The Paper Magician by Charlie N. Holmberg Review

"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."

The Paper Magician is good. Actually, it is more than good. I can't believe I managed to pick this book up out of the thousands there are. I mean, seriously. There are hundreds I could had picked on that day, but I picked this one.

Let's get to the plot.

The plot is a big strange. It is split into like two parts (though not officially, of course. I simply separated it to make it easier to understand). The first part is Ceony learning about paper magic. The second part is Ceony going inside of her teacher's heart and learning exactly what kind of person he is. And I find that very fascinating (gosh! I have to stop using that word!). 

Let's talk about Ceony. Ceony, in short, reminds me of a mother. She is nineteen years old, yes, but she could had passed for twenty-five or something like that. She knows how to cook. She is very, very bright. She definitely doesn't suck it up and let people walk all over her. She is a tough one (and that is exactly how she attracted Thane in the first place, but I'm not going too into that). The way she looks over Thane is more than amusing, in my opinion. It is actually kind of cute (though I worry about her, because you can easily see how much she is falling in love with him). 

(And yes, I said it! She is falling in love with him). 

Thane is a bit of... Okay, he is eccentric. He is about thirty-one years old (kind of old, and it makes you a bit uncomfortable that Ceony is like many years younger, not to mention the fact that he has an ex-wife). (Whoops! Spoilers!). But I'm not going to talk too much about him. Other than the fact that it is Ceony who reads him the best. 

(Yep. Love interest alert!). 

Overall, The Paper Magician is a great book. I definitely will reread it again (someday!), and I can't believe there is a third book not even out yet! I hate myself. Why am I reading books with sequels that aren't even out yet? Anyway, please ignore my ranting.

The Paper Magician is worth the read. I promise you. Even though it is a bit strange at some parts, I absolutely love it. So awesome.

Rating: Five out of Five