Beating Paper Heart

Hello all, I've finally gotten a bit of sleep and feel a bit more coherent, so I thought I would ramble about a book I finished while on duty the other night.  The book is called The Paper Magician by Charlie Holberg and is the first book in a series.  I had picked it up after reading about it in some random place and decided to read it 'cause I was in the mood for a little magic. Was the book magic?  First as always SPOILERS AHEAD!

Ceony is a little pissed off because she wanted to be a Smelter.  What is a Smelter you ask, good question.  A Smelter is a person who works with metal in a magical way.  You see in this world (which is set in Victorianish England) people who posses the gift of magic can bond to a man made object (glass, metal, paper, plastic ect.) and either manipulate or enchant it.  A person can bond to any man made medium, but once bonded a person cannot change mediums.  Ceony, who has finished her year of arduous magic training had her heart set on becoming a Smelter, but do to a balance being needed was assigned to learn the art of Folding, which is the enchanting of paper.  Ceony feels that paper does not give a person much substance to work with and is feeling quit petulant about being stuck as the apprentice of one of the few Folders left.  She is nominally impressed when Magician

Thane (who turns out to be much younger then expected) demonstrates some of the more interesting things that can be done with paper, such as bringing origami birds and frogs to life, making it snow paper snow that is actually cold and producing a whole garden of flowers.  Ceony (who also cooks) starts to realize there might be more to Folding then she first realized.  Mg. Thane starts her training right away and Ceony takes to it quit readily.  Mg. Thane secures her affections when he makes her a little paper dog that looks like the one she had to leave behind.  One day after coming home from a mysterious trip, Mg. Thane is attacked by his ex-wife Lira who is an Excisor, which a person who uses human flesh to do magic (the thinking that a human is technically made by another human being and therefore a "man made" material).  This type of magic is seen as dangerous and criminal as it usually involves the maiming and/or killing of another human being.  Lira takes the magicians heart and Ceony saves him temporarily by replacing it with a Folded Heart. Ceony follows Lira and gets stuck inside Mg. Thane's heart.  As she tries to find her way out she goes through the four chambers and literally gets to see everything inside Mg. Thane's heart.  At the end of her journey, a figment of Mg. Thane teaches her some extra magic and she uses it to defeat Lira.  Upon returning home with Mg. Thanes heart, she saves him and asks to stay on as his apprentice.  She realizes that after her journey through his heart she not only knows him better then any other person, but realizes she loves him.  He agrees to keep her on and realizes it may go further then that, but they take it one day at a time.

This was a solid little book that gave a good story, an interesting premise and a bit of magic.  The plus's to this book are mostly in it's characters.  Ceony is a very believable girl, who has had her share of ups and downs, but understands she needs to work to overcome them.  She is not perfect, but she is not dramatically flawed either, just a normal young woman, who happens to have magic.  Mg. Thane is a quiet, concise man who has just enough of a sense of humor to make him a likable human being.  There are other characters who also hit the non-extreme spot quit perfectly, making this an almost homey read when you are not battling flesh using magicians.  I liked all the examples of the magic one could use paper for, everything from the delicate origami birds to the precise cutting and folding of a chain of protection.  I think that my favorite part of paper magic was the ability to read a book with enough emotion to make the words form pictures above the book!  How cool would that be if it

was real!!!!!  I do wish that the rules of this magic world were a bit more explained.  For instance I understood that magic could only be done with man made objects and materials, but at what point is something man made?  Flowers for example are natural...but what about a bouquet of flowers?  Is that man made?  If pulping wood into paper counts, or humans being man made counts...then pretty much everything should be on the table right?  A few of the other magics were touched on briefly, but not in any real detail.  I enjoyed Ceony's journey through Mg. Thanes heart, the various chambers that housed his loves, his wants, his doubts, it all made a wonderful sort of sense.  Over all the story was good, the characters were great, but I wanted much more world building.  The book was less about the magic and more about the immediate story, which was well done, but I wanted more world building. I love stories about using ordinary things as magic and really wanted more of that in this book.   I will definitely be picking up the next book in the series and hopefully the world will start to flesh out.  I give this book 7 out of 10 origami frogs and recommend it to anybody looking for a quick feel good story with a little magic.
What medium would you work with?  Do you find origami as magical as I do?  Do you find it ironic that humans are considered 'manmade"?

Book Garden

Hello All!  Mother's Day is just around the corner and since many of my memories of my Mamma include working in her numerous gardens, here are some idea's to add a literary twist to you garden.

Book Planters

A unique way to use old books

Book Bricks

These bricks add a unique twist to your garden

Literary Signpost

This DIY signpost is perfect for any literary garden

Alice In Wonderland Garden statues

These statues bring a bit of whimsy to the garden

Pond Book Nook

Of course no garden is complete without a perfect place to read!

Now everybody get out there and help your mothers in their garden, or kitchen, or studio or wherever it is these amazing ladies need us :-)  Happy Mothers Day to the bestest Mamma ever!

Knitting And Dancing

Flipping through my reading list and my to be reviewed list and realized I had not done a post about Princess of the Midnight Ball by Jessica Day George yet, which would make it a little awkward to do a post about the sequel when I finish it shortly.  Anyways here we go.

As always SPOILER ALERT SPOILERS AHEAD

I initially picked up this book as it is a retelling of one of my absolute favorite fairy tales Twelve Dancing Princesses  which sounds about perfect.  Our story starts with a creepy prologue with a Queen begging a favor from the inhuman King Under Stone. He agrees to a bargain to grant victory to Westfalin in a war that has been going on for years.  Fast forward several years later and the war is finally over.  A young soldier by the name of Galen is making his way towards Westfalin to hopefully find a job with his Uncle, the head gardener in the Kings gardens.  On his way he encounters an old woman with whom he shares his meager store of food.  He also gives her a scarf he knitted, as all soldiers learn to do.  In return for his unusual

generosity the old woman gives him an old cloak that makes him invisible.  She also hints that the Princesses of Westfalin may be in a bit of trouble.  Galen is taken in by his Aunt, Uncle and Cousin, all of whom see a bit of resemblance to there own son who is presumed dead in the war.  Galen becomes his Uncles assistant in the what is known as the King's Folly, which is the name the towns people give to the elaborate time and money consuming garden that the king had built for his wife, to remind her of home.  After she died he has still maintained the garden in memory of her.  We head to the castle where the eldest Princess Rose and her sisters Lily, Jonquil, Hyacinth, Violet, Daisy, Poppy, Iris, Lilac, Orchid, Pansy and Petunia (there mother was very fond of flowers) are being berated by dear old dad the King for wearing out there dancing slippers yet again.  Everybody is frustrated because the girls, who are normally very good, are unable to tell anybody what is happening.  The King tries every method he can think of, locking them in their rooms, guards at ever door and window, maids sleeping in the same room, but to no avail, every third night the princesses shoes are found worn to shreds.  Back in their rooms we learn that after the death of their mother, the girls have taken on paying for their mothers bargain and are compelled to go dance for King Under Stone.  Rose heads to the garden to try and think and is startled by Galen, she falls into the fountain and as a result of her frigid dunking catches a nasty cold.  This does not prevent the girls from dressing up and dancing, as any deviation from the payment schedule results in sever punishment. The other girls end up sick as well, their immune systems worn down by the constant dancing and worry.  Galen does his best to make them feel better, sending them bouquets of their names sake tied with chains he knitted himself. He has taken to Rose in particular, especially after many conversations in the garden.  He knits her a beautiful shawl as a gift, which she takes to wearing constantly.  

Meanwhile the King is trying to find a way to solve the mystery of his daughters dancing and proposes that he will allow any noble who can find the solution to marry one of his daughters and inherit the kingdom.  This is actually the solution to several problems.  One, he can hopefully solve the mystery, two, it may be a way of re enforcing allies now that the war is over, and three, since he has no sons the husband of one of his daughters will inherit the crown.  King Under Stone is not happy about this, as he intends for the 12 Princess's to become the mortal brides of his creepy half mortal sons.  He ensures that none of the foreign dignitaries ever get a glimpse of what the girls are up to, and even worse, he arranges for a deadly accident to befall them after.  After a couple of the Princes die, the other countries start calling for an investigation, saying that the King and his daughters are using witch craft to kill off all the Princes. The church sends a Bishop to get to the bottom of this problem.  Until the girls are cleared the whole country is placed under an Interdict, which places great strain on the kingdom. Meanwhile Galen, with the help of the mysterious Walter who also works in the gardens has convinced the King to let him try and solve the mystery.  He uses a combination of cunning, knitting and his magic cloak to follow the girls.  He sees them get all dressed up.  After a while an enchantment puts everybody except the Princesses (and Galen who has a sprig of nightshade in his pocket) to sleep.  A rug in their room becomes a staircase and the Princesses descend.  They pass through a gate into a forest of silver trees and into boats rowed by the Princes of Under Stone.  They are then made to dance with their assigned Prince all night and then head back up to the above world.  Galen works out that the King Under Stone is at some point going to keep the Princess's from leaving, forcing them to marry his sons. Galen takes a twig from a tree as proof.  He uses the twig to knit a magic chain that he can use to lock the gate.  Back at the palace the Bishop is busy terrifying the Princess's, locking up their tutor on the charge that she is a witch and threatening excommunication for the whole family. Galen goes back with the girls as they are now required to dance every night and takes a goblet as further proof.   On the third night the King Under Stone senses Galen and decides to keep the Princess's under ground.  Galen awakes above ground to discover along with everyone else that the

Princess's are missing.  The Bishop declares that everybody is guilty of witchcraft and that the King must abdicate.  Galen goes to the Bishop's rooms and finds the Queens diary where she details the deal she made with King Under Stone to have children and a later deal to secure victory for the kingdom.  The Queen did not realize that King Under Stone was using her to produce wives for his sons and that he would eventually ensure the countries victory, but not until most of the world was destroyed by it.  The Queen died before she could fulfill her end of the bargain, leaving it to her daughters to finish out the terms of dancing, just as the evil King wanted.  Despite this proof the Bishop is determined to see the King stripped of his throne and the whole family ex-communicated.  Galen finds a way to the underworld, and helps the Princess's to escape.  He shows the proof to the King and the curse is broken.  The Bishop does not care and still insists on punishment...until the priest of the castle discovers a letter stating that the Bishop was just supposed to assist the castle priest and has no authority.  It turns out that the King Under Stone is actually an ancient foe of the country and many powerful magician's gave up a lot, some even their lives to seal the King Under Stone into his underground kingdom.  Walter and the old lady who gave Galen his cloak are two of the surviving magicians. Galen asks Rose if she will marry him, to which she consents.  They marry and everybody lives happily ever until the next book.

I liked this book, it was a retelling of one of my favorite fairy tales, it combined magic with a more realistic world, it had a variety of believable characters and a knitting soldier which was just cool.  I love books that have an everyday talent, knittitng, cooking, metalsmithing, dancing, painting, writing, sewing, etc. and shows how you can make magic out of it.  I appreciated the fact that the author tried to give every character some sort of distinctive personality.  Obviously the book mostly focused on Rose and Galen, as it would be hard to have decent length book that focused on all 12 girls, but each Princesses still got a personality to set them apart.  I like how magic does not have a huge part in the above ground world, it is there, hidden and known only to a few, but by and large it is a representation of an Elizabethan era Europe, even the names of the countries are variants of real life places.  I like that religion came into play as it would during that time period and I liked that it was represented as both good, and when taken to extremes by certain individuals bad. I thought it was a bit of a risky decision to make their mother an unwitting "bad guy", being the reason the girls were cursed in the first place.  I loved that the author did not go with the perfect mother who the girls had to impossibly live up to. While pieces of this book were very original and fresh, the basic story and pattern were very familiar, not really deviating from the standard YA fairytale story giving a "have I read this before?" feeling on occasion. Overall I really enjoyed this book and would recommend it to anybody who likes fairy tales, knitting or a good story.  I give it 9 out of 12 dancing slippers.

What fairytale do you want to be retold?  Do you like it when they mix religion and magic?  What household art do you find magical?

As a bit of an extra, if you want to read the original tale with the most beautiful illustrations try and get your hands on this book

The Twelve Dancing Princesses

It is stunning and detailed and amazing and I love it so much!

Happy Path

Here is my path to the ultimate happy

The Reader's Path

I bet it takes you to some amazing places!