The Gemma Doyle Trilogy

I recently finished books two and three of the Gemma Doyle trilogy by Libba Bray. I really, really enjoyed book one (A Great and Terrible Beauty), and was so pleased that book two (Rebel Angels) continued to shine. However, I was so disappointed with the ending of the story (as told in The Sweet Far Thing), that it fairly ruined the series for me.

Okay, so I always had some serious misgivings about certain aspects of the stories. Such as how Gemma and her friends seem extremely cavalier about how they use the magic, both within the Realms and in our own world. Also, Gemma and her friends are shockingly unsupervised for young ladies of breeding in Victorian England. Don't even get me started about the implausibility of some of the things they do.

Here's my major problem, though: I'm just a sucker for a good coming-of-age love story, and this one had a doozy. Gemma and Kartik are lovely characters, and their developing romance is sweet and real. The fact that any relationship between them is impossible in the society in which they live - Indians at that time being considered by the English as lowly, inferior beings fit only for service - makes it forbidden and dangerous. But, as with so much in the Realms, anything seems possible. SPOILER ALERT! I so dearly wanted them to end up together. The climax of the book, when they go to the Winterlands to destroy the Tree of All Souls, made me feel cheated and betrayed by the author. Seriously - I don't know how she can consider that an acceptable ending. It doesn't even make sense.

In short, I can't recommend this book. I wanted so very much to like it, but in the end, I was disappointed by the completely bizarre ending.