A review by kaitik
The Paper Magician by Charlie N. Holmberg

3.0

Maybe it’s because I’m a teacher but the whole apprentice falling in love with their older teacher is just super weird to me. I also felt like only 1/8 of the book actually had Ceony and Mg Thane even interacting. They knew each other for less than a month AND he was gone for a week of that time! So to me, it was super unbelievable that she would even know him well enough to be in love with him. To me, their relationship seemed like a father/daughter type of relationship since it seemed kind of innocent, so the love interest part was not my favorite.

I liked the magic in the book and I’m giving it a 3 because LOVED Fennel. Such a cute idea. The idea of Excisioners is super interesting as well. I’m open to reading the sequels to these books, but I really hope they are better and lean toward magical world building instead of weird power-dynamic romance arcs.