Stacia Kane

I originally gave this book 5 stars, then decided that I wasn't being true to myself.
I love the story, the world, the Downside slang, the characters and especially Ms. Kane's style of writing.

What I don't like is the drug use and not that the character uses drugs. Its just not very plausible or realistic to me. Chess does so many drugs in both amount and variety that there is no way (realistically) that she'd be able to go undetected. Nor do I think that she'd be able to appear coherent to anyone she encounters.

I'm hoping that the drug use decreases in subsequent books. It has become a distraction to me;not in that it exists, but how much is being portrayed.

That being said - this is a damn good book with top-notch writing.… (mere)

Prelim Review: This is more of a 4.5--and that .5 is only taken off because holee hell on a stick there is going to be smackdowns in the next book and I don't know who to vote for. I mean I really like Terrible--something about the man just makes me feel warm and smile. But Lex. Oh man. We share a name! And the cadence of his speech just sounds...beautiful. Of the two Lex is more my type honestly.

Chess just doesn't get a break from the crap life is tossing at her. And this time something far better then any high she has ever been on is offered, is sampled, and it broke my heart. I give her credit, she laid it all out for Terrible. She put herself out there for him in so many ways, just like he does for her.

Its been a few months since I've been cruising Downside so the slang and speech patterns initially threw me for a loop. One of the things I love about the Downside books is that Kane DOES infuse the books with a lot of slang, colloquialisms and street talk. Kane immerses you into the language head first, rarely pausing to have Chess explain something and usually giving the reader context to decipher.

Full review to be posted at Romance Reader at Heart… (mere)