Saturday 14 July 2012

Review: Finding Magic - Stacia Kane

Karen Marie Moning has called Stacia Kane's Downside Ghosts series "dark, sexy urbanfantasy at its finest." Now, in this breathtakingly suspenseful eBook novella,Kane has written a prequel to her thrilling series. Before Chess Putnam was amagic-wielding Churchwitch, she was a student in the Church of Real Truth-witha keen sensitivity to magic, a strong rebellious streak, and a penchant forself-destruction. And in Finding Magic, a grisly ghost murder becomesChess's baptism of fire.

When eighteen-year-old Chess Putnam is offered the chance to train with aspecial team of investigators known as the Black Squad, she feels torn. She'snever been a team player and hates how one male Inquisitor condescends to "thenew kid." But at her first bloody crime scene, she gets a taste forinvestigation-and is hooked on the high. Though the seasoned Inquisitorsconsider the series of ghost murders random events, Chess starts to detect apattern. Is a psycho killer summoning ghosts from the City of Eternity andusing them as murder weapons? As Chess gets closer to the dark truth, she putsherself in grave danger and risks losing everything she's fought so hard for.

Includes a special preview of Stacia Kane's upcoming urban fantasy thriller, Chasing Magic!

Downside Ghosts Series:
The Brave Tale of Maddie Carver (Free Short Story)
Finding Magic (Novella)
Unholy Ghosts
Unholy Magic
City of Ghosts
Home (Novella)
Sacrificial Magic
Chasing Magic

Visit Stacia Kane's website for more information

Review:
I have had Stacia Kane's Downside Ghosts series on my wish list for ages now but for some reason I'd never actually got around to picking up a copy of the first book Unholy Ghosts. So when I saw this prequel novella available on Netgalley I jumped at the chance to review it. As someone who is completely new to the series I was a little worried that there might be things in the novella that didn't make much sense to me - I've had that happen a lot where a story that is supposed to be a prequel is actually better when read after at least the first couple of books. Luckily that wasn't the case with Finding Magic, yes I was left with questions after I finished reading but it had me so keen to find out more that I immediately ordered the first book!

Chess is 18 years old and has been training to become a Churchwitch for the last three years. From what we've seen of her so far she isn't the typical heroine that you come across in urban fantasy novels. She has had a difficult childhood being passed from one foster home to another and has obviously been left emotionally scarred by the abuse she has suffered. We don't find out the full information about what happened to her so I'm assuming that is something that you discover more of as the series progresses but we see enough to know that she is haunted by the past. She is desperate to make something of her life but at the same time she doesn't feel worthy of any of the good things that happen to her. It was sad to see how she uses alcohol as a crutch to make it through each day but I have a feeling things are going to get worse for her before they get better.

I enjoyed finding out about the world Stacia Kane has created, I want to learn more about Haunted Week and exactly what happened during it and am looking forward to getting to know Chess better as the series continues. Anyone who is curious about the series could easily read this novella as an introduction and if you're anything like me it will leave you wanting more.

Source: Received from publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review

Other Reviews:
If you have reviewed this book on your blog please leave a link to your review in the comments & I'll add the link here.

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