URBAN FANTASY REVIEW: Sacrificial Magic by Stacia Kane

Sacrificial Magic 

by Stacia Kane 

(Downside Ghosts #4)

When Chess Putnam is ordered by an infamous crime boss—who also happens to be her drug dealer—to use her powers as a witch to solve a grisly murder involving dark magic, she knows she must rise to the challenge. Adding to the intensity: Chess’s boyfriend, Terrible, doesn’t trust her, and Lex, the son of a rival crime lord, is trying to reignite the sparks between him and Chess.
Plus there’s the little matter of Chess’s real job as a ghost hunter for the Church of Real Truth, investigating reports of a haunting at a school in the heart of Downside. Someone seems to be taking a crash course in summoning the dead—and if Chess doesn’t watch her back, she may soon be joining their ranks.


As Chess is drawn into a shadowy world of twisted secrets and dark violence, it soon becomes clear that she’s not going to emerge from its depths without making the ultimate sacrifice.

REVIEW:

Sacrificial Magic (SM), the 4th book in Stacia Kane’s Downside Ghosts Series and it’s her best book to date.

Cepts, Nips and Panda’s, OH MY. These are all Chess’s drugs of choice, plus the occasional trip the pipe room. Yes, the series about a drug addicted heroine named Chess Putnman that’s a witch investigator that debunks ghost haunting for the Church. But don’t let the drug addiction turn you off. Chess has had a very hard and abusive childhood being passed around different foster homes where the dads and sometime moms have used her as their form of entertainment. Chess at heart is a survivor with very low self-esteems issues. She uses her pills as a way to escape her feelings and pain of the past.

Even though Chess has finally found love, she still believes that she is unworthy of that love and does everything in her power to mess it up. There is one scene (well more than one) in Sacrificial Magic where I just want to slap the hell out of Chess for being self deconstructive when it comes to her relationship with Terrible. Yes the two still does not have it easy and even though I do get frustrated I like the fact that Kane doesn’t turn Chess and Terrible into the old married couple after they FINALLY get together. They both live hard lives and even though they have found love with each other, they have to work at their relationship.
And speaking of being frustrated; SM is a big freaking sexual tease through half of the book! There a few scenes where you thought you were going to get to see Terrible and Chess go at just to have something stop their fun.

Chess finds herself smiling a lot in SM and wondering what that is all about. Could this be what normal people do? Oh and we learn a little something personal about Terrible; he likes his dames o-natural. So no more waxing for Chess. When I read that line in the book I had a huge smile on my face. There was little more humor in SM and it was nice to see.

Chess gets a case from the Church that has been dropped by another debunker at a school on the other side of town where she has to cross the drug dealer’s line finding herself in her ex’s territory. This doesn’t help things with her and Terrible’s relationship. But she has no choice but to work the case. She uses her ties to Lex (her ex) to help figure out what’s going on at the school with the haunting.

Sacrificial Magic is a must read and is my current favorite book for this year and I say with total confidence that the only book that will probably top it will be the next book in the Downside series, Chasing Magic.
Fans of dark and gritty UF with damaged heroine and unusual heroes will fall in love with this series.

ARC provided by Netgalley

URBAN FANTASY REVIEW: City of Ghosts by Stacia Kane

City of Ghosts
by Stacia Kane 
Narrated by Bahni Turpin
(Downside Ghosts #3)
Urban Fantasy
RATING: ★★★★★



REVIEW:

BRAVO!!! Kane has done it again. Each book replaces the last as my favorite in the series.

Kane’s cast of misfits is back in City of Ghosts. Chess is still working for the Church as a debunker and yes she still has her drug addiction. Terrible is still the best anti-hero EVER! We even get to see some of Lex and Bump in this installment.

“Most Debunkers spent their money on actual things, rather than just buying anything they could swallow, smoke or snort. Unlike Chess.”

Just when I thought that Unholy Magic was an emotional ride, here comes City of Ghosts to continue ripping my heart out. I feel like I’m on Chess’ pills with all the highs and lows that the two go through.

After the events in Unholy Magic, Terrible wants nothing to do with Chess and she is miserable without him. And I was miserable wondering when he would show up in the book. Once he did my heart was pounding just as much as Chess’.

“She knew what she saw, and that was all that mattered. Knew what was behind those hard dark eyes, and wanted it more than anything.”

I love when an author creates characters that make me feel the way they feel. My heart was breaking for Terrible and Chess. I was crying when she was crying; I was pissed when he was pissed. I’m so totally involved in these characters and their world that I go into withdrawals waiting for the next book.

“You let people into your life and you ended up getting hurt. Or hurting them. Either way, the road to pain was paved with other people, and she wanted no part of it anymore”

I have never had such a love/hate relationship with the heroine of a series as much as I do with Chess. Terrible and Chess are my addiction and Stacia Kane is quickly rising to the top of my Urban Fantasy list as my favorite author in the genre.

Again if you are a fan of dark and gritty Urban Fantasy you MUST read this series. I cannot wait for Sacrificial Magic to be released on audio so I can devour it and then wait impatiently for Chasing Magic.

City of Ghosts is available at:

Amazon | Barnes & Noble 

I bought my audio copy from Audible.com

The Voice of Chess Putnman:

Bahni Turpin

is an ensemble member of Cornerstone Theater Company in Los Angeles. She has guest starred in many television series including NYPD Blue, Law and Order, Six Feet Under, Cold Case, What About Brian, and The Comeback. Film credits include Brokedown Palace, Crossroads, and Daughters of The Dust. Ms. Turpin received the AudioFile Earphones Award for her unforgettable narration of Precious by Sapphire. She's also a memeber of the cast recording of The Help, which won numerous awards.

URBAN FANTASY REVIEW: Unholy Magic by Stacia Kane

Unholy Magic

by Stacia Kane 

Narrated by Bahni Turpin

(Downside Ghosts #2)

Seriously, if you have not started this series get off your butt and do it! FAN-FREAKING-TASTIC.

This is the going to be a hard review for me to write without spilling the whole story. UGH it was so awesomely heart breaking.

I rarely give a book 5 stars but I had to give this that extra star that the first book, Unholy Ghosts, didn't get. The reason for the extra star? Because of the emotional tug of war I had while reading it. I love Chess, I hate Chess, I want to slap her, I want to be her (minus the drug addiction). There was so many up and down moments between Chess and Terrible in this one that I was wore out after listening to it. There was one scene that I listened to twice because it was so good.

The sexual tension between these two are off the charts. And I love that they are one of those couples that doesn't get together in the first book. It keeps you hanging on to see if they will or won't make it. And you just know if they, do it will be explosive and life changing for the both of them.

“I figure you really wanted me you'd say. Like now, maybe, if you dig. I'll fuckin carry you down your place on a run, you tell me aye, get you on your back afore the next word comes out your mouth. But you oughta have yourself certain, causen I ain't lookin for charity, an I ain't lettin you go after. Once...once ain't enough for me, dig?”

O.M.G. Just reading that quote again makes me what to re-listen to the book again. Terrible is such a great anti-hero. I was told by friends that he might replace Jericho Barrons (Fever series) on the top of my list. He is very close; he and Barrons might have to hang out at the top together for awhile.

So here is a quick run down of what's going on in Unholy Magic. Chess gets another hunting case from the Church to debunk. This time its has the house of a famous movie star. And like in Unholy Ghosts there is a side mystery with dead hookers popping up all over Deadtown. Chess is put in the middle between the Church, Bump and Lex, again.

Chess works the case while trying to balance her personal and work life and stay alive in the process.

Wow you don't know how many times during this review I hit the delete button. It's really hard not to include spoilers when you love a book so much. For all you Urban Fantasy fans that has not started this series yet I highly recommend that you put down what you are reading and start this series TODAY.

URBAN FANTASY REVIEW: Unholy Ghosts by Stacia Kane

Unholy Ghosts

by Stacia Kane 

Narrated by Bahni Turpin

(Downside Ghosts #1)

I started Unholy Ghost in October on my Nook. I could not get past chapter five. Either I wasn’t in the mood for it or it was the slang that got me.

"You won't talk to me, you don't talk to anyone else, you just hang around here in your precious ghetto with all these fucking crazy people who talk like they've never heard a proper word spoken in their lives...."

But some blogger friends keep raving about the series. So I decided to give it another try but this time around I did it in audio book format, thinking it would help me get into the slang that is used by so many of the characters. BINGO.

I’ve read other reviews where people had a hard time liking or connecting with Chess because she is an addict. But I love the fact that Chess is not your typical heroine. Her world is dark and gritty and she’s had a crappy life growing up. She talks about bouncing around from foster homes. How the dads or even the moms would sexually abuse her. And since she has no support group to help her out; it kind of makes sense that she would turn to prescription meds to numb the things done to her.

Even though I personally can’t related to someone with an addiction, I believe reading it through Chess’s eyes gives me a little bit of understanding why someone in her position would live the way she does. But with as much as she takes I don’t see how she has not overdose by now.

Her addiction is what brings Terrible into her life. He is the muscle for Chess’s drug dealer, Bump. (I just love the names that Kane has come up with her for characters.) Bump informs Chess that her debt to him has doubled because of interest which is BS and she calls him on it. Bump tells her if she helps him with his problem with ghosts at an airport that he plans to use to bring in drugs that he will clear her debt with him.
After Chess reluctantly agrees to the deal she is teamed up with Terrible to complete the job. We first see Terrible the way Chess does, big guy with little thoughts. But has the two work together Chess’s view (and mine) of Terrible changes when see she how he truly is. He is self taught, the helps out weaker people in the city like kids. And he becomes someone that she can trust, which is a first for her. You can see a romance building between the two which is something that Chess doesn’t do. She is more into one night stands so that she doesn’t get hurt.

Over all Unholy Ghosts is a great start to a very dark Urban Fantasy series. But it’s not all dark there is some humor mixed in with Chess’s sassy attitude.

“If Mrs. Morton would stop verbally jacking off her husband and son, this would all be done so much more quickly, but then Chess figured it was just about the only sex the woman got.”

Unholy Ghosts is a MUST READ for Urban Fantasy fans! After hearing that each book is better than the last, I can’t wait to jump into Unholy Magic.