A review by 100pagesaday
Miss Mabel's School for Girls by Katie Cross

4.0

Within The Network, sixteen year-old Bianca is cursed. In order to save herself, her mother and grandmother from the curse, Bianca must find a way to work with Miss Mabel, the only one who can remove the curse. As a first-year student at Miss Mabel's School for girls, Bianca is not expected to enter The Competition, a deadly test of skills usually reserved for third year witches. Winning The Competition is the only way to work directly with Miss Mabel. Bianca must use all of her skills in hexes, curses, cunning and potions in order to show her worth and outwit Miss Mabel. Miss Mabel is more cruel then she seems and Bianca soon finds herself bound to Miss Mabel and her sinister intentions for the whole Network.

Miss Mabel's School for Girls is a fast-paced Young Adult fantasy. Miss Mabel's jumps right into the action as Bianca finds her way into the school and immediately volunteers for The Competition. I felt a little lost within the world of The Network and Miss Mabel's at first, but I was absorbed by the action. It was apparent that Bianca is determined to reverse her curse and tenacious, but I wanted to know more about the curse and its dangers. One of the best parts of the story for me were the characters. There are many well written female characters with distinct personalities; in fact, there are barely male characters in the book. Some of my favorites are the friends Bianca made, Leda and Camille. These young women formed a wonderful friendship that helped Bianca through her trials with Miss Mable. Miss Mable was deliciously vicious in her teachings, coming up with vile and malicious ways to test Bianca and what she needed from her. The book ends on a large cliffhanger with nothing resolved and a whole host of new issues, so it looks like I'll need to dive into the next book in the series.

This book was received for free in return for an honest review.