against the rest of the other characters. Speaking of wit, despite the real serious dark tones in the novel, there’s little bits of comedy here and there that made me chuckle several times. I think it was because you can also hear what Gemma is thinking and some of the things that run in her head is actually quite funny (especially when Felicity and Ann decide to pick at her and laugh).

The ending of the novel leaves you with wanting more. You know that the fight isn’t even over. They’re just taking a break before the big one begins. If you have ever seen Lord of the Rings The Two Towers remember the ending? yeah, it feels like that. You know there’s something big that’s going to happen in the grand finale. I’m really looking forward to how this ends.

I give this book a 9 out of 10.