Week in Review

Author: Stacia Kane
Title: Chasing Magic
Release: June 26, 2012
Series: Downside Ghosts #5
Reviewer: Suz
Source: ARC provided by publisher through Netgalley
Purchase: Book Depository | Diesel | BooksonBoard | B&N | Amazon

A DEADLY HIGH

Magic-wielding Churchwitch and secret addict Chess Putnam knows better than anyone just how high a price people are willing to pay for a chemical rush. But when someone with money to burn and a penchant for black magic starts tampering with Downside’s drug supply, Chess realizes that the unlucky customers are paying with their souls—and taking the innocent with them, as the magic-infused speed compels them to kill in the most gruesome ways possible.

As if the streets weren’t scary enough, the looming war between the two men in her life explodes, taking even more casualties and putting Chess squarely in the middle. Downside could become a literal ghost town if Chess doesn’t find a way to stop both the war and the dark wave of death-magic, and the only way to do that is to use both her addiction and her power to enter the spell and chase the magic all the way back to its malevolent source. Too bad that doing so will probably kill Chess—if the war doesn’t first destroy the man who’s become her reason for living.

This book made me insane.  Oh, it was surely a happy ride and I’d stand in line to go again, but it was without a doubt pure, emotional insanity.  I said, about the last book, that Stacia Kane had ridden me hard and put me away wet and it’s true here, too.  I feel like the junkie, coming back for more after being wrung out so hard, but I just can’t get enough of this series.  For a long time I thought book #3 in the series was my favorite but I do believe this one is now.  It might go down as the book I most love to hate in the series, too.  There was a lot of emotional dichotomy in this book for me, a lot of emotional extremes.

I’ve been standing up for Chess against the folks who knee-jerk react against her drug abuse since the beginning.  I’ve encouraged people to see beyond her drug use to the person behind it.  I have to own that I’m tired of her drug use and the self hatred and negative mind talk; and I just want to smack her, and shake her, and smack her again and scream in her face and tell her to grow the fuck up.  I’m sick and tired of being patient with her and watching her hover on the border of self-destruction and the annihilation of those around her who care about her (even though she’s so fucking great she always manages to pull it out).  There.  I said it.  I feel so much better.  I feel like I need to be going to Al-Anon meetings over my love of Chess.  My co-dependency has resurfaced and I am making excuses for a relationship whose chaos I would not tolerate in meat-life.  In short, I am completely sucked in!

So, by now you’re thinking that this book is nothing but negative, right?  I’ve made it sound as though it’s all bad and you don’t think you could possible stand to listen to Chess mind-fuck herself through it all?  Well, Chasing Magic is hands-down the most romantic, most action-packed, and most thrilling of all the books in the already superb Downside series.  If you opt out of this book just because I bitched about the stuff that’s driving me nuts with Chess then you’ll miss all the good stuff and there is so much of it that you’ll want to roll around in it like a cat in a patch of cat nip.  When I say “good” I don’t necessarily mean “feel good” but it’s good never the less.

We’ve never seen Terrible quite so tender or so effusive.  There are so many wonderful moments that if Terrible wasn’t on your romance top hits list before he will be after this book.  He’s also never been quite so adamant about putting his foot down and laying down some boundaries while still respecting Chess’ right to choose, and I say “about damned time!”

We’ve never gotten quite so much insight into Bump.  But I’ll let that unfold by itself.

I’ve always felt a dichotomy for Lex.  I empathized with people who liked him and thought he was charming and cared about Chess and understood that he was not to be trusted, but thought that because he cared about Chess he should be cut some slack.  Let me tell you that I read this book two months ago, I’ve had time for it to stew.  When I read this book I decided that I didn’t just hate Lex, I loathed him.  I waited to see if I would still hate him after it stewed for a while.  I still hate him.  You may not.  I do.  I didn’t hate him until this book, and that’s even after he again saved Chess’ life, and I hate him for a scene in this book that he spends with Chess – not for what he tries to do to Terrible (although that doesn’t put him on my fan-girl list, either).

Chess suffers a loss in this book that is very real and ongoing.  It’s something that she’ll have to deal with on a regular basis and it’s poignant and, in my estimation, very telling about how strong she really is.  It’s an extremely hurtful thing to her, but she rolls with it and finds a way to keep on keeping on even though it hurts.  It’s the kind of hurt all of us can relate to in one way or another, I think.

As I write this I have no word about whether or not there will be any more books in this series.  The last I heard there might be one more in the U.K. but there were no known plans for further publishing in the U.S.   According to Goodreads the paperback and Kindle publishing is Del Rey and the ebook is Random House Publishing (in case you might like to write an email expressing your support) although I have not been able to further verify any of this so please don’t hold me or anyone else to that and I am certainly not suggesting an email writing campaign.

All I know is that Downsides Ghosts is one of my most favorite urban fantasy series.  Even when I hate it, I love it and that’s a very difficult thing to get from me as I am not the sort of person who enjoys being teased.  I will watch with baited breath hoping that Stacia Kane finds a way to continue publishing whether it be through conventional publishing methods or not.  As long as there is more to read in this series I will be there with bells on to read it, particularly if it’s half as good as Chasing Magic.

And with one final shot let me now thank Stacia Kane personally for never having written a cliff hanger in this series.  Few things make me feel more respected by an author and this is at the top of my all time favorites list.

Suz has a grown son, two grandsons, a degree in graphic design and loves both computer and studio fine arts. She reads a lot. She's not very good at diplomacy, most people find her abrasive. She grew up cutting her teeth on high fantasy (and low?) ala Anne McCaffrey and science fiction ala Robert Heinlein. She's gone through bouts of Stephen King and the like being her focus, too. But for several years now she's been stuck in Urban Fantasy and Paranormal Romance. She must admit that she is most often scornful of the Paranormal Romance, constantly hoping to find that rare offering that breaks the tropes and molds but cynical and a bit condescending if she doesn't find it. If you see that from her, it means she was too hopeful for the book and ended up disappointed, not scornful of the genre.

Doll Suz

View all posts by Doll Suz
Suzs website

Related posts:

1. ARC Review: Sacrificial Magic by Stacia Kane
2. Rating Event Blog Hop: The Lovely Ms. Stacia Kane and Paperback Action Figure Anton Strout Shares an Author’s Perspective
3. Stacia Kane interview at Dragon*Con feat. Caitlin Kittredge part 1.
4. ARC Two-Doll Review: Magic Slays by Ilona Andrews
5. Street Magic by Caitlin Kittredge (Black London- Book 1)