(The Graveyard Queen #3)
Amanda Stevens
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I am the Graveyard Queen, a cemetery restorer who sees ghosts. My father passed down four rules to keep me safe and I've broken every last one. A door has opened and evil wants me back.
In order to protect myself, I've vowed to return to those rules. But the ghost of a murdered cop needs my help to find his killer. The clues lead me to the dark side of Charleston—where witchcraft, root doctors and black magic still flourish—and back to John Devlin, a haunted police detective I should only love from afar.Now I'm faced with a terrible choice: follow the rules or follow my heart.
This series has been a wonderful ride since book one and I am so pleased to say that book three, The Prophet was an easy five stars for me!
Amelia is back in Charleston in this one and Devlin is back in her life full force. As Amelia comes to terms with the fact that she has gotten the attention of some scary sort of ghosts from the other side, she also deals with her feelings for Devlin. Should she stay away like she knows is best? Should she tell him about his ghosts? I really loved that we were back into this story line, it felt almost like coming home after book two's detour into a new setting and new love interest. This book made me love Devlin more than the first, I'm not sure why. Something about him in this book was even more sexy. Maybe because he and Amelia spend some more quality time together and we get to actually learn more about him.
At the end of The Restorer, book one in the series, we met Robert Fremont and discovered he was actually a ghost - one that can come out during the daytime, speak, and appear to be fully human. We learned that he is very powerful and that he wanted Amelia's help to solve his murder so he could finally rest in peace. Of course, in attempting to do this, Amelia's path crosses with Devlin's time and time again as she learns more about he and Fremont's friendship prior to his murder. I was really interested in this plot line and I thought it was laid out nicely. Although I figured out the culprit before Amelia, I still thought everything was well written and not overly predictable.
Alongside this plot there is also the ongoing situation with Devlin's ghosts, his wife Mariama and daughter Shani. This was my favorite part of the plot in book one, and I was disappointed that both ghosts were pretty much nonexistent in the sequel. So I was super excited that they were back in this book! Mariama is as creepy as always, hanging on to Devlin and showing her obvious disdain for he and Amelia's "relationship". Shani is my favorite ghost in the series, as I would imagine she would be for many readers since all the other ghosts are terrifying! Shani reminds me of that scary little girl in The Sixth Sense that at first is completely horrifying but then we come to learn that she just wants Hayley Joel Osment's help. That's Shani. In this one she goes to extreme lengths to get Amelia's help and I loved watching her story play out. We also get to learn much more about Mariama, her relationship with Devlin prior to her death, and her and Shani's death itself. In fact, author Stevens really wraps up their story and leaves me wondering where the next book will go.
Did I say "next book"? Yep. Stevens recently announced that there will at least three more books in this series (*does happy dance*).
Reccommended for fans of: ghost stories, voodoo, cemeteries, and sexy police detectives.
I stopped reading this series for some reason I no longer remember. Dang I need to pick this up again! I want to know what the heck is up with Devlin's ghosts! Thanks for reminding me!
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I just finished The Abandoned last night which is the novella/beginning to this series. Excited to get my hands on the rest of the books!
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