REBEL ANGELS

For listeners who relished Bray's first Victorian fantasy novel, A GREAT AND TERRIBLE BEAUTY, this title will be equally welcome. Josephine Bailey narrates this second story of Gemma Doyle and her boarding school chums with a precise British accent that exudes the atmosphere of Gemma's aristocratic world. Bailey maintains dramatic tension over the twisting story threads, following Gemma, Felicity, and Ann's attempts to rid the magical realms of the sorceress Circe. While Bailey's restrained tones are sometimes too earnest for the complex and mercurial teenaged girls, she never loses control of the long, involved reading. REBEL ANGELS is undeniably a sequel, but Bailey's encore performance animates Gemma's world for all listeners. C.A. © AudioFile 2006, Portland, Maine [Published: DEC 06/ JAN 07]