A Great and Terrible Beauty / Libba Bray / 403 pgs.

Gemma Doyle is sent to a strict boarding school after witnessing a supernatural creature attack and murder her mother.  At the school she along with 3 other friends discover that she has "powers" to cross over to the spiritual side, and possibly be able to bring that magic back into the real world.  However, there is always a light and dark side to any magic and the girl may have unleashed something very dark and dangerous.

Someone (on this blog) described this book as a combination of "Mean Girls" and "The Craft"; I TOTALLY agree.  In the day-to-day life of Gemma Doyle, she has to deal with navigating cliques and fitting in as the new girl in her school.  After she makes friends and they start delving into the supernatural some get a little carried away with their new power.

The book is a little PG-13ish as far as the Romance scenes go; the girls are practicing witchcraft, but nothing that sounds like what an actual seance or ritual would look like.  Entertaining and I liked that Gemma was a better person who could see all of the power plays that the "mean girls" were doing and was able to just ignore and even better, defend the weaker people against them.  It is hard to stand up to bullies and to stand up for people who are being bullied, but Gemma does it even though she knows that attacks on her will follow.