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The Paper Magician by Charlie Holmberg Reviewer #2

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Brief synopsis (no spoilers): Ceony Twill arrives at the cottage of Magician Emery Thane with a broken heart. Having graduated at the top of her class from the Tagis Praff School for the Magically Inclined, Ceony is assigned an apprenticeship in paper magic despite her dreams of bespelling metal. And once she’s bonded to paper, that will be her only magic… forever.

Yet the spells Ceony learns under the strange yet kind Thane turn out to be more marvelous than she could have ever imagined — animating paper creatures, bringing stories to life via ghostly images, even reading fortunes. But as she discovers these wonders, Ceony also learns of the extraordinary dangers of forbidden magic.
An Excisioner — a practitioner of dark, flesh magic — invades the cottage and rips Thane’s heart from his chest. To save her teacher’s life, Ceony must face the evil magician and embark on an unbelievable adventure that will take her into the chambers of Thane’s still-beating heart—and reveal the very soul of the man. (Amazon)

 Category: Sci-fi 

Why I chose this book: Recommended by my Father and Brother 

 My personal opinion (the review) (*Spoilers*): Rule #3578 - you cannot solely depend on someone else's opinion before diving into a book. My Dad and Brother both highly recommended this book, and while I agree with them I really wasn't prepared for what happened in the story. I failed to read any kind of description of the story line before I dove in (I think the fact that it's a kindle only, not paper copy book) contributed to this).Thus about 3 chapters in when Lira storms in and pulls out Emery's heart I was totally thrown for a huge loop. And then 3/4 of the book was spent with Ceony actually inside, yes walking around inside, Thane's heart. Can I just say...gross...

 The idea behind the magic, bonding only to a certain material, was really quite interesting. Also, the author would just have me pulled into one of the episodes of Emery's life and then she would pull back out and the blood thirsty woman would be chasing Ceony with the "thump thump" of Emery's heart in the background and it would totally loose me. Again, the idea of walking through someone's heart to see into their past experiences is cool, but I just wasn't prepared.  

 Warning:
Language: Mild
Violence: There is quite a bit of blood involved all through out the book. There on non-graphic description of a pile of mutilated dead bodies. 
"Adult" situations: Mentioned, but nothing inappropriate. 

 Movie rating equivalent: Not quite PG-13, but more than PG

 Protagonist description: Ceony is very fiery but very delicate too. She has a bad habit of getting into things over her head without thinking it through. 

 Point of view of story: Third Person

 Book length: Medium-Long

 Story flow: Easy enough to follow, but it does jump around a lot 

 Grammar and spelling issues: None

 Character connection (no spoilers): None

For series:
Independent or integral: Stand-alone
If you only have time for one, read: Start with the Paper Magician, but my favorite of the series is The Master Magician.
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Link to first review: http://bcereviews.blogspot.com/2014/08/book-name-and-author-paper-magician-by.html

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