Karen’s Comments (group member since Jun 07, 2016)

Karen’s comments from the Not Just Another Buddy Read group.

Renae wrote: "Hi all! Im Renae. Really pleased to be joining this group. Im in Australia and would love to make some buddies. I enjoy reading a variety of books. Mystery, suspence, romance and biographies are my..."

Hi Renae! Welcome to our group :)

More comments on the book! I just had typed a lot of stuff and then lost it using the app on my phone. Grrr!

How did Oliver Fletcher turn out to be such a cool character?! I can't believe he even secured Chess' job at the end by calling in a favor from the Elder due to their past winky face winky face history lol The picture thing was really nice too.

I had a feeling Terrible was going to get hurt! But I didn't expect the self sacrifice and Chess keeping him alive by using the rune. I wonder what the long term affects will be for Terrible. Will he attract ghosts or have some sort of affinity to them?

I'm probably not going to read Book 3 but I would love to hear what happens in the Terrible & Chess department Erin! Could you tell us what happens? Right here on the thread if Kristy doesn't mind since I think she mentioned she wouldn't be picking up book 3 either.

I thought the whole final showdown was very well done. My favorite part was when Chess got through the final door to break the spell on the building and they rushed out and had the final confrontation with Horatio. Now that I think about it, who in the world were those guys that seemed like Horatio's willing henchmen? The ones were also binded to ghosts and who fought with the gang members outside the building? Because seriously who would be crazy enough to follow Horatio willingly? The stuff that was happening with the hooker ghosts was disgusting. Ugh. I really still think the whole sexual element to the murderer's plot line was not necessary. I'm all for smut but it didn't fit here imo. And why the tearing out of the eyes? I think he was giving them to the main hooker ghost right? But it seems to me he ripped out more than necessary? Whatever, I guess who can explain the workings of a madman and his crazy ghost lol

I was soo confused by the word psychopump. I didn't know what it was and tried to use context clues to figure it out. Birds are definitely psychopumps but somehow so was her skull but I guess the skull is a special one she got from the Church since she is a Debunker to summon those special dogs? They also mentioned that people who have that rune to trap the soul are also psychopumps? Didn't really get that part at the end.

Also, more creative world building from the author for throwing in details like people having to pay a fine for saying Oh my God or Oh God and also mentioning it is absolutely forbidden to kill birds.

All in all I'm super glad I read the whole thing! Yaay! It was great :) A very creative story. I had never read a book like it but I'm very happy I gave it a try.

Thank you for recommending it Erin :)

Yeah Terrible has every right to be mad and I'm glad he tells it to her straight because she makes bad decisions and needs a wake up call. Now she realizes Terrible was right for her and she realizes she should be with him even though she's scared of getting hurt.

Soooo I finished the book! With just five minutes to spare here on the East coast. Woohoo! Sorry for the delay but I really enjoyed it :)

LOL I love Oliver Fletcher in the scenes where he met Terrible, asking Chess what was up with their huge UST and whining about Chess not helping him with his wound.

And OMG that chalk scene was the sexiest thing in the entire book!!! But the blow out right after....ouch!!

I'm actually care about these characters because that scene was very exciting and agonizing for me to read :) And Oliver Fletcher again stuck in the middle going like what the heck guys????

Yeah! I think that's what hurt Terrible the most. When he figured out she had slept with Lex the very night he finally mustered up the courage to tell her how he felt. Ouch.

Let's see...

OH! So I read the part where Terrible was waiting for Chess on the steps outside her apartment and my heart did this crazy leap!!! lol But then I realized he was still pissed (of course). It's so sad how she was begging and begging him to believe her. The girl has horrible timing though because she had just come back from sleeping with Merrit.

And then Merritt trying to get an actually date with Chess the next day. He really is barking up the wrong tree!

I also read the part where she confronts Fletcher and he tells her it must be his old crazy friend Horatio. Why in the world did she think it was a good idea to confront Fletcher and tell him I know you killed all those people? Especially when she thought he was a murderer? If he *had* been the murderer she was putting herself in a very dangerous situation. But I guess the author did it like that for the sake of the plot.

AHHH!!! The fallout at the beginning of Chapter 22 is the worst!!!!

That was suck a raw scene :( "Since when Chess?" "Tulip?" "At least a whore's honest." Daamn....

And then the first thing she does after she gets home is decide to get piss drunk. She really does make the worst life choices. I feel like the murderer is going to attack her now that her defenses are completely down.

Also, forgot to mention it but a few chapters back the tv show producer blackmailed her into not talking about how he's faking the haunting. Doesn't seem like she going to do much else in that regard?

The meet up of the gang wasn't as bloody as I imagined! Good good! I guess I didn't realize that Lex knows she's playing both sides so she told him to keep them on the down low.

I read the response she gave to Terrible, about her wanting some time. I wasn't sure what to feel about that. I guess she told him the truth.

Then I got to the end of Chapter 21. I remember you guys saying that a big thing happens there! I was thinking she was going to get ambushed by the enemy or one of the two gangs. She wasn't literally ambushed but like she said they got her where it would hurt the most! Terrible saw her with Lex!!! (I keep wanting to write Jax for some reason).

It was kind of inevitable and if Terrible really knows her, this should not come as such a big surprise. Well, the surprise is that it's Lex, son of the enemy. But that she would be sleeping with someone else? He know she does casual hookups.

Well either way it must hurt him to see her with someone else first hand. Also, it's the enemy so of course he can only think the worst, that she's been telling Lex all the secrets of Terrible and his gang. *sigh* It's so messy :(

I stopped right at the end so haven't found out what happens next yet!

Aww thanks Kristy! I feel bad because I took such a long time to read Unholy Magic! I'm actually still reading it now!!!!

But I will list the possible next books soon. Thanks again :)

Also, what do you guys think about having one thread per book we read? So that discussion is neater? Also, if we do it this way, you can select or "attach" the book we are reading to the thread. I think that makes the thread appear on the book's page so that we get more foot traffic. I'm also okay with how it's set up now though. It's just a suggestion but if we decided to do it the other way now would be the time to make the change.

I stopped reading for today at the end of Chapter 20.

I got to the part where Terrible confessed. Awwww~ it was so cute and sincere. She is such a big time commitment phobe.

And the ghost in the actor's house is fake!! I'm pretty sure it's the movie star's producer's doing but we shall see...

I'm guessing the next chapter is where everything gets upended. The two gangs meeting up...dun dun duun!!

Erin I saw on my front page feed that you finished the 3rd book already! Wow!!

Edit: Oh, and I just realized I haven't mentioned one of the big reveals. Is the murderer that is killing the hookers really building a ghost brothel?!! Waaaah??? Who would their clientele be?? That is so weird : o So far it's Chess' theory but I wonder if that is what turns out to be actually happening. I shall find out soon!

Hi Kristy!! Aww thanks! It's fun to buddy read with you guys :) I hope next time I can read at the same time you guys did!

I just got to Chapter 19 and GRRRRR!!! She did one of those abrupt, cliffhanger transitions again. Chess asked Terrible about his daughter and then bang, scene change. I need to know what he saaaid! lol

I'll be back once I read more. And yes, can't wait to get to that big betrayal scene!!

Edit: Oh! Never mind, it was just a small transition and I got my answers :)

Also, about Chess going to withdrawals that night. I know what you mean, I wish she would just let it all get out of her system but one night wouldn't have been enough. :/

Now on Chapter 15!

I like the haunting in the movie's star house...at least I like that story the security guard told her. It's eerie! A ghost holding an axe and a chopped off head!!

So far I like this story line more than the ones about the hookers getting killed and their eyes torn out. That scene where the owl came to scare Chess randomly at night wasn't really scary at all.

Awww Terrible and Chess are having a fight :-(

Oh and random comment from a few chapters back, the fact that the movie star and his wife were having a sex party lol I wonder if that actually has something to do with the storyline or if it was just randomly thrown in.

Edit:
Chapter 16

Wow! She's going through withdrawal after just a few hours of not taking anything. She must be REALLY addicted. The scene where she encountered the axe ghost in the movie star's office was fun to read. I think it's fairly obvious that the one behind the haunting is somehow Mr. Fletcher but I'm not sure if the ghosts are real or not....

I read the scene where she went through withdrawal the whole night. That was crazy. I can't imagine needing a drug so much your body falls apart when it can't have it. That was awful to read but very insightful.

And Terrible came to help her! Aww...the first person she even thought about calling.

I'm on Chapter 13 right now. Sorry I'm taking forever but I haven't really found my pacing with this book. I haven't gotten sucked in.

Again, I love some of the clever lines and details the author comes up with. It really helps form a picture in your mind. The latest was when Terrible was beating up some guy named Nestor to collect a debt and she writes "Nestor nodded - Nestor's entire body seemed to nod, but that could have been convulsion."

LOL it's so wrong but it couldn't paint a more perfect picture of the guy writhing in pain on the floor.

What I didn't enjoy was the chase scene in the crematorium the chapter before. It was so disorienting. I couldn't picture it in my head at all. I don't get the ghosts in this book and I'm not sure if it's cause we don't have some backstory but they can physically manifest at random? It's so odd. Also, during this scene is where it really hit me that the bad guy aka the murderer is using sex magic so the whole time Chess is fighting this guy she feels aroused. It's just weird to me. I don't think it's really necessary. Just odd, throws me off. So...let's see if it starts making sense or really "working" as the story progresses.

Also, now I'm starting to see more of Chess and the way she's playing both sides and how deep her addiction to drugs is. I like flawed characters for the most part though. Mostly because it gives them room for redemption and I love a good redemption story. But...based on what you guys said that doesn't happen in this installment of the series so not sure how I'll feel at the end of the book.

Edit: Just finished Chapter 13! Oooooh now she's REALLY working both sides. Again the blow up for this is really inevitable...

Unholy Magic is the only book I'm reading now and I'm revving up the reading speed. I'm in the middle of Chapter 9.

I'll keep posting little thoughts here.

1. I love how technical the author gets with the magic/ghost aspect. Chess could recognize the species of owl from one look at a feather! Amazing! I wonder how much training the Church gives their employees. That part is pretty interesting. Also, how there is a prison for ghosts?!! Waaaah?? I thought they would get exterminated, sent on to the afterlife and that was that so was very surprised by the ghost prison. Also, the ghosts get tortured. The Church does not play around lol

2. The part where Chess goes to the movie star's house for the first time and feels the awful thing in the bathroom! Intriguing...wonder where that is going to lead.

3. Where does the author come up with these little details?!! The fact that the hookers don't like anyone touching their purses cause they can't control who touches their bodies but they can control who touches their stuff. Wow. The author throwing in little details like that always takes me by surprise.

4. Awwww Terrible took her out to eat at a dinner which led to her not doing hard drugs. He's good for her!!! And awww he told her she was smart and she blushed LOL

5. Got to the weird transition at the end of Chapter 8. I'm not sure if I hadn't read your posts I would have realized she meant literally carved out eyeballs instead of eyes still on a person's face. She should have used the word eyeballs instead of eyes. It does say "eyes sitting placidly on gray fabric" but eyeballs would have made it clear. It is a bit weird of a transition regardless. Usually when you end on a cliff hanger the next scene doesn't include the same people/person that was in the cliffhanger scene. Or if it does, it is that person dealing with the aftermath of the cliffhanger moment and then inserting a flashback to explain what happened. Oh well.

I'll be back once I've read some more :)

Sorry for being behind you guys! I'm on Chapter 5 but I plan to read diligently tomorrow and make a lot more progress. I will finish it before the end of the month!

I haven't read the last few posts between you two just because I'm scared of getting spoiled but I will go back to them and read them and reply :) I got the gist of it and glad to hear the book is good and gets really exciting!

Still so many little things about the world I don't understand. The world they live in itself due to this Haunted Week but it's slowly coming together. I think at the end of Chapter 4 they referenced something she went through in the first book.

Omg that street fight was so intense! Love the images in my head of the hookers taking out their cleverly hidden weapons and fighting the gang dudes lol So gritty! I usually read Harry Potter/Game of Thrones level action where stuff gets thrown around and then there is one final dramatic blow but in this book stuff gets real fast! And omg, murderer wearing the eyes of the girl he just killed? Creeeepy!! I also think it's interesting how she has changed up the street dialect/slang. I get surprised by the little details the author throws in but she's slowly building up this very unique world in my head. So the MC is juggling two gangs and the Church? Uh oh! Looks like a recipe for disaster! I'm going to keep reading :) I'll be back with more comments then!

Sorry for being MIA guys! I haven't gotten much reading done but I promise I will finish it eventually!

I already got to the part where Terrible is introduced! Is he the love interest?! Please tell me he is! I read the review you made for the book Erin and it sounded like he was. And I was so surprised but happily so! Since he's introduced as a guy that's not attractive I was thinking ah okay, he's not the love interest but as we read some more I wished he was. He gives me a HUGE Sandor Clegane vibe (aka The Hound from Game of Thrones) who I loveeee. I can't wait to read more.

Haven't read more but will give you an update as soon as I do!

I finished Chapter 1 today at work! It's not bad but I've never read a book like this before. I just finished a book about ghost exterminators that's aimed towards middle school kids. Unholy Magic gave me the same vibe when the specter appeared in chapter 1. But the similarities end right there lol I've never read a book where the main character takes hard drugs and curses and is involved with blood magic. Much darker and grittier than my usual. I wouldn't have picked it up on my own but I guess that's the point of a book club :) It makes you try things you never have before. I'll keep at it!

What should I look forward to up to Chapter 4? Without spoiling of at all possible heehee :)

I'll try to read some today during my down time at work. I read the first couple of pages the day I got it. I was a little confused by what was happening but it was just the beginning so I'll keep reading.

Good luck with those exams!!! I had some hard ones last year...they left me traumatized lol

And okay, the 15th it is :)

Okay, I got the book :D

We can start reading :)

Should we start tomorrow or the 15th?