Oh boy, where to start with The Glass Magician? There’s a LOT of pining in this book. Ceony, our plucky heroine from The Paper Magician is back learning from Emery Thane, three months after she rescued his heart from the evil Lira. She’s living with him, playing perfect little housewife trying to audition for that role permanently. And learning more about magic, I guess.
A series of accidents leads Ceony to believe the Excisioners that took Lira’s frozen body are now after her. She turns out to be right about that. She is in serious danger, and her family is threatened as well. Again as in the first book, there is an entire magical council that can deal with these evil magic users, but Ceony decides she should confront the villains by herself. This book actually introduces a few more magic users of different material magic, glass, metal, and others. That part was interesting. Reading about Ceony making stupid decision after stupid decision? Not so much.
Ceony has several confrontations with the big bad that do not go well. She even drags her newly introduced fellow apprentice, Delilah (she might as well have dressed her in a red shirt from the start, the poor girl). STILL she does not seek help from the fully trained magic users in this world. When they finally take control of the situation from her, Emery expresses disappointment with her (as he should have). Up until this point in the story, the romantic angle is completely one sides. Emery gently pushes her away, but then decides after Ceony puts herself in danger yet again and he has to ride to the rescue to kiss her. Then suddenly the story shifts to his point of view, and he’s cared about her for a long time. It just fell flat for me. The action sequences that follow with Emery and the other magic users are entertaining, and the magic in the world is interesting.
I must admit, I cautiously peeked at the spoilers for the third book in this series, because I am concerned at where we are heading. Ceony is very bright (if rash) and one of the most potentially powerful magic users in this world. Would she throw all of that away for true wuv? Yep, it looks like she does exactly that. So I’m out. I don’t need that kind of rage right now. I see that Disney bought the rights (of course they did) so maybe they can change the end to something that could be inspiring to young women? I sure hope so. Two stars for the book itself. One star and a big old chuck it against the wall for the series.
Your title nails it. This series was such a disappointment. Completely threw away a great concept on bland characters and uninteresting plots.