Honestly, this is probably more of a 2.5 than a 3 star book. 
 I really, really enjoyed the premise- a magician using paper as a medium? Pretty damn cool. Especially since a magician can only use one medium of magic, and of course, MC (Ceony) is forced to become a paper magician, instead of a Smelter like she wanted. 
 As far as the characters go, I really enjoyed Emery Thane, her teacher. He was just a funny in a dry sort of way. Ceony was okay, although her near-perfect memory was mentioned a few times too many. She went from being a total brat to being okay. Half of her time was spent cooking, because she completely understands any concept after one lesson. The villain, Lira, wasn't great. She just seemed like a cheesy villain from a low budget horror flick. She cackled. A lot. Everything she did, she did while cackling. Or maybe I just noticed the word cackling a lot. 
 So within a month, Ceony starts falling in love with Emery. Not a surprise, because I would totally be falling in love with him too. Still, it was a bit cringe-inducing because he is her teacher, and he's 31, while she's 19. At least it wasn't insta-love. She goes from intensely disliking him to falling in love with him after he makes her an animate paper dog. To be fair, I'd probably fall in love with someone if they presented me with an animal as well. 
 The biggest problem I had with this was the pacing. It started off well, but then the author would describe minor details for a good few pages, and all of a sudden, major event! And the last 2/3 (approximately) involve Ceony delving into Thane's past and seeing visions of it- while on the run from the villainous, cackling Lira. The pacing is probably why I ended up not liking the book as much as I thought I would at the beginning. 
 Another issue is the time period its set in. I understand the book is historical fiction, but its not clear at all what time period the book takes place in. Certain details seemed very out of place with others, and I just couldn't quite get a grasp on it. 
 I bought this book via kindle for about $2-$3, so I guess it wasn't very expensive, but I 
 l'll definitely be getting the next two books through my library. I'd recommend that others interested in these books do the same.