The Graveyard Queen series by Amanda Stevens is the perfect storm of mystery, creepy encounters and heart-racing storyline. Add in a dash of forbidden romance and you have a series that is meant to capture and keep the reader. Stevens leaves out all the useless fluff and, because of this, her stories move at a heart-racing pace at times. If you are looking for a book you can pick up and put back down, this is not the series for you. Once you start, you are hooked, and these books move fast! I have read the first two in the series (I'm working on #3) in 4 days! Yes, 4 days!
Amelia Gray is a graveyard restorer with a secret, she can see ghosts, but this isn't another "Ghost Whisperer." Amelia does not want to help these ghosts, in fact she ignores their very presence because the possibilities that arise when you acknowledge the presence of a ghost could drain the very life from your body. In her work as a cemetery restorer, Amelia has many opportunities to see the ghosts that come through the veil at night to wander with, and sometimes haunt, the living. When she has her first sighting as a small child, her father gives her 4 simple rules to live by: never acknowledge the dead, never stray too far from hallowed ground, stay away from those who are haunted, and never, ever, tempt fate.
In the first book, The Restorer, Amelia finds herself restoring a historical cemetery that is connected to a southern university with a strange past. A body is found in this cemetery and Amelia is brought in to help with the investigation. Her meticulous cataloguing of the cemetery with both notes and photographs makes her an invaluable asset for the investigators, as well as a target for the killer. The lead detective on the case, John Devlin, unknowingly pulls Amelia into a twisted game of cat and mouse, and in the process their attraction, and his fierce need to protect her, draws them closer together. There's only one problem, Devlin is haunted. What will Amelia do? She cannot break her father's rules, but she cannot stop her feelings for Devlin. During the course of the investigation Amelia finds things that both chill her and pull her deeper into her internal struggle to keep her promise to her father. We find out that Amelia is a natural investigator, and that she unknowingly seeks help from someone, or something, that she shouldn't.
Book two, The Kingdom, calls Amelia to a secluded town called Asher Falls to help restore an old family cemetery with a dark and sordid past. Immediately Amelia feels a strong connection to this dark and secluded place, but she cannot figure out why. This small town once had an ancient cemetery that was flooded by one of the towns higher-ups, but the bodies of those laid to rest at the old Thorngate Cemetery were not moved before the flooding. To make up for this slight, the Asher family donated land adjacent to their family cemetery so that others could be buried. This, the new Thorngate Cemetery, is what Amelia was called to restore. Her benefactor is unknown, and the town seems reticent to have her around. She discovers very quickly the evil that lurks around Asher Falls and what its inhabitants, living or dead, are capable of. While in Asher Falls, Amelia finds out something about her past and begins to slowly understand why she has such a strong, guttural connection to this place. The evils that lurk in this town try to stop Amelia from completing her work, because to do so will uncover a scandal that has been kept under wraps for more than 25 years.
I am currently reading the third book, The Prophet, and I can tell you that, so far, it is just as gripping as the others. I couldn't help writing this review early, because I am reacting to a book about the supernatural, which is unusual for me. Ghost stories are usually not my cup of tea, but the mystery and crime novel connections in this book make the ghost stories a seamless undercurrent story line that I have come to enjoy.
When you read these books, I would love to know what you think!
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