Product Description

IT HAS BEEN A YEAR OF CHANGE since Gemma Doyle arrived at the foreboding Spence Academy. Her mother murdered, her father a
laudanum addict, Gemma has relied on an unsuspected strength and has discovered an ability to travel to an enchanted world called the realms, where dark magic runs wild. Despite certain peril, Gemma has bound the magic to herself and forged unlikely new alliances. Now, as Gemma approaches her London debut, the time has come to test these bonds.

The Order - the mysterious group her mother was once part of - is grappling for control of the realms, as is the Rakshana. Spence's burned East Wing is being rebuilt, but why now? Gemma and her friends see Pippa, but she is not the same. And their friendship faces its gravest trial as Gemma must decide once and for all what role she is meant for.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1441 in Books
• Published on: 2007-12-26
• Released on: 2007-12-26
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 832 pages

Review
Starred Review, Publishers Weekly, October 29, 2007:
“A huge work of massive ambition.”

Review, People, December 24, 2007:
"This is a rare treat that offers a bit of everything--romance, magic, history, Gothic intrigue--and delivers on all of it in 819 beautifully crafted pages."


From the Hardcover edition.

Review
Starred Review, Publishers Weekly, October 29, 2007:
“A huge work of massive ambition.”

Review, People, December 24, 2007:
"This is a rare treat that offers a bit of everything--romance, magic, history, Gothic intrigue--and delivers on all of it in 819 beautifully crafted pages."

About the Author
Libba Bray is the author of the New York Times bestselling novels A Great and Terrible Beauty and Rebel Angels. She lives in Brooklyn, New York, with her husband, son, and a cat of questionable intelligence.

Customer Reviews

A repetitive dissapointment
I felt those 800 pages. Like others, around pg 600 I began to skim to move things a long. Gemma was just to stupid. Giving Circe magic, and Pippa for that matter. Her friends had almost no redeem qualities to them. I began to like Felicity in book 2, but in this book she had no personality other than selfish and spoiled. The friendship of the four girls just became unbelievable because they were all so unlikeable. It was a disappointing end, mostly because nothing happened.

The Perfect Ending
This is a perfect fast paced and gripping finale to the Gemma Doyle trilogy. Readers will love to follow Gemma as she grapples with personal, social and magical dilemma's. In this final installment of the trilogy friendships are tested, new worlds explored and romance discovered. I was hooked from the very beginning of this book, and found my heart racing along with the plot line. My biggest problem with this book is that it was the last one. I was completely drawn into the Victorian and magical worlds created by Libba Bray. When it was over I felt like I had lost my friends. I highly reccomend this and the other Gemma Doyle books.

Interesting conclusion to a fascinating trilogy.
Set in England during the late 1890s, this fantasy trilogy that began with A Great and Terrible Beauty brings us back to Gemma Doyle -- the sixteen-year-old with special powers that give her the ability to visit the equally beautiful and terrifying Realms -- and her friends Felicity and Ann. On the outside, she is experiencing things most girls her age go through. She is about to have her debut as she struggles with self-esteem issues and tries to be there for her two best friends, who have problems of their own. Ann's biggest fear is having to move with some distant relatives to work as their children's governess. She has a beautiful singing voice and discovers she has a knack for acting as well. Will she be able to achieve her goal and become an entertainer, or will her plain looks get in the way? Felicity wants two things -- power and independence. She longs to live life on her terms and enjoy the comfort and luxury of her inheritance. But her close friendship with Pippa and the interference from Felicity's debutante sponsor get in the way. As mentioned before, Gemma has her own issues. Her father is still on opium, her brother is still a callous rogue, and her grandmother is in denial of the problems around her. To make matters worse, Kartik, former member of the Rakshana and the Indian gypsy she's had a crush on since AGATB, is avoiding her. But those problems are nothing compared to what Gemma is facing in the realms. Pippa is acting strangely, Circe wants Gemma's powers, and the Winterlands creatures have threatened to pass over to the real world if Gemma doesn't give her powers to them. Her visions have returned, and they seem to be sending her warnings and signs that she doesn't understand. What secrets must she uncover to protect the creatures in the realms and her schoolmates at the Spence Academy? There are many twists throughout the novel.

As some people have said, we discover things here about Felicity that come as some surprise. She is the most complex character in the book, and therefore the most compelling, since she is obviously depicted as a feminist, but the things that unfold regarding her personal life are nevertheless shocking... or at least they were for me. Gemma has always been a wonderful young heroine with some teen angst of her own. In this book, she is too much in her head, describing her insecurities and lack of insight when it comes to solving the problems in the realms over and over again. There is a twist here with Kartik that is somewhat sad, but there is no other way for this romance to end, since there is no way that a proper English young lady and a gypsy could be together in a story set in Victorian England. Still, this twist left a bad taste in my mouth. Couldn't they have make it a go in some way, or at least keep Kartik... don't want to spoil it for you. All in all, The Sweet Far Thing is an interesting conclusion to this fascinating series. I neither love it nor hate it, but I do know that it's not quite as compelling as the first two books.