Review--City of Ghosts

IT'S A THIN LINE BETWEEN ALIVE AND UNDEAD.

Chess Putnam has a lot more on her plate. Mangled human corpses have started to show up on the streets of Downside, and Chess's bosses at the Church of Real Truth have ordered her to team up with the ultra-powerful Black Squad agency to crack the grisly case.

Chess is under a binding spell that threatens death if she talks about the investigation, but the city's most notorious crime boss--and Chess's drug dealer--gets wind of her new assignment and insists on being kept informed. If that isn't bad enough, a sinister street vendor appears to have information Chess needs. Only he's not telling what he knows, or what it all has to do with the vast underground City of Eternity.

Now Chess will have to navigate killer wraiths, First Elders, and a lot of serious nasty magic--all while coping with some not-so-small issues of her own. And the only man Chess cant trust to help her through it all has every reason to want her dead.

Stacia Kane's City of Ghosts was one wild ride! From beginning to end the action is nonstop, the level of action varies, but Chess is one very busy girl. And the case takes a serious toll on her as does the after effects of Unholy Magic.

Chess is having to deal with the ultimate cold shoulder from Terrible as she just comes to grips with realizing her feelings for him. There's a lot of tension whenever they're together and since Bump wants to be kept informed on her new case, that means interacting with Terrible.

And this case of Chess's is huge! She has to take an unbreakable oath where she cannot tell anyone anything about the case or suffer the severe consequences. Which makes getting help from Terrible and other people almost impossible. Plus working with another person, Lauren, who is the Black Squad agent, who has more seniority than Chess and has more powerful connections.

The working relationship between them is like sticking the cheerleader with the outcast, for Lauren is totally preppy in some instances and while not a neat freak, gives off that attitude of being something like one. Can't explain it, but she thinks she's better than Chess and she's really kind of annoying of course we see this through Chess's eyes so my opinion might be biased.

The case is a real doozie too. There are tons of scary looking creatures popping up and lots of bloodshed as well. It gets really dark at times, but it sets the mood and the scene. Downside is a scary place especially after dark and the residents there are ultra creepy too, shady people.

Chess must work harder than ever on this case, let alone trying to mend the fences between Terrible. The case itself doesn't seem nearly as hard as the former since Terrible wants nothing to do with her. The anger from him is totally raw and gutless, he really makes her feel crappy about what she did to him and she already feels crappy enough.

Then Chess starts making discoveries about the case that are better left unknown and soon she realizes that she's too far in to back out and the consequences, once again, will be deadly.

In the end there are a lot of surprising twists and I wish I could say I saw them coming, but honestly I don't tend to analyze when reading and solve the case ahead of time. Sometimes I do, but it's an unconscious decision, so I didn't pay close enough attention to see these surprises. But wow, the extent of some of these twists at the end were shocking and made me need to finish the book that much faster to assure myself there was a resolution at the end...and you have to read it to find out if there was resolution in the end.

There are some pretty intense moments in here, won't get into some of them because then they turn spoiler like or will lead to spoilers. The action gets intense like I said and it really grabs you, especially if you're good at visualizing all the gory details! Books can be more gory than movies if you have the right imagination!

The ending was pretty damn satisfying as well, if I do say so myself. Of course the series will continue on next year, which I'm looking forward to.

Overall I give the book 5/5 stars!