Rebel Angels by Libba Bray

Gemma Doyle returns in the fantastic second book of Libba Bray's trilogy. Gemma is still at Spence Academy and has her dear friends Felicity and Ann with her. In this second installment Gemma must find a way to bind the magic in the realms to keep evil from take reign over the world as we know it. She has the help of the loyal Indian boy Kartik that she is attracted to, but knows it would be forbidden in society and in her family.
During christmas break the girls must all head home for visits but that still leaves them all close enough to see each other often allowing them to journey into the realms in search of the way to bind the magic and to help their friend Pippa who is in limbo left in the realms.
Outside of the magic of the realms, Gemma has caught the eye of a very prominent young man in London society, Simon Middleton. She is quite fond of her and begins courting her right away with his mother's approval of Gemma driving him even more than his own desire. Gemma is walking a dangerous line that could leave her exposed and left cast out. The magic is making her weak and ill and she's having a hard time hiding it any longer, but she must finish the job she started, she is the Hope.

This is the first time in a LONG time that I can say with great certainty that the sequel was as good if not better than the first book! I am thoroughly enjoying this series and highly recommend it. I can't wait to start The Sweet Far Thing (book 3).

Gemma is an absolute delight to follow along through the story. She is strong when she needs to be and humble when the need calls. She is a smart and thoughtful character that makes the reader fall in love with her and her world of magical realms. This series is so creative and so well written that I can picture the realms and the creatures that live there as if I've seen the pictures on the page. The magic in the stories is not overwhelming or abused by the girls, though they are tempted a few times. They are responsible with the task they've been given.

I am usually not a fan of "magical" types of books or series but this series has really taken me in. Libba Bray has done a wonderful job with this series especially once you learn that she's a Texan and doesn't live anywhere near London! (not to mention Victorian Era London!) I'll be moving on to read the third book in the series later this week and hope to read Ms. Bray's 'Going Bovine' after that. I know it's completely different from the Gemma series, but I love Libba's writing style and hope that I will love it as much as I love Gemma!

Fallen by Lauren Kate

Lucinda, or Luce as she is referred to throughout the book, is dropped off by her parents at a reform school for teens, Sword & Cross, which is an old abandoned church that has been transformed into this school. It is filled with plenty of misguided teens that ended up there one way or another, but Luce is most concerned about one boy in particular, Daniel. He looks eerily familiar but she can't quite place him. When their eyes meet from across a cemetary during a gathering he smiles as if he knows her as well and Luce can't look away... until he "flips her the bird", gives her a nasty look and turns away. Maybe she's just crazy after all.

Next comes Cam, the extremely good looking guy that is quite taken by Luce and seems to find her no matter where she is and always has the most perfect thing to say or do. He is just too perfect and she doesn't know why she is drawn to Daniel when she has Mr. Perfect swooning over her. She feels so guilty about it, but at the same time knows she can't have a relationship with anyone right now knowing how terribly her last relationship ended. A Fire, a death and Luce with complete amnesia to anything that took place during that evening. Travis is dead and she was shipped off to Sword & Cross under suspicion of the police as being a pyromaniac. She doesn't know what happened and until she figures it out she's not taking any more chances.

There were quite a few places where I found myself skimming through paragraphs of details and descriptions that seemed a little pointless. Constantly hearing descriptions of surroundings and what Luce is seeing got a little old. I wanted to know what was going on, not what was around them.
I found it to be the cliche teenage girl story of 2 gorgeous guys both wanting her, one being the perfect good boy and one being the obvious bad boy. I found Luce to be an Okay protagonist to follow. It took me a bit to finish this book, it seemed to drag along in some points. I liked Luce and Daniel, but there was never quite enough information about Cam. He seemed to always be there, but we never really get to know him.
In all I kind of felt like it was a puzzle that was never quite fully put together. Characters introduced in the very last pages that were apparently always involved in an attempt at a twist but it sort of fell short for me.