The Glass Magician by Charlie N. Holmberg (The Paper Magician #2)

Look I read the next one, and quickly as well, and I loved it just as much and for once I'm saying the sequel was actually better than the first book. This doesn't mean, Ceony didn't annoy me a little bit - she did, but I think it adds to the charm of the book.

After three months from returning from Emery Thane's heart Ceony has continued to train to become a Folder. However, Ceony can't completely focus on her studies with doubts surrounding Lira's fate, and the promised romance she saw with Emery in a fortuity box. When Grath, the most wanted magician in England, starts questioning and threatening Ceony to learn about the secrets of magic he believes she possesses Ceony must push the limits of her powers and protect her discovery at all costs.

So I really enjoyed the plot surrounding this book, even if it was started in such a stupid manner by Ceony who basically seems to believe she's invincible. The idea of a magician hunting her down because he believes she can manipulate different materials, and then having another magician whose hunting her down because he's basically mad and one of the most dangerous people out there are causes some very interesting scenes. I really loved the way book played out and I think this was better paced than the other one, I found it to be quite a quick read but it was well done and I felt like there was action in each chapter. However, I did not like the fact the book suddenly jumped to Emery's perspective near the end just to tie up loose ends, it broke up the conclusion of the book and confused me a bit as a reader - I was just not interested in what he was doing at the time, so I believe that was a poor choice on the author's behalf but everything else was so good.

Now, the idea that magicians can manipulate any material and break their bond with their own is quite a scary thought, considering everyone else in this alternative universe believes it to be impossible: especially if an excisioner discovered this - imagine the mayhem they caused cause, now that, would make a great villain. But discovering this at the end was kinda of a 'what the-' moment as it's quite hard to believe no one else has discovered this before, especially since the one to discover it was a twenty year old girl and a crazed, lovestruck pretend excisioner, that was the one plot flaw in this book - it was a little hard to believe this was such a surprise.

Now I know despite all this good stuff,  Ceony was really annoying in this book, she acted a bit like a child yet wanted to be treated as an adult and be involved in all these official meetings, and expected Emery - ten years her senior, to stick up for her through all of this. I think a lot of people find her to be quite annoying character, but to me that's just one of her flaws as a person and it makes her seem more real; besides people are ignoring the good parts of her, like her humour and the way she can shoot back any insults Emery fires at her, she just full of life. But yes, I am annoyed she went after Garth thinking she could do it alone and getting her friend involved (which tragically kills her - I did not enjoy that character death), but without that mistake the plot wouldn't have been driven forward, and those encounters are nice to read.

Okay, so I'm a bit of sucker for a good old romance, and on my kindle copy of this book, in the notes I've highlighted nearly all of pages 29 and 30 and just written 'CUTE' (this would be when Ceony and Emery reunite after the explosion at the Paper Mill). You can;t deny the cuteness of that moment, especially when Emery pulls her into a massive embrace and it's just really cute. There were create a lot of cute moments in this book and I loved everyone of them, especially The Kiss, because The Kiss was fantastic.

Have any of you read this trilogy? What did you think?