Review: The Prophet by Amanda Stevens

The Prophet by Amanda Stevens
Series: Graveyard Queen, #3
Published by Mira on April 24th 2012
Genres: Ghosts, Paranormal, Urban Fantasy
Pages: 347
Format: Paperback
Source: Library
Rating:
Heat:

My name is Amelia Gray.
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.

I am back with a review for the third installment in the Graveyard Queen series and I have to say, I think I have an addiction problem. I can’t seem to stop reading them. The only reason book four is on hold is because it got delayed in transit, which I guess is okay because I am totally lacking sleep.

The Prophet picked up on some of the events that occurred in the first book. The ghost of Robert Fremont is back and he wants Amelia to find his killer because he wants to move on. To make things worse, Shani - Devlin’s dead daughter is haunting her as well because she is also in desperate need of Amelia to help her move on.

We are thrown back on the mystery behind the death of Devlin’s wife and daughter as well as his partner that ironically occurred on the same night. Amelia is facing trouble because neither of the ghost seem to want to leave her alone and now Shani is actually haunting her, so she needs to find a way to help the scared little girl move on.

This installment was good, I really enjoyed it. It did lack in the creepy atmosphere that the other two books centered around, making it very easy to read in the middle of the night. Despite that, the writing was still so beautiful it just draws you in, Steven’s tells an amazing story and her skills in writing just make me oh so happy on the inside.

Can we just talk about how each book in this series is as strong as the one before it? I am completely blown away and happy about it. It makes picking up each book easy known that I am going to come away satisfied long after the pages are done.

I love Amelia, and I love the growth of her character.. Sure, she had a few juvenile moments when it comes to John Devlin, but overall, she is growing as a character. I also enjoyed how realistic her approach to going back to Oak Grove Cemetery was after the events that occurred in book one. She is slowly developing, growing and learning how to fend for herself. It makes me a bit mad that her father did not prepare her for the world that she is forced upon, since clearly the rules are doing nothing to help her and from the hints in the book - it seems it didn’t help him much in the past either. (Thought this is just my assumption)

Darius a new character enters into the plot-line and Amelia finds herself in the world of voodoo, palm reading and a bit of African shaman magic. This opens up a whole new possibility for the next couple of books, ups the stakes and makes it that much more interesting.

As far as romance, I liked the unexplained connection between Devlin and Amelia, which makes for some really amazing chemistry.

Honestly there was very little in this book that I didn’t like, that being said… what the hell was up with the ending? Is it me or the killer was kind of random? Like Stevens just threw together the ending the last minute. It felt like I missed a page or two of information in the end there and for a second I was worried I got the wrong copy. Everything happened so damn fast that chunks felt missing. It was like she was just in a hurry to finish it up.

Also, that revelation in the end about Shani - woah… totally did not see that coming.

Memorable Quotes

“You’re very light,” he said. “You’ve lost weight since last spring.”

“That’s because I’m haunted.”

“What haunts you?” he asked softly.

“You do.”