This book was much better than the first. It really allowed Emery and Ceony to grow together, and for the first time I really felt the emotion between them. The first book, I could feel the initial attraction, but I didn't feel the insta-love. In this one I started to get a better feel for that. Emery at times was quite insufferable, but he did really care about Ceony. Although I will admit to being absolutely annoyed when he left Ceony at the end. Yes, Ceony made impulsive decisions but quite honestly she was the person most affected and she WAS being left out. I'd be really upset as well, although I don't know if I'd going chasing after an evil person just because of that! This book was a much better book in my opinion, and the writing style only got better. 4 out of 5 stars.

I no longer have access to this book and do not anticipate seeking it out to read it at this time. Thank you for the opportunity to read this book.

The Glass Magician by Charlie N. Holmberg is a charming and magical sequel that continues Ceony’s journey in a world of spellbinding paper, glass, and more. As she dives deeper into her magical training, Ceony faces new dangers and intriguing twists. With a blend of adventure, romance, and inventive magic, this book is perfect for fans of whimsical, character-driven fantasy.

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 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.,

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.