This books is basically Harry Potter meets Mean Girls meets Pretty Little Liars, set in Victorian England. I like this kind of historical fiction and boarding school kinda thing and I actually liked this book more than I thought. Gemma is good as a lead female, she's smart and brave, and wild for her time. She's not the lady the society expects her to be, she's more than that and that makes her interesting. The whole "especial and powerful" thing was predictable, since every YA book has this troupe, but it didn't bothered me much. I loved the underlying plot about the Order and Mary Dowd, how it connected everything. The true identity of Circe and Mary caught me by surprise, as well as Carolina's fate. That shocked me a little. I don't know how I feel about the secondary characters. It's a mix between loving them and absolutely despising them, especially Pippa and Felicity. There were times when I could understand and symphatize with them and even when they were being "mean girls" I actually liked them, because I have a thing for mean girls, but there were other times when I just wanted to slap them in the face for being so vain and crazy. Felicity more than Pippa, despite liking her more. Ann was just bleh for me. She was going with the current during the entire book, kissing the feet of the same people who bullied her, so I couldn't quite stand her, despite pitying her a lot. And Kartik. Oh Kartik, mysterious Kartik! I wanted to know more about him, especially since I feel he'll be the romantic interest for Gemma. But even though he got the whole Rashknak thing going on, we don't see much from him, we don't get enough answers and even his interactions with Gemma are too brief (especially the dreams!). I hope the author fix this in the remaining books! Overall, I liked this book and the themes it dealt with. It's not about magic as much as it is about the young girls, with their hopes and dreams and a society that wanted them just to be the perfect mannequins. I'm excited to read the other books!

I loved it!