READ THIS BOOK!!! - THE KINGDOM BY AMANDA STEVENS

One of my favorite books of 2011 was THE RESTORER, the first in Amanda Stevens' Graveyard Queen series. I reviewed it here and raved about it to every reader I know (and some I didn’t!). So I waited impatiently for the second in the series, THE KINGDOM, and luckily scored an ARC. I loved it, too! Here’s the back cover summary:

Deep in the shadowy foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains lies a dying town…

My name is Amelia Gray. They call me The Graveyard Queen. I've been commissioned to restore an old cemetery in Asher Falls, South Carolina, but I'm coming to think I have another purpose here.

Why is there a cemetery at the bottom of Bell Lake? Why am I drawn time and again to a hidden grave I've discovered in the woods? Something is eating away at the soul of this town—this withering kingdom—and it will only be restored if I can uncover the truth.

The heroine and Graveyard Queen, Amelia Gray, sees ghosts. All her life she lived by her father’s rules to keep them at bay—until she met the haunted John Devlin in The Restorer and opened a door she cannot close again. In leaving Charleston she’s also left Devlin and before she even arrives in Asher Falls, she meets the handsome, charming Thane Asher whose family pretty much owns the town. But in spite of a mutual attraction, there are too many creepy happenings in the town for Amelia to trust anyone. Ultimately she learns horrifying secrets that change her life forever, but not before they nearly kill her.

As with The Restorer, The Kingdom is a deliciously creepy Southern gothic story that drew me in and kept me up late into the night. The eerie mood, ambiguous characters and ghostly entities are perfectly blended in a story of horror, discovery and redemption. I thought I’d miss Devlin (he doesn’t actually appear in this book except as a memory) because I loved him in The Restorer, but once I got into the story I was totally hooked. Read this book! It stands on its own, but is much better if you’ve read The Restorer which was recently released in mass market paperback.

And the third book in the series—THE PROPHET--will be released in May. 

Scary, Scary Night

For most of us, Halloween represents kids in cute costumes and parents idling on the sidewalk while their little ones pirouette or rawr at a neighbor's door. We stuff candy into plastic pumpkins and pillowcases and marvel at babies with whiskers drawn on their faces and at six-footers in hockey gear.

Others, however, "see" ghosts and "hear" things that go bump in the night. Halloween raises the hair at the backs of their necks and turns their skin to gooseflesh. These people don't find this time of year precious or fun—and with good reason. They understand things about it that would make the rest of us lock our doors and cower under our beds.

I cede the floor to three writers who know what's afoot tonight: Catie Rhodes, Amanda Stevens, and Debra Kristi. In addition, K. B. Owen gives us an overview of how Halloween traditions arrived in the U.S. and were celebrated in the past.

Catie Rhodes writes about real people in scary situations, and many of her stories are set in her native Texas. She dubs every Friday "Freaky Friday" and recently told tales about a headless Texas horseman and horror in a Houston suburb.

Houston author Amanda Stevens (The Dollmaker, The Restorer) tells an appropriate-for-Halloween story featuring Houston's old Jefferson Davis Hospital at Dark Fairie Tales.

Debra Kristi gets creepy with the tale of a child's encounter with the supernatural .

According to K. B. Owens, we must thank (or curse) the Irish and Scots for the Samhain traditions we celebrate tonight.

I sincerely hope you survive this evening.

THE RESTORER—A DELICIOUSLY CREEPY SOUTHERN GOTHIC NOVEL

I loved this book and as soon as I finished it wanted to read every one in the series. Unfortunately Amanda Stevens has written them yet. So I immediately downloaded the free prequel—The Abandoned--to my Kindle and read that. I’ve read other books by Ms. Stevens and thoroughly enjoyed them. THE RESTORER, however, is in a league of its own.

NEVER ACKNOWLEDGE THE DEAD.
NEVER STRAY FROM HALLOWED GROUND.
NEVER GET CLOSE TO THE HAUNTED.
NEVER, EVER TEMPT FATE.
My father's rules.
I've never broken them...until now

Amelia Gray is a cemetery restorer. She also sees ghosts. Since she discovered her ability when she was nine, she's never broken her father's rules. The rules have kept her safe. But when the body of a murdered young woman is found in the graveyard she's restoring, the dangerously attractive Detective John Devlin comes looking for her for help.

Unfortunately he's haunted and Amelia is attracted to him like no man she's ever known. As the bodies pile up, Amelia is drawn into the investigation and closer to the man she knows she should stay away from. Add a secret society, shadows in the night, a cyber-stalker and, of course, Devlin's ghosts and you have a book that keeps you on the edge of your seat from page one to The End.

Amanda Stevens has an amazing talent for writing intriguing gothic mysteries set in the South--in this case Charleston. Her characters are full of quirks and eccentricities, charm and secrets. Amelia is the perpetual outsider who unravels just enough secrets to reveal a darker mystery that underlies the series. Devlin is reminiscent of the great tortured heroes of the classics--REBBECCA's Maxim de Winter, JANE EYRE's Rochester, and even the haunted Heathcliff--and, like them, the reader isn't sure if he's the hero or the villain. And neither is Amelia.

If you’re looking for a chilling mystery with a twist, this one delivers. I had only one complaint about this book--that it ended and I have to wait for the next in the series to get more!