Review: Sacrificial Magic (Downside Ghosts, #4) by Stacia Kane

AJ

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Review

It was her problem, and she’d deal with it. Because dealing with personal problems was so fucking high on her list of skills. 

OMG, I am such a high after reading this book. The last 20% just blew my mind! It was so incredible! Warning – there are spoilers below because I absolutely had to gush about them, but they are marked so it’s safe to read on.

Chess. Ahhh Chess… you deliciously screwed up, junkie Churchwitch. Could I love you any more than I do? I think not. The books in this series are told from Chess’ POV, so you always get to see her inner monologue and know exactly what she is thinking, but in this book there was a lot of time spent inside of her head, and it is a truly fascinating place to be. We discover a little bit more detail about the horrors Chess experienced in her past, and come to fully understand just how broken she is and the self-loathing that she still experiences. It’s utterly tragic.

The only shining light in her life (apart from her ass-kicking witchery) is Terrible. Wow! I already know I couldn’t love him any more than I do! He is amazing and, despite all of her issues, and her rampant drug use, he truly loves his Chessiebomb and accepts her in all of her fucked-up glory.

“You do what you need an aint’ try telling you no, but… taking you to bed, want you there, not just your body. An want you knowin it’s me. Love you, Chess. Dig?”

And I love that even despite how screwed up she is, Chess acknowledges that he makes her happy.

The face… was strong and it was Terrible’s. That meant it was hers to look at as much as she wanted, and that made something she thought might be genuine happiness ride higher in her chest. 

Their blissful romance takes a hit in this book when Chess has a total freak out (all related to the previously mentioned self-loathing so you sort of understand her thought processes here). Granted, she is high as a kite at the time, which is never a good way to start an argument, but she’s so dysfunctional, that she brings the whole thing crashing down around her. This does allow for a period of self-reflection though and, with the help of her Mentor, Elder Griffin (who I love by the way), Chess comes back to Terrible fairly quickly – and wow, it is freaking hot!!!!

Spoiler
Hot make-up sex in a car during a thunderstorm (and only in the car because they couldn’t wait to get home). A triple whammy of hotness, does it get any better?
 But the full resolution to that part of the story doesn’t come until the end of the book, and is tied in with the action.

The ghosty storyline in this book was fantastic, despite all of the personal dramas going on I got really sucked into it, and it kept me guessing right up until the last moment. Chess is investigating a school which has reported a haunting. The school is in Slobag’s territory so we get to see a lot of Lex (which is a good thing, because I really like him) and we are introduced to a new character – Beulah, who I hope we get to see again. As always, this intertwines with a private investigation that she is doing for Bump (gotta love him “yay”), and the mystery and suspense builds until the insanely intense, action-packed finale. Absolutely, totally epic!!! My heart was pounding through the whole thing.

Warning – this is a big spoiler, but I can’t help but gush over it a bit.

Spoiler
At the end of the fight Chess is so full of power that she is left with a decision to make – she can give up her shitty life and start fresh and happy, uber powerful and forgetting about everything that has happened to her in her life. Or she can continue on with her pain, her horrible memories, her scars, her drug addiction… and Terrible.

Terrible came with it, and those long nights lying in bed barely able to breathe because she thought her happiness would choke her as his chest rose and fell beneath her head. Or the mornings when she woke up and he was looking at her, watching her sleep, and there was something in his eyes that she knew was hers, just hers, that nobody else in the world had ever seen before.
…
She couldn’t bear the thought of forgetting it. She’d fought for it, she’d fought so hard, she’d earned it. It was hers and hers alone, and the only thing in the world that really and truly was. 

I was weeping reading this… weeping like a little girl. My heart was breaking for poor Chess and all that she had been through. But at the same time, I was so proud of her and of the realisation that she came to. And then she is in Terrible’s arms and she tells him “I chose you” ..and then… “He kissed her, slow and tender, like she mattered. Because she did, at least to him. And she thought she might even be able to believe it”. Oh my God, it just set me off on another round of tears. I was left utterly speechless! 

This is my favourite book of the series so far. There are lots of spooky moments, lots of gore and blood and vomit and drug taking. But there is also a beautiful romance, and the story of a very broken girl who is just starting to figure herself out. There is a happy ending, and a nice set up for the next book, which should be very interesting!

I’ll end the gushing now with this fabulous quote:

Love was full of secrets. Love masked so many evils. Love controlled people, it lied to them, it made them believe things that weren’t true and it hid the truth from them. People said love was blind, but what they meant was that love blinded them. It made them more vulnerable than anything else could.
And it felt so fucking good.

 

Please see our Downside Ghosts page for more series info – including reading order, review and buy links.

 

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