Dear reader I couldn’t sleep so I finished reading “The Paper Magician” book number one in “The Paper Magician” series by Charlie N. Holmberg. I was blessed enough to receive a paperback copy of the book from a friend/follower on my Twitter(@BookNerd0486 if you want to say hi to me that way) via my Amazon wish list Click here if you want to check out my Amazon wishlist thank you in advance to anyone who gets me anything you’re support means the world to me.

My personal review of the book is as follows:

I am going to do this review a bit differently from my other book reviews; I will start of by saying what I thought of the magic of the series and the overall concept of the book itself then I will move into what I personally feel about (what I personally believe to be were) the “moral”/”messages of the book itself after that I will finish the rest of the review talking about the main issues that I personally had with the book which will be spoilers so skip the end of the review if you don’t want spoilers. I will add my personal rating of the book earlier than I normally do for those who don’t want spoilers:

I personally feel like the story as a whole felt a bit rushed(which makes sense given the page count of the novel).

I found the magic of paper to be interesting and unique. I felt like the other magic options and the way the seemed to work(in my personal opinion) made me feel like the world of the series was trying to be an “Alternative Universe” to “Harry Potter”(I can’t think of a better way of phrasing it).

Overall I personally felt like the “moral” “message” of the book was a representation of how no one is ever “one dimensional”(which I personally think is a cool “call back” to Paper as a medium and how it’s one dimensional) especially not inside of their heart.

The book also had some good messages(in my personal opinion) about forgiveness and how no one is perfectly good or evil we all have a dark side to ourselves or something good is inside an “evil” person.

I am going to add my personal rating of the book here which is a 3 and half out of 10 and say that I personally won’t be continuing on with the series.

I am going to start the spoilers section of the review now so read further at your own risk if you haven’t already finished reading the book yet.

At first I liked the female main character then a bit after the first plot twist(the one that’s mentioned in the synopsis on the back of the book) happens I personally found her choices, thoughts/emotions towards the male main character to be weird and sudden especially given the length of time that they’ve known each other(which is actually addressed by the character herself at one point in the book) and the power dynamic between them(Teacher/apprentice).

I became even more annoyed(which caused me to throw the majority(if not all) of the “Good Will” I had towards the story itself out the window) when it became apparent to me that the reason why she was going through the main “quest’ of the book wasn’t only because she wants to save his life but because she in love/falling in love with him(She also admits that she’s falling in love with him herself at one point in the book as well).

Which wouldn’t be weird however(leaving aside the “Insta-love” for a second) given the fact that she remarks near the beginning of the book that he is “Old”(Gray hair, and a few other things) I think he’s in his early to mid 30s possibly even late 30s, and she’s in her early 20s/possible mid 20s and how she’s just starting out in life.

And how in the beginning she’s more concerned by the age difference between them at different times in the book(in my personal opinion it’s made especially clear in a scene wherein she sees in his heart(that she’s physically inside of at this point) that he really wants to settle down and have kids and she says that she wants them but not yet because she’s still young then it becomes even more weird in my personal opinion when she wants kids more when she sees the kids in his heart which struck me personally as creepy in a way that I can’t really explain).

Yes I know that it’s legal age wise and that people fall for people older than them.

The major reason why I find the love story angle between them to be weird(and in my personal opinion wrong) is because of the teacher/apprentice relationship between them and the power dynamic that creates.

He has the potential of using his position as her teacher to influence his romantic relationship with her(possibly coercing her to do things romantically or even sexually that she doesn’t want or otherwise wouldn’t do) I am NOT saying that he would do so just that he could.

Add to the situation that he is paying her(as part of her apprenticeship) which is her only source of income and that they are living together(for I believe a year at minimum as part of her apprenticeship) at his home.

There’s a lot of ways she could get hurt if the relationship between doesn’t work out(I know that they don’t get together in this book) and he decided to be mean. I also think it’s weird how she’s already kind of forced to stay in the situation because she’s already “bonded” to Paper as a medium(in the mythology of the world the series is set in a magician can only bond with/and do magic with only one medium) and the male main character is the only one who can teach her since he’s pretty much the last paper magician left.

Don’t even get me started on the fact that the female main character is literally fighting the male main character’s ex wife over his heart. *insert head desk meme* here. Needless to say that these are the reasons for my low rating and why I won’t be continuing on with the series.

Happy reading dear reader 😊. Please like and share this review if you enjoy it to help me get future 📚 s.

PS. If you’re interested in possible having me do a book review of your book please email me @ Darkrose04@Gmail.con or tweet me on Twitter @Booknerd0486