My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Category: Young Adult
Genre: Fantasy, Romance
Content: Clean
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.
This was another one of those books I had sitting on my Kindle for a very long time. I got it for free from Amazon and then never read it because it had such mixed reviews. However, when it came up as one of the book choices for book club I decided to vote for it since I already had it, and I still found the idea of paper magic interesting. Obviously I wasn't the only person in book club who thought it was an interesting idea.
I ended up being hooked on the story right from the beginning and breezed right on through it. I found it a delightfully charming read and appreciated that it was light and romantic. I know the romance didn't work for a lot of people, but I like reading romance so it didn't bother me at all, plus I was expecting it after reading the book description and quite a few reviews. I thoroughly enjoyed the paper magic and how it worked, even though I feel like there could have been more explanation of how certain things worked. The paper dog, fennel was adorable, and the other paper things that were created were a delight.
The choice of placing the main character in a certain person's heart partway through the book was an interesting one, and while it ruined the book for some people, it didn't ruin it for me. The main problem with this aspect of the book is that there is no explanation of how this could possibly work, and I was left wondering at times if she was literally there or just trapped there in her mind. The way the story reads it does seem like she was literally there, but there is no explanation as to how or why she can see the persons memories while there either. If I overthink this part of the book, which is a huge chunk of the story, I would probably end up liking the book less. The thing I did like about it was how it enabled the Ceony to get to know this person so very well so very quickly. She was able to see into his heart and know the kind of person he was. It was endearing even though the mechanics of it were confusing.
On side note- Ceony does quite a bit of cooking in this book and one thing she makes is fennel cake. I decided to try making it for book club, especially since she also names the cute paper dog fennel. I was very skeptical of how it would turn out, since fennel isn't a favorite thing of mine. I found a recipe and ended up using a third less fennel than the recipe called for, and making a lemon curd to go on top and it wasn't too bad. It was definitely something different.
I ended up liking this book enough that I went on to read the second and third books in the trilogy as well. I'm adding them below.
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Category: Young Adult
Genre: Fantasy, Romance
Content: Clean
Three months after returning Magician Emery Thane’s heart to his body, Ceony Twill is well on her way to becoming a Folder. Unfortunately, not all of Ceony’s thoughts have been focused on paper magic. Though she was promised romance by a fortuity box, Ceony still hasn’t broken the teacher-student barrier with Emery, despite their growing closeness.
When a magician with a penchant for revenge believes that Ceony possesses a secret, he vows to discover it…even if it tears apart the very fabric of their magical world. After a series of attacks target Ceony and catch those she holds most dear in the crossfire, Ceony knows she must find the true limits of her powers…and keep her knowledge from falling into wayward hands.
This was a good follow up to The Paper Magician. I enjoyed it almost as much as the first book. Ceony is a bit reckless at times, but she is still inexperienced. I still enjoyed the same things I did about the last book, the paper magic, and also getting to learn about glass magic this time around.
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
Category: Young Adult
Genre: Fantasy, Romance
Content: Clean
Throughout her studies,
Ceony Twill has harbored a secret, one she’s kept from even her mentor,
Emery Thane. She’s discovered how to practice forms of magic other than
her own—an ability long thought impossible.
While all seems set
for Ceony to complete her apprenticeship and pass her upcoming final
magician’s exam, life quickly becomes complicated. To avoid favoritism,
Emery sends her to another paper magician for testing, a Folder who
despises Emery and cares even less for his apprentice. To make matters
worse, a murderous criminal from Ceony’s past escapes imprisonment. Now
she must track the power-hungry convict across England before he can
take his revenge. With her life and loved ones hanging in the balance,
Ceony must face a criminal who wields the one magic that she does not,
and it may prove more powerful than all her skills combined.
This was my least favorite book of the trilogy. There were things I liked a lot about it, but unfortunately by this point I felt like Ceony should have grown and matured a bit more. Her actions were still reckless, even after everything that happened in the first two books. It was like she never learned to use her head and think things through first, and she ended up jumping into situations she shouldn't have. This was acceptable in the first book and even a bit in the second because she was new to everything and young, but three years goes by between the second and last book so I feel like she should have learned from her past mistakes by then.
I did like that Ceony learns how to use the other types of magic, and learning about how they worked was also something I enjoyed about the book, though it did feel like the excisioners were too overpowered compared to the other types of magic. It didn't seem like the same kind of rules applied to them, but maybe that was because they were using a dark, forbidden magic. I don't know, but it was definitely unbalanced. I did like the way this ended, and although I'm not going to say how the villain dies, I will say that it had me giggling...and yes I know it probably doesn't sound right to giggle about a death, but the way it happened was so amusing to me.
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