Three Stars: It was good.

The first book was a good read for me - quick, easy, interesting - the kind of book I finished in three hours' time. Magic in this world was so quirky and inventive, it kept me engrossed; and the idea of having to literally travel through the four chambers of the heart to save someone was (in my opinion) pretty well done. I even started the book by absolutely hating Miss Priss (aka Ceony Twill) but found myself liking her and rooting for her in the end. Was my world view changed? No. Did I particularly fall in love with the characters? No. But did I enjoy myself, like at so many of the blockbuster movies at the drive-in? Heck yeah! So it was with eagerness that I found myself anticipating the second installation.

A lot of people had a lot of complaints in this book: the casual sexism (not skirts above the knee; heaven forbid, what kind of loose girl do you think Ceony is?);

the fact that Emery returns Ceony's affection, even though there should be a professional boundary there;

the excessive blushing; the obsessive romance; and the weird un-world building Ms Holmberg has going for her. There isn't anything in this list I can disagree with. Ms Holmberg's writing style is as smooth as flan, but it can get just as sticky as one.

The historical inaccuracies would be acceptable if more than just a slight blush of the world was fleshed out in these pages. Is it because magic makes things cheaper that Ceony can use a gun and not have to worry about the price of bullets, let alone the gun? How does this world already have high-level plastics when the first synthetic polymer, made of phenol and formaldehyde, was only created in 1907? (I mean, when did they figure out that plastic was, in fact, a material? The 1700s?) These are things that require only a couple of sentences' worth of explanation and would make this world breathe for us beyond what Ceony and Emery have experienced with only paper.

The romance with Ceony and Emery just...creeps me out. I've never had a crush on a teacher. As soon as they stood at the head of the class, anything I may have thought about their looks ceased to exist. I know that I'm an anomaly - that almost everyone has had a crush on their teacher - but except for the legal cases that make the news, teacher/student pairings while the student has yet to graduate are simply no-go and student/teacher pairings after graduation are incredibly rare. Teachers know and understand that a professional boundary has to exist there, even if students do not. Wouldn't it make this book more poignant, more touching, if Ceony's crush wasn't returned? That's a real-life problem lots of students face (although it isn't as big a deal as having pigs' blood dumped on your head at prom), and it could be interesting to see that sort of heart-wrenching issue be dealt with in a steam-punk-esque world rife with magic.

Besides that creepier aspect to it, the romance itself is simply immature.

Screaming in a public area, "KISS ME BEFORE YOU GET YOURSELF KILLED!" is the sort of thing that strikes me as melodramatic for no purpose.

Noting that you're blushing (but isn't it great that Emery never actually sees?) whenever you think his name is something I expect from a twelve-year-old. In the last book, I thought we'd said Ceony had never had a boyfriend; in this one, she had one in secondary school - the time for that kind of behavior was then, not now. What happened to the kick-butt Ceony who was a complete and utter Ice Princess in Book 1? Wouldn't she have better control over all this goofiness?

Delilah was another one of those, "Oh yeah! Forgot to tell ya..." moments that left me puzzled.

When she died, I really could have cared less.

She was nothing more than a prop. All I knew was that she was a Gaffer (glass magician), she had blonde ringlets, she came from France, and she was apprenticed to Professor McGonagall Mg Aviosky. I probably could have connected to a friendly outdoor squirrel more easily than Delilah, because it would've had more personality than this cardboard cut-out friend.

The ending left me speechless. In a bad way.

I consider this a deus ex machina - or an idiot ex machina, whatever floats your boat. Ceony didn't ever want to be a Folder. She wanted to be a Smelter (metal magician). Suddenly, at the end of Book 2, the bad guy babbles all of his plans to become an Excisioner (blood magician) and shows her how she can stop being bonded to her material and change to any material she wishes instead. Ceony has done no work to figure this out. She has not shown that she is so gifted at this magic that she can come up with whole new examples of application for it (except for [b: The Paper Magician|20727654|The Paper Magician (The Paper Magician Trilogy, #1)|Charlie N. Holmberg|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1405618531s/20727654.jpg|40051132], where she uses the blood on the paper to freeze Lira; she doesn't continue trying to see what other liquids can do for the magic, so I count that as a mistake). Yet, much like Bella in [b: Twilight|41865|Twilight (Twilight, #1)|Stephenie Meyer|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1361039443s/41865.jpg|3212258], she's been given this incredible power to basically become a magician beyond other magicians, almost god-like in her new-found ability. This could actually push Ceony into the category of a Mary Sue for me, which would be a shame when she was such an individual in the first book.

Lest you think I am simply bashing this book, with nothing nice to say, let me say here and now: it's good. Despite the bare-bones description of the world and the history behind the magic, Charlie Holmberg has created fascinating characters that are completely separate personalities from each other. The book is short, so any places that could feel a drag don't last long; and you're constantly along for the ride. Learning about the magic is always fun, especially when it is performed. Unlike other authors, Ms Holmberg is enjoying dragging the romance out, so you're not forced to deal with annoying couple gush

(except for that kiss at the train station!)

, although each member of that couple do separate gushing about each other. Reading this book is like watching an A-list Hollywood movie: you can visualize it all and it passes through your mind like a vapor. Don't expect your feelings on magic, romance, people, society or education to change - just sit back, relax, and enjoy.