Thalia is a Solitaire, one of the masses who don’t have the animalistic magic. But that is not to say that she doesn’t have talent of another kind—she is a rising stage magician who uses her very human skills to dazzle audiences with amazing feats of prestidigitation. Until one night when a trick goes horribly awry…and Thalia makes a discovery that changes her entire world. And sets her on a path that could bring her riches.

Interesting worldbuilding and premise, but ultimately I had trouble connecting with the characters and the plot just didn't hook me. DNF at 20%

This took me a while to warm up to, but once I had gotten a handle on the 'fantasy' aspects I started to really enjoy the story. I think a bit more context about who the different types of people are: Solitaires, Traders and Sylvestri are all part of a society that seems the same as our own world but have magic qualities and the ability to transform into animals, the author threw us in without giving us the background and it made it hard to follow.

My favorite parts involved the manticores and The Skinner of New York. I would have loved to learn more about him and hope that if a sequel is written it keeps in him and gives him a back story. The scenes where Thalia was being 'hunted' were full of suspense and drama. The ending was very quick and I thought the unveiling of the killer wasn't greatly thought through. It was like a really bad magic trick, but maybe that was the point,

I liked this book and its characters enough to certainly read the next in the series. Thank you NetGalley for the ARC. This is my honest review,

Ms. Stevermer has written, or co-written, several YA fantasy titles I really like. I was very glad to get a chance to read an early eARC of the start of her new series. At least I think it will be a series. Treat yourself to this one. And her previous if you have not already.

More of a 2,5 stars.

This is a pretty difficult book for me to review. So, bear with me while I try to sort my thoughts.

This book is about shape shifting, an interesting sort of magic system and also a murder mystery? Yeah, I know, that sounds like a lot. And that is also how I feel about this story. The way this is written is really great. I really like the writing style. But I simply think this is just too short a book to accomplish ALL OF THE THINGS really well.

It takes place in an alternate reality of 1905 in New York, where there isn't as much racism as there was at that time in the US, and where there are two types of people. Solitairs, which are basically normal people, Traders, which are people that are able to shape shift into their spirit animal, and Sylvestri, who are very in tune with nature? or something? Yeah, I don't know. Also, there are things called Manticores, which are beast-human's that feed off of young Traders' magic and are born from two Traders when there is too much interbreeding. Or something like that. I don't know how that works scientifically, but okay.

Yeah, there were some holes in this magic system. I couldn't fully connect and get a grasp of what was happening and how things worked in this world, because there simply wasn't enough time in this book to have this be handled properly. I actually felt the same way about the characters, which weren't exactly surface-level or flat characters, but weren't amazingly fleshed out either, and the plot, which was all about our MC who was actually a Trader but didn't know it and her overcoming some sort of trial in order to be a grown-up Trader and save from Manticores, but also wanting to pursue her career as a magician, but also having to find out who murdered her rival in order to save her friend.

I told you this was a lot. This book is about 288 pages long. So, yeah, I'm not quite surprised I wasn't completely on board with everything that happened here. And I even forgot to mention the start of a budding romance here!

This is a bit of a meh-book for me, but I also don't want to discredit the writing, because that was actually great. So, that's why I settled for a 2,5 star-rating, rounded up to 3.

Oh, this is marvelous. Thalia, following in the footsteps of her father, is a stage magician. She’s an independent working girl, a Solitaire, and wholly different from those stuck-up and wealthy Traders who shift forms. When one of her stage tricks goes wrong and something unexpected saves Thalia’s life, she’s thrust into an alien Trader world of wealth and danger.

This is a delightful urban fantasy set in a world vaguely reminiscent of the early 20th century. It’s peppered with stage magicians and show biz slang, which really drew me in. The exposition is cleverly integrated and slowly revealed, which makes learning about the world a treat. Thalia is strong, clever, and streetwise but not incapable of mistakes, which makes her both likable and relatable. Without spoilers, it wraps up nicely in a Sherlock Holmes-style reveal but leaves the door open for potential sequels. Highly recommended.

I received this book for free from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

Normally I am not a fan of paranormal fiction, but this book hit two buttons for me. I am a fan of turn of the century (I guess I have to specify the turn of the 20th century now) fiction, and I love stage magic. The Glass Magician is not a bad book; it came close to being excellent. Sadly, there are a few places the story let me down.

The characters are probably the best part of the book, or at least one character is. Thalia Cutler, the eponymous magician, is a fairly likable main character. She is strong-willed and competent while still exhibiting flaws and worries enough to be interesting. Stevermer hit a good balance with Cutler, making me care about what happened to her through the story, which is one of the most important parts of an engaging novel. Thalia also has a decent character arc through the novel, developing enough to make the journey feel like it had a real impact on her.

The rest of the characters were not as well fleshed out, which is something of a disappointment. Except for a few of the major supporting cast, most of the people Thalia meets throughout the story are just cardboard cutouts, easily identified by their position in the story and left at that, with no fleshing out or unique personalities.

The plot itself is fine, if not amazing. The mystery is fine if the conclusion a bit of a letdown. The romance is fine, if not completely compelling. I did not dislike the way the story unfolded; it just did not end up going anywhere interesting enough to make it a highlight of the book

The real issue this book suffers from is in its world-building. While I have some small issue with the way different groups are sorted, my main issue with the world-building isn’t in its structure, but how it’s communicated to the reader. I’m a fan of small details being mentioned and never explained to make the world feel full, but for key points the author needs to spend time to tell the reader what these ideas are. More importantly, this needs to be done early enough that I don’t get lost and lose the narrative. Stevermer does get around to explaining Solitaires, Traders, Silvestri, and Manticors, but it takes way to long. I probably read the word Trader a hundred times, including several in-depth conversations, before the author decided to tell me what everything meant. The effect of this meant I spent the first quarter of the book trying to figure out what was going on, which continually pulled me out of the narrative, ruining my enjoyment of it. To compound the problem, what explanations we do eventually get do not go nearly far enough in explaining the key concepts I need to know to understand how the world works.

Had Stevermer done a better job explaining the world building, this had a chance of being a good book, even with the plot being somewhat average. The world-building is poorly communicated enough to drop it from three stars to two.

I had a hard time reading this, but a lot had to do with my arc/ebook being very choppy with random digits appearing in the middle of the text. I did read through all that but it was very distracting. Anyways the story was pretty good, I enjoyed the concept. The world building maybe could of been a little more polished but it was interesting and ubique.

DNF.

Sadly I couldn't get through this. The world building left a lot to be desired. There were moments that I felt at a loss at what was going on. I would find myself reading without retaining much information no matter how many times I reread a paragraph. I actually did start from the beginning again once, but it didn't really help. What I did read had some nice writing at times.

The book itself was what the blurb promised: something in the vein of The Golem and the Djinni - a book I absolutely loved and recommend regularly. The Glass Magician has a very visual story with enough world-building around it to give some solidity to it as well.

The pdf downloaded on the other hand was a terror and had me give up on the story several times. I had to close and open Adobe Digital Editions several times to change a page and had several moments of freezing up. I hope it's just a small bug.

The Glass Magician unveils an early 1900s world with people who are magicians, can change into animals, and have some wonderful and terrifying adventures going across these worlds. As always, when there are multiple races, in this case three, there are enemies. Without giving away much, people who are the product of forbidden love between the groups have an even tougher time. I really enjoyed the characters, and bought into the premise. I would be happy to learn more about these folks.

The concept of this book was incredibly unique, but unfortunately, it fell a bit short of what I was hoping for. In Thalia's world, there are three classes of people: Solitaires, Sylvestri, and Traders. Traders are able to turn into an animal at will, while Solitaires are just regular people. I wasn't entirely sure what Sylvestri were, but they are generally incredibly wealthy and exclusive.
The main character, Thalia, grew up thinking she was a Solitaire, as well as taking over her father's profession as a stage magician. However, when something goes wrong during a performance, Thalia discovers that she is, in fact, a Trader, taking the form of a swan. I thought this part was so interesting, and I really liked how Thalia is welcomed into the Rykers' home by Nathaniel Ryker and his sister Nell.
However, the mystery aspect of the book, concerning the murder of another stage magician, von Faber, didn't interest me as much, While I wanted to learn more about Traders and their culture, I found myself less engaged when reading about the murder investigation.
Other than that, the characters weren't as developed as they could have been, although I really liked Nell and her relationships with both her brother and with Thalia.
I might continue on with this series, if only in hopes that I learn more about Traders and the way they live (as well as the mystery of Thalia's mother and brother!) 2.5/5 stars

Thank you NetGalley and Tor Books for this book in return for an honest review.

I really, really liked this book. The main character, Thalia, is so realistic in actions. I don't know very much about the time period this is sent in - the early 1900s - but it felt like her personality and strength could really transcend times to today. I love a good female character that is strong but doesn't fall into tropes of being overtly tomboy. Thalia was both strong and feminine and I find that isn't super common.

The writing was quite captivating, with a unique world that held interesting magic. However, I found that it wasn't fully explained. There seemed to be three distinct "races" of humans; Solitaire, Trader, and Sylvestri. Only two were ever really fleshed out. Perhaps it was because of the main characters POV that we don't explore Sylvestri, but it would have been nice to get a fuller backstory about this world.

As for the other two, it was still confusing as to what made a Trader. The actual magic wasn't really well explained and left me wanting a bit more in that aspect. The actual plot of the story revolved around a mystery and the discover of magic. While the beginning dragged, it did speed up towards the end to lead to quite an exciting climax. I don't know if this is part of a series, but it would be really nice to actually explore the world and the relationship between the three "races" a bit more.

I originally selected this book due to its lavishly beautiful cover and its fun premise. The summary makes it sound like a cross between "The Wild Swans" by Hans Christian Anderson, "Bluecrest" by Madame d'Aulnoy, "The White Deer" also by Madame d'Aulnoy and the works of Erin Morgenstern. It's basically advertisted as a fairytale retelling. However, "The Glass Magician" adopts its own mythology and story. That's one of the strongest reasons to enjoy this book. I give major props to Stevermer for creating such a rich magical world.

Something I don't like is when fantasy books expose the reader to the world and don't explain all the rules at first. This is what reading "The Glass Magician" felt like. Too quickly I was thrown into the magical world with no time to adapt. Between all the characters with complicated names and quick pacing, it was difficult for me to keep up. I couldn't relate to any of the characters, and even the beauitful theater setting felt rushed. I want to dive back into this gorgeous magical world, but hopefully with more detail and a simpler plot. The concept is really creative and shows great promise, but the execution leaves much to be desired.

Caroline Stevermer has written a wonderfully realized world for three different types of people-Solitaires, Traders and Silvestro-inhabiting New York City. They are fully developed and we learn bits about the background of each in this detailed interesting story of the interactions they have with each other. I was drawn in by the lure of the magician who performs in a vaudeville type setting but was quickly transported to the entire world and the problems and divisions of each group. This novel is dense and involved but very enjoyable. Be prepared for it to stick with you. Thank you to #netgalley for #theglassmagician to read ahead of publication.

Okay. So I was super excited when I first saw this book. I’m totally into books nowadays that deal with royalty/the elite and privileged/magic! So I definitely wanted to give this book a shot!

It was disappointing though that it fell short in regards to my expectations. I really do think that the author had a good concept and probably had the vision for the book all planned out, but the execution needed work 😞 it kind of droned on at times, and some moments felt like they could’ve had a little more work put into the details!

I think maybe if the author did some revisions and made things more detailed and exciting, it would definitely get a higher rating ^_^

What to say about The Glass Magician? Is it suspenseful? No. Is it gripping? No. Is its world building something fantastic and sweeping? Nope, not that either. Is it about a woman who turns into a swan when she's afraid for her life? Yeah, that pretty much sums it up.
The novel feels a bit steampunk, which should be cool. However, it lacks the points of fascination that a regular steampunk piece has. There's magic within the pages, both illusion based stage magic and real skin to feathers transformation, and yet it still falls flat. There's no rush to any of the book. No heated romance. No mystery begging to be solved right this second.
It's fine. It's not bad. It's the wheat bread of the literary world.

This is an interesting book with intriguing ideas behind it but it really does lack that certain oomph it needed to really make it special and sparkle like I hoped it would. I believe it had the real potential with a backstory that could have been the basis for a great tale if it had been explained more fully but I needed more information on certain areas. It should have been fantastic but for me it was just a little lacklustre

DNF @ 17%

I'm sorry but I can't continue with this book. I cannot for the life of me get into it. I keep getting distracted and thinking of moving on to other things. i even found myself wanting to just skip to the end! This just isn't for me.

Thalia Cutler is a stage magician and a Solitaire which means that she is one of the people in this world that do not have powers. This novel was a bit slow paced for me but it was overall a good book. I really like the world in which the it takes place, it's set in a very interesting time period: New York in 1905 and the magic system is really fascinating. The characters were a bit underdeveloped for my taste, I think the main character has so much potential and the romance was also cute but I wasn't very invested in it, sadly. Something that I thought was unnecessary were the descriptions of skin color which I found quite offensive... The plot had a slow start but I was pleasantly surprised when it finally picked up! I thought the ending was quite anti-climactic and I would like to see more of the characters in the future but the writing was beautiful and descriptive. I think this is one of those books that you need to give a chance to before you DNF it. It takes a while to get into, but in my experience it was worth it!
Overall I liked the book quite a lot and I gave it 3.5 stars.
Thank you to Tor/Forge and NetGalley for providing me with an e-galley of this book in exchange for an honest review!