I got accepted to review this book years ago, but unfortunately never got around to reading it. Apologies for this.

Interests have changed - no longer going to review this book as its bo my cup of tea any longer - sorry

I read The Glass Magician almost directly after The Paper Magician, having wasted a good few years wondering when I would get to them. I adored the first novel in the series despite a few hesitations and found myself with a few more hangups after The Glass Magician. Thanks to 47North and NetGalley for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Sequels are hard. You have to follow up a great start with something that has to be similar but also new, recognizable and yet a clear improvement, something more mature and grander without betraying the first. Some books are clearly laid out to be a series and have an arc spanning across multiple books while each is contained within itself. Others seem a standalone but are then turned into series when they do well. I'm not quite sure where The Paper Magician Series falls, but The Glass Magician definitely tries to up the ante. Everything feels a little intenser, which means we inevitably lose some of the aspects of the first book that made it such a comforting read. There is more action, more drama, more characters and more locations but I'm still undecided whether this adds up to the book actually achieving more. A few of my issues with the first book arose again, which I'll go into more detail on below, and were strengthened rather than laid to rest.

I soon realized what the cause was behind my sense of unease and that it started very early on. This is where we enter spoiler territory for the rest of this paragraph so if you didn't get around to these in the last 6 years either, turn away now. The Glass Magician has two villains, one of whom has the major starring role and the other who is more of a very evil side-kick. We meet the latter early on when, after the first attack on her life, Ceony spots a foreign-looking man in the crowd. She chides herself for thinking of him as the potential perpetrator only because he is different, but is proven right by the narrative. He is not just evil though, he is almost animalistic and without any redeeming factors or actual personality traits aside from his foreignness. It is a weird turn for Holmberg to take and left a bad taste in my mouth. In my review of The Paper Magician I noted that although I enjoyed the romance aspect of the novel, I was skeptical about the master-apprentice relationship between Thane and Ceony. This skepticism only strengthened while reading The Glass Magician. (Again, spoilers.) He is a good bit older than her and has a failed marriage under his belt. He is privy to much more information than Ceony, meaning she makes rash decisions she is then told off for by both Thane and others. The power balance is completely off. And on top of that, Holmberg actually has Ceony's previous teacher openly disapprove of the developing feelings between the two as it is against the master-apprentice rules. Although the forbidden aspect is surely exciting, it is also wrong in the context of their relationship. nd let's not forget about Ceony thinking another middle-aged man is in need of a wife since he can't keep his own house clean or himself fed. Surely I'm not the only one thinking that even 2014 was a bit too modern for those ideas.

Although I continued to enjoy Holmberg's writing, the issues laid out above made me a bit hesitant. Ceony continues to be an interesting character, who wants to take responsibility for the problems she thinks she has created. However, as she is shut out of any important meetings, she often ends up making the wrong choices. It makes sense for the second book in the series to maybe be something of a breaking point for her, where she has to fail, reassess, grow and come out stronger, but the plot moved a little too fast to allow for this. Thane remains a bit of a mystery, which is less fun now than in The Paper Magician. Some of the other side characters are hardly developed beyond what they need to be for the plot, which is a shame. As you can tell, I am torn. I did enjoy reading The Glass Magician but couldn't help but wince here or there. Whether this is down to Holmberg or an editor, I'm not sure. I will give the series' next book a go, mainly because I prefer to finish series, but I will go into it more hesitantly than I did The Glass Magician.

The Glass Magician is an interesting follow up on The Paper Magician, both making its blind spots more obvious while continuing some of the things that made the latter so charming.

This interview will be live on A Universe in Words from 6/24 onwards.

I unfortunately was not able to read this book. I was excited when ever I had chosen to download or pick this book up on Netgalley. However, time moves by so quickly and I never got to read it.

Continuing with the delightful (set a question mark to delightful due to the plot, but from the point of world building, definitely delightful) world. With Ceony ending up in more trouble and danger and nonetheless seeking after it.

I requested this one back in the day as I had every intention of reading it. However, its been years and I still haven't gotten around to it and while I feel guilty at not reviewing a book I think that I need to admit to myself that I won't be reading this one anytime soon....if at all.

Earlier this week, I read The Paper Magician. I wasn't a big fan of it, but I wanted to try to continue with the series because the world intrigued me. This year, I'm making it a goal to read all of the books in a series back to back, so I immediately started on the next book in the series, The Glass Magician. It ended up just being an okay read for me.

I will say that I did at least like The Glass Magician better than The Paper Magician. The magic system in the world was explored more thoroughly, which I loved. Even though I feel like there are details that are still missing, I now understand the magic system in this series better. There were new shocking revelations about it that I found fascinating. I also enjoyed some of the new characters we were introduced to, and characters that were background characters in the first book that got more of a spotlight in this book. There were a few side characters that I especially enjoyed. I hope they get more time to shine in later books in the series.

That being said, I still had a lot of problems with The Glass Magician. I found myself being bored throughout a lot of it. There's a certain scene with a paper mill that's supposed to be suspenseful, and kind of devastating. I found it to be very cliche, which took away from my experience. To me, it wasn't suspenseful at all. I couldn't connect with the Ceony, the main character, at all to feel the emotions she was feeling. The relationship that I talked about in my review of the first book continued into this book. The characters are both of age, but it still felt gross and inappropriate considering their stations in life in relation to each other.

Even though I liked The Glass Magician better than the first book in the series, it ended up being just an okay book to me. Honestly, I'm not sure I will continue with this series. If the first two books in the series have been not my thing, I don't want to waste anymore time reading something I'm not enjoying. I do have Smoke and Summons, the first book in the Numina trilogy, by Charlie N. Holmberg. I think I want to try that to see if it's just this series that I don't like, or if the author's writing and I just aren't compatible.

Very enjoyable!

8.0% I want to know how he feels toward her! He is being so sweet already though.
42.0% "Sheesh, wanted on all sides... no good.
74.0% If would be mad if I were Emery as well!
92.0% Perspective change! This is new...

Ceony’s story continues in this second book of The Paper Magician trilogy, where the consequences of her actions at the end of the previous book, which were done to save Emery’s life, now are coming to haunt her. She has been continuing her magical studies, and her confession to Emery inside his heart, and his knowledge of it makes their relationship a bit awkward,but on the surface both are pretending not to be affected by it. There is a growing closeness and affection between them, something which Mg Aviosky definitely doesn’t approve of, which Emery is trying to avoid letting go further on, and which Ceony is determined to pursue. Basically, there is a little angst in this one.

Moving on from the romance, though, the main thing that carries this story is the leader of the Excisioners, who is interested in how Ceony did what she did. There is a game of cat and mouse going on, and Ceony, headstrong that she is, charges right into it without realizing she is the mouse. Look, I am all for a take-charge kind of heroine, but she is inexperienced, and most of her successes are due to convenience. She plans, but she doesn’t fully understand her enemy. The standoff comes about after many altercations, and all I can say about that is that it was a mess I did not understand and am still so confused by. Additionally, there is a single POC character in this book and of course, that one is the crazy homicidal maniac. Figures! *eyeroll*

Overall, this book was underwhelming, especially compared to the brilliance of the first one, and seemed more hung up on casual lingering touches than the high stakes of the plot.

A thrilling sequel to The Paper Magician, and lucky me I just borrowed The Master Magician from the library yesterday so I don't have to wait to continue :) I love the different types of magic and how well the spells are described; I find myself pausing to imagine doing them myself almost like I'm reading a textbook! Folding is the easiest to imagine that way of course because we all know how to make fortune boxes and cranes.

Neat twists and turns here, a very fast and exciting read!

Thank you to the Author and NetGalley for allowing.me to read this book in exchange for an honest, unbiased review and this will not affect the views that I have about this book.

I enjoyed the first book in this series so much that as soon as I finished reading it I immediately started reading this one and it did not dissapoint.

This book picks up the story three months on from the previous book ending and sees that Ceony is well on her way to becoming a Paper Magician. However she hasn't been totally focused on magic as the romance promised by the fortunity box hasn't yet materialised, although she's become closer to her mentor the teache/student barrier still hasn't been broken yet, and she's and those around been on a magician with a panchant for revenges and a conviction that's she's hiding a secret, hit list.

It was great seeing the growth in the characters from the previous book and learning about the new characters we were introduced to in this book. Ceony is such a strong determined character and it was great seeing her grow more in her dvelopment of the skills of a Paper folder as well as seeing her learn about her ability to unbound with paper and bond with ad use the other magic disciplines like " glass magic".

The story was a little slow going to begin with because Charlie was developing the world more and also introducing Ceony to the facets of the other magics in the world but once I got about 1/4 of the way in to the book the plot was really fast moving and swept you along.

On the whole I liked the main characters from the first book although there were times when Emery Ceonys mentor ticked me off and I really didn't like the bad Magician - Excisioner character at all as you could see he wasn't truly wicked.

This is a book and a series that I would reccomend to anyone who enjoys books about magical worlds with a litttle bit of romance and adventure thrown in for good measure. I know I will read this book and the previous/future ones again at some time in the future as I love the authors writing so much.

Ceony thought that the danger was over. She saved the magician she was apprenticing and put an end to the threat. She didn't expect to be targeted for revenge for what she did. She also didn't expect to have to hide a budding relationship with her mentor from everybody around her.

I have to be very honest, when I first started reading this book, I was trying to figure out why there was a need for sequels. Then it all hit at once and I fell into the story without another thought. It may have a very slow start, but the buildup behind it is amazing!

The narrator was as amazing in this as she was the first book. I really adored her. I'd love to listen to more books by this narrator. The story was good itself, but she enhanced it even more and brought life to all of the characters.

I do recommend this book very strongly. However, I recommend that the reader read the first book before picking this book up. Many references are made to the first book that may cause a reader who didn't read it to be very confused and not as interested in the story as they would be if they read the first.

This second book in the series, was just as fun to read as the first. It made me want to be able to perform magic such as this.

The plot to this one was so much more interesting with the glass magic and transporting to other places through mirrors. Also the main character continues to grow in her magic and as a person, which I enjoyed.,

Great second book in this series. Couldn't wait to read the third and see how it all ended!

I never had a chance to review this before it expired. I'm sorry!

Ugh, I was so disappointed here. After enjoying- but not loving The Paper Magician_ I was expecting Holmberg to up the game a bit and add more flesh and life to the world that she had built previously. However, this did not come to fruision in this book and it left me somewhat unhappy. There was more emphasis on the blossomed romance here but I was unimpressed with constant swooning that Ceony did for Thane. The pacing was also quite slow throughout the book but hten felt rushed in the last few chapters and the ending felt abrupt and didn't suit the previous- albeit slow- pace of the book. However, once again I felt myself being taken up into the actual magic system itself but it wasn't enough for me to actually fall inlove with this novel as a whole.