3.5 but rounded down 
 The first few chapters were written really choppily and didn't flow too well. It mainly consisted of short broken sentences that started with conjunction words. There was also the tense. Now some people can really pull the present tense off rather nicely, here however it felt really uncomfortable and I had to keep re-reading sentences to see if they made sense. Here's an example of this: 
 "but I could swear that I see a shadow move along the floor behind the doors." Yeh. Later on, however, it got better and ran a lot nicer. 
 Another thing that bugged me is (view spoiler)[ when she keeps seeing the cloak figure following her. Surely she deduced that it was in fact the same boy who was wearing a cloak on the day of her mother's death? But no, she goes, naaaaah I must be imagining it, who could possibly be following me? Not like I haven't seen weird cloak wearing people that weird things happen around? (hide spoiler)] 
 Oh and it was waaaay to convenient when (view spoiler)[ the moment Gemma finds out about the Order and wants to find out more, Miss Moore suddenly brings it up in an art class, which of course is standard conversation to have... (hide spoiler)] 
 The characters in the book were probably one of the best things about it, they were diverse and substantial and there were only a few stereotypes (hallelujah). The secondary characters were all given back-stories, personalities that actually differed and had dreams and fears and this made them all a lot more likable and definitely made the book more enjoyable. 
 Miss. Gemma. Doyle. Her. She caused me a lot of trouble. Her personality was far from perfect, but those flaws are usually what creates a believable and realistic character and this was mostly the case here, but, Miss Doyle has a temper. This temper is more than getting angry to defend herself. She has honest to god temper tantrums and she is always in the wrong! I just didn't know what to think about her the whole book. Whenever she became a likable or admirable character in any way she'd kick off with a temper tantrum that made me want to bitch slap her off the page! 
 The book had some very thought provoking themes, mainly the treatment of women in the 1800s and their lack of rights. This was executed brilliantly in my opinion, being laughed at and treated as a joke by the characters at some points, but at others creating a distressing and life-changing circumstance that, as women, the characters are powerless to stop or change. This was most vivid in Pippa's life and I'd say her story was of a great and terrible beauty (pun intended ha) and it had a lot of impact on me. Sob. 
 Overall, I wish the book did more for me, it had lots going on and I liked it, but that's about it. I will read the next ones and hopefully they will be even better but to me this book didn't capture my attention and hold it. At times it moved painfully slowly even when there were vaguely interesting things happening. It was beautiful though and this again redeemed it.