peaches_k 's review for:

The Paper Magician by Charlie N. Holmberg

3.0

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I gave this book three stars, and I feel like that's being generous. I really wish that I could give it more, but I am not sure I can honestly give it more. I think that the premise of the book is really interesting, but the execution of the plot was lacking. It was way too fast-paced. I read that the author started out writing fanfiction and that kind of explained it for me. If you're writing Star Trek fanfiction, you assume the writers are already familiar with the basic backstory and the setting. I feel like too much of the story was left unexplained, as though the reader was supposed to know what was going on without actually writing it. Events were left unexplained, and I feel like some things were just dropped in there for the shock factor and didn't really lend anything to the story (such as her friend committing suicide - sure, it gave her regrets and questions, but that was just suddenly thrown in there and didn't really have much of a purpose except for her to say Thane wasn't the only one who had regrets). There was very little process to the character development - it was like she was one way, and then a different way... if that makes any sense at all.

As for positives, like I said the premise of the book was interesting. It wasn't a boring story, it just moved way too quickly. The characters, though underdeveloped, weren't too bad.

I feel like that is all really negative, but I did enjoy the book in spite of all of that, and I'll probably read the next in the series and hope that it's a more enjoyable read.