Title: Finding Magic
Author: Stacia Kane
Series: Downside Ghosts #0.5
Rating Out of 5: 4 (Really good read!)
My Bookshelves: Ghosts, Paranormal fantasy, Urban fantasy
Pace: Medium
Format: eBook, Novella
Year: 2012

I’ve read a Downside Ghosts story in the past, but this is actually the beginning of the series. And it’s also been a long while since I’ve read the original short stories. Finding Magic is a great introduction to this world. It gives a lot of information about this urban fantasy reality that I absolutely ate up. It makes me want to dive into this series and find out what happens to Chess further down the road. She’s at a point of conflict in her life during this, and I wonder how that’s going to resolve leading into the novels within the series.

It was interesting that this is a world in which religion and ghosts play a key part. The history of the intersection between religion and ghosts was integral to this story, and I seriously enjoyed how it became a misaligned feeling throughout. It also highlighted the conflict in Chess. She seems to be seeing the reality behind the religious / cultlike power. It sets the powers that be up to be fallible and corrupt, but also makes you question everything throughout. Chess is so down on herself, painfully insecure and I’m unsure as to whether I enjoyed that more or less.

Alongside all of the phenomenal world building, I really enjoyed the mystery of this story. It was a good murder mystery, and I spent most of the book trying to figure out just who the guilty party was. I was intrigued and it meant that it was incredibly difficult to put this aside for more responsible adulting.

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