I received a copy of this book through the Goodreads First Reads program. 
 Miss Mabel's School for Girls is the first in a series that follows teenager Bianca Monroe, a witch facing a family curse with a time limit. Determined to break the curse to save herself and her family, Bianca sets her sights on the witch responsible: Miss Mabel, the mistress of a prestigious witch-training school. 
 I enjoyed reading this book. It was a very fast-paced read once I got into it. The Harry Potter comparisons are inevitable, especially when it comes to the competition(very Goblet of Fire-esque), but it wasn't a big problem for me. After all, Harry Potter is a huge phenomenon, so a a few HP similarities in a book is likely more of an attraction than a turn-off for many. 
 I felt like the competition was a bit rushed. There could potentially have been an entire first book involving Bianca making her way through the first year at the school before getting into direct conflict with Miss Mabel. But, with the time-limit on the curse being Bianca's seventeenth birthday, there wasn't much of a way to avoid jumping right in, I guess. I think I would have liked a little more, though. It seemed rather like a rush to get through the initial school experience and into the confrontation, which I feel was detrimental to the personal side of the book. Because everything is rushed, there is some abruptness to the scenes where Bianca interacts with the girls who are becoming her friends. These scenes end up more like snapshots, or like watching a clip-show, rather than a real exploration of the growing friendship between the girls. I think this is a real shame, especially as this is a book with an almost exclusively female cast. There are not very many of those around, and it would be great to have more personal interactions within that cast. 
 Bianca is not the easiest character to like, which is great, actually. There are reasons behind her aloofness and formality, and she's understandably more preoccupied with the looming curse than making friends or pretending to learn subjects she already knows. The latter is, I suppose, another reason for simply rushing through the school parts of the story, but I have to admit that it took away a bit of the world, for me. To go back to the dreaded Harry Potter comparison, one of the things that is great about that world is that you learn about the world with Harry. He is initially an outsider, so everything is new to him as well as the reader. This allows for more thorough world-building, without simply exposition dumping. With a character that is already a part of a magical world, like Bianca, it is harder to show that world to the reader, especially when Bianca has already secretly been taught all the skills she was to learn at the school. I'm certainly not saying I could think of a good way to do it, but it is part of the reason I felt that the world-building was a little lacking. 
 I really enjoy the fact that Bianca's biggest obstacle with Miss Mabel is the studying she must do. It's an interesting change of pace from the usual action-intensive tests heroes often face(though there is some action too, and it's good). It's neat that Miss Mabel zeroes in on the fact that sitting still and studying books is Bianca's weakness, and that she exploits it as much as she can. 
 My final quibble is a spoiler: (view spoiler)[Was it really necessary for Miss Mabel and Briton to be in a sexual relationship instead of simply co-conspirators? Not that they can't be, but it gets uncomfortably close to the outdated and overused sex/evil correlation, especially when another sexual relationship(Bianca's parents) also has a lot of negative associations(Derek breaking the vows of his position), and also considering that Bianca's main schoolyard rival is beaten by Miss Mabel making the girl unattractive. I bring it up because this is a YA novel, and teens don't need more media forcing the idea that sex, relationships, and wanting to be attractive are all bad things. This case is a pretty mild one, but I wanted to bring it up anyway (hide spoiler)] 
 Overall, I really did like the book, even if I wasn't blown away by it. I enjoyed the writing, I'm interested in the story and where it's going, and I'm certainly pleased that I was lucky enough that the giveaway included the sequel as well.