The Paper Magician (The Paper Magician, #1) in Pop Sugar's Annual Ultimate Reading Challenge

Sep 29, 2020 teacupsandunicorns rated it liked it · review of another edition

I liked it well enough. It was ok. I enjoyed the prose. And premise was really exciting! However, unfortunately, I felt like this story, despite being a single story and one single adventure, was oddly episodic—even though it was one story, everything felt disjointed and disconnected from other elements in the story. Things lost their important because of this; big reveals lost their weight because while these clues were superficially connected, I was not invested in the characters or the reveal I liked it well enough. It was ok. I enjoyed the prose. And premise was really exciting! However, unfortunately, I felt like this story, despite being a single story and one single adventure, was oddly episodic—even though it was one story, everything felt disjointed and disconnected from other elements in the story. Things lost their important because of this; big reveals lost their weight because while these clues were superficially connected, I was not invested in the characters or the reveals, and some felt random; also the characters were more reactive rather than active.

Character development took a backseat for the plot—which was for the protag to fall in love with her mentor and fight his evil ex gf who is still obsessed with him. The ex gf constantly throws in the protag’s face that he doesn’t love the protag. What???? This is so ridiculous and honestly not the feminist book I thought it was going to be. The evil villain in the ex gf obsessed with the guy. That’s her only motivation and characterization here.
The whole point of the adventures and stuff for the protag is that she falls in love with the mentor guy.

And even though all the right cues were there—the protag sees his childhood and fears and inside his heart—I didn’t feel a romantic connection or chemistry at all between these characters. I really only felt that they worked as friends. Esp since he’s her teacher and is like ten years older. I know it’s Victorian London but still.

It was a fun story and enjoyable. However, this is a romance book with fantasy elements. By this, I mean all the magic and adventure takes a backseat to the romance and is used as a vehicle for the romance. Which is fine. But I thought I was reading a fantasy book with light romance—not a romance book with a fantasy setting.

There were many instances in which I had rolled my eyes while listening because while I am all for fantasy stories, there are some things story-wise and plot-hole-wise and character-wise that just felt beyond ridiculous and unbelievable because there wasn’t enough set up or connection among the various elements of the story. So the story to me felt light, superficial, and hollow. I’m not sure why this story was written or why it is being told. It’s fun for forgettable. Nothing noteworthy. I’ll read the next one since it was fun brain candy. But I can’t take too much of it because things get random and ridiculous. I totally get that not every story has to be deep—but I felt like I was promised something more and didn’t get it.

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