Ratings:
Star Rating: ★★★☆☆
If This Book Was a Movie Rating: PG-13
Review:
Solid read, especially coming off after the high of the Six of Crows duology *slow clap*
Sooo fun fact I’m lazy and a procrastinator and I have to write more reviews later, so I’m going to be quick about this.
YE OLDE PLOT SUMMARY
“Ceony Twill arrives at the cottage of Magician Emery Thane with a broken heart. Having graduated at the top of her class from the Tagis Praff School for the Magically Inclined, Ceony is assigned an apprenticeship in paper magic despite her dreams of bespelling metal. And once she’s bonded to paper, that will be her only magic…forever.
Yet the spells Ceony learns under the strange yet kind Thane turn out to be more marvelous than she could have ever imagined—animating paper creatures, bringing stories to life via ghostly images, even reading fortunes. But as she discovers these wonders, Ceony also learns of the extraordinary dangers of forbidden magic.
An Excisioner—a practitioner of dark, flesh magic—invades the cottage and rips Thane’s heart from his chest. To save her teacher’s life, Ceony must face the evil magician and embark on an unbelievable adventure that will take her into the chambers of Thane’s still-beating heart—and reveal the very soul of the man.”
Overall, I enjoyed. The plot is set in the outskirts of London, England, in 1901. A refreshing change because there are a heck ton of books set in the city itself, so a view of the countryside was much appreciated.
The characters were interesting, multi-dimensional, and actually cared about more than one thing at the same time, can you imagine that? (I know, I know, too much YA)
However, I did knock it down to four stars because 1) Ceony can be ridiculously stupid and she made some roll-your-eyes decisions, and 2) the battles were pretty unbelievable (but that wasn’t the focus, so ok).
There are hints of a budding romance between Ceony and her mentor Emery, and even though YES there is a wider-than-usual age gap, it was wonderfully written so it’s not creepy. In fact, instead of focusing on the romance, we actually focus on a deep-dive character study of the life of Emery Thane. Since I’m an avid believer in no spoilers, I’ll just say that a good chunk of the story is traveling through Emery’s stolen heart and we learn about his happiest memories, his hopes, his worst memories, and his doubts. It’s beautiful and creative and I am looking forward to the next one!
UPDATE:
Y’all so this series started out well, and then bombed like a brick from the thirteenth story building. The romance in the second book in this trilogy (The Glass Magician) was fine, but the romance in Book 3 (The Master Magician) was CREEPY AS HECK. BOOK 3 BLOODY MAKES UP FOR THE LACK OF CREEPINESS IN THE FIRST TWO AND THEN SOME.
Not to mention Ceony grows even DUMBER in Book 3. And she already was a stupid, whiny girl. UGH NO. I BEG YOU, PLEASE DO NOT READ.
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Buy this book: https://www.amazon.com/Paper-Magician-Book-ebook/dp/B00HVF7OL0/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=Paper+magician&qid=1630940245&sr=8-1
Recommendations That Are A Millo Times Better Than This Book:
Apprentice of Magic (and its series) by KM Shea
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