Review: Chasing Magic by Stacia Kane

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.

Review:

Chasing Magic is the 5^th book in the Downside Ghosts series. This is a series that has been on my tbr list for a while and when the chance came to review Chasing Magic I took the opportunity to get caught up on the whole series. Right away I was hooked and couldn’t put the books down. Chess is pretty kick ass with some major issues she really needs to work through, but struggles with masking them with drugs. Terrible is a drug lord enforcer and I like how he’s a man of few words. I really found myself consumed with the relationship between Chess and Terrible.

In this installment, things have changed in the dynamic of the gangs in Downside as Lex has recently become in charge of his side. With this, it puts Lex and Terrible at odds even more than before and Lex gives the “join me or I’m going to take you out” talk with Terrible. Not only does Chess have to deal with Lex trying to cause trouble with Terrible, dealing with and trying to fix the effects of what she did to save Terrible’s life when he was shot in a previous book, and now there’s some strange drug going around Downside turning people into zombies.

Now even though I’ve really liked each of these books, I think reading all 5 books in a row kind of burnt me out. I started to feel the very basic plot were the same and I got tired of Chess’s self-defeating thoughts/actions. I was hoping for her to grow and kind of move away from her excessive drug use.

Ok, now that those things that bugged me are out of the way, here are the things I liked about Chasing Magic. I liked how in this book Chess was able to focus on basically one task. Where in the previous books she has a job from the Church to investigate and on top of all that she has some mystery in Downside she gets roped into, this time there is no Church job and I felt it was easier for me to follow along without soo much going on. I really like Elder Griffin and was glad to see more of him even if it comes with conflict. And of course who can forget about Terrible *swoon* I love how no matter what stupid choices Chess makes, he’s right there sticking by her. I have hopes for Chess to grow in future books and to start using her brain in her personal relationships not just when dealing with magic.