ARC Review: The Plastic Magician by C. N. Holmberg

I got an advanced e-copy of this book from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review that will follow.

I absolutely adored the Paper Magician series by this author, and as soon as I saw this available on Netgalley I just knew I had to have it - and luckily I was accepted!

Here it is:

Alvie Brechenmacher has arrived in London to begin her training in Polymaking—the magical discipline of bespelling plastic. Polymaking is the newest form of magic, and in a field where there is so much left to learn, every Polymaker dreams of making the next big discovery.

Even though she is only an apprentice, Alvie is an inventor at heart, and she is determined to make as many discoveries—in as short a time frame—as she can. Luckily for her, she’s studying under the world-renowned magician Marion Praff, who is just as dedicated as Alvie is.

Alvie’s enthusiasm reinvigorates her mentor’s work, and together they create a device that could forever change Polymaking—and the world. But when a rival learns of their plans, he conspires to steal their invention and take the credit for it himself.

To thwart him, Alvie will need to think one step ahead. For in the high-stakes world of magical discovery, not everyone plays fair…

I absolutely loved jumping back into the world that Charlie Holmberg created, as I adored the Paper Magician trilogy when I first read it, in fact after this I'll probably go back and re-read them. However, it was definitely nice to get a spin off with a whole lot of new main characters and to learn about the totally different field of Polymaking - atleast compared to the Folding magic we learnt about in the original trilogy. I did like the little cameo Ceony made though, only small but it was great to see a little glimpse of her in this book!

While starting this I did worry about meeting a new MC after I loved Ceony so much, but I ended up loving Alvie just as much - she was such an interesting character. She constantly gets lost in her thoughts and gets random big theories pop into her head at some inopportune moments, but she was definitely her own character and built some amazing relationships.

I admit, I guessed quite early on who the antagonist would be in this book - but quite a lot of the time I do have a sixth sense for that kind of thing in both books and TV shows. This character though gave me the heebie-jeebies right away so I was always going to be wary of him. It was also quite obvious who the love interest would be to me, but I was happy about that! Everyone deserves a romantic interest, and this pairing was so cute that it had me routing for them from their first meeting. I also liked that the romance fit in nicely with everything and didn't overshine the main plot of the book.

Overall, definitely a great foray back into the world of magicians, and I was so glad to have got an advanced copy. I give this book 5 cats!

Have you read any of the books in this series? Comment below!