Synopsis: (as told by the back of the book)

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 practicer 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.

Morgan’s thoughts:

First of all, it’s necessary for you to know that I love books about magic, especially beautiful forms of magic.  I’ve been obsessed with Harry Potter for as long as I can remember and no book has ever made me fall in love quite like The Night Circus.  So it is safe to say that I am always looking for magical tales that fill that craving.

The world of magic in The Paper Magician is a delightfully inventive one.  Each magician bonds to a particular substance: paper, glass, metal, rubber, etc.  After that, they are only able to perform the magic that substance allows; a paper magician cannot control glass, and so on and so forth.  Each resource has powers that are not immediately obvious; there is more to this magic than meets the eye.

At the start, I was loving this novel.  I found the magical world to be unique and detailed.  However, too quickly into the story, the “adventure” began.  I found the pacing to be off – I would have liked to have more time learning about the rules of this magical world before we got trapped in the life or death plot.  Additionally, the romance seems to come out of nowhere for this same reason.  More time for the romance to develop and more exposition of their magical world, please!

Despite this, I will definitely be reading the second book.  Now that I’ve gotten a taste, I do want to know more.  What are some of your favorite magical stories?  Tell me below!

Interested in this book?  Click here to buy it on Amazon or find it at your local independent bookstore.