The Restorer (The Graveyard Queen, #1)

by Amanda Stevens

My father’s rules. I’ve never broken them…until now.

My name is Amelia Gray. I’m a cemetery restorer who sees ghosts. In order to protect myself from the parasitic nature of the dead, I've always held fast to the rules passed down from my father. But now a haunted police detective has entered my world and everything is changing, including the rules that have always kept me safe.

It started with the discovery of a young woman’s brutalized body in an old Charleston graveyard I've been hired to restore. The clues to the killer—and to his other victims—lie in the headstone symbolism that only I can interpret. Devlin needs my help, but his ghosts shadow his every move, feeding off his warmth, sustaining their presence with his energy.

To warn him would be to invite them into my life. I've vowed to keep my distance, but the pull of his magnetism grows ever stronger even as the symbols lead me closer to the killer and to the gossamer veil that separates this world from the next.

• ISBN13: 9781848451469
• Publish Date: 7 September 2012 (first published 19 April 2011)
• Publish Status: Out of Print
• Out of Print: 11 March 2024
• Publish Country: GB
• Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
• Imprint: Mira
• Format: Paperback
• Pages: 368
• Language: English
• URL: http://harpercollins.co.uk

Reviews

[Stephanie]

This review was originally posted on Once Upon a Chapter



I've had The Restorer by Amanda Stevens on my TBR Pile for roughly forever. According to Amazon I bought the Kindle version in 2016 so not quite 4 years. I finally picked it up because it was a recommended read by a COYER participant. As an added bonus it fit the regular rules of COYER as well!

I really enjoyed The Restorer. Basically if there's a ghost story involved it's going to have to go out of its way to make me dislike it. In this book the ghosts don't play a super active role. They are there and they do impact the story but they aren't interactive much with Amelia. It's kind of difficult to explain because obviously the ghosts do interact with Amelia but Amelia is doing her most to pretend like they aren't even there.

Amelia's father's rules are clear; she isn't supposed to even acknowledge the ghosts because they'll latch on in an attempt to steal her own life force. This is the first time when I've seen ghosts play an actually malevolent role in a story. It was very interesting. I have a lot of questions and I think they'll be addressed in the subsequent books. How did her father come across these rules? Did he learn them from someone else? Towards the end of the book Amelia is breaking rules left, right, and center. I'm sure that's where we're heading.

Romance is not the main focus of The Restorer. There is a bit of a slow burn romance but the story doesn't abide by the typical romance "rules". I'm really very curious to see what happens in the next book for a lot of different reasons. The storyline and the character development left me wanting more but not because of disappointment. I feel like the story flowed very well.

I'm really glad I picked this up and I'll be adding the second book to my TBR Pile for February!

[neddieb]

This book was boring. The characters were flat they had no personality. The story itself was drawn out and boring. There was no excitement. I struggled through this book.

[wyvernfriend]

This one kept me guessing until the end.

Ameila Gray is a cemetery restorer who finds that cemeteries are a great place, as a whole, to avoid the dead. She sees ghosts, just like her dad, and he has given her rules to live by, rules that no longer keep her safe.

It starts when a body is found in a cemetry she's working on, somewhere she has photographs of, while the work goes on, more bodies are found and the killer is using her website to send messages. The detective involved has his own ghosts to deal with and it's all a mess.

There are moments that don't flow as well as maybe they could but this isn't a bad read at all, I enjoyed it.

[kimbacaffeinate]

I love crime mysteries and when you wrap it in a little paranormal woo-woo I begin to drool. Amanda Stevens delivered a beautiful, dark, chilling mystery with a side of sexual tension. I quickly became swept up in this tale, the characters and the crime. The opening sentence “I was nine when I saw my first ghost.” grabbed me and the tale kept me enthralled.

Ameila Gray is a cemetery restorer and has quickly built a reputation for herself. She also has a successful blog showcasing old cemeteries which has made her recognizable. Since she was nine she has been cursed with a gift she shares with her father. She can see ghosts and her father taught her rules that she must follow to keep herself safe. Rule number one, never acknowledge them. Until now she has always followed the rules. When a haunted, smexy, dark, brooding police detective asks for her assistance after discovering a dead body in the cemetery she is restoring everything changes. When the clues to solve the murder(s) involve symbols on the headstones she realizes she may be the only one who can help them catch a killer.

I really connected with the protagonist Ameila. She is quite, refined, intelligent and confident in her profession. She also seems very lonely and guarded. I loved her profession and the fact that she blogs and enjoys it so much had me smiling. John Devlin is a police officer, a true southern gentleman and he oozed smexy. John has suffered from a horrific loss and it shows in his eyes and the lines on his devastatingly handsome face. He unnerves Amanda and she struggles with her attraction to John on so many levels. I adored the tango these two danced. Their tale is just beginning and I get goose bumps just thinking about it. I love the secondary characters and the southern door Stevens opens for us. I am really looking forward to learning more about all of them.

Stevens is a breathtakingly gifted writer. She brought Charleston and its historical district to life. I could see, hear, taste and smell the world she immersed me in. Her attention to detail and the facts surround these old neglected cemeteries captivated me. The mystery itself was filled with twists, foreboding and an air of believability that had me chilled. The twist she put on ghosts and Amelia’s gift are completely original and the back-history on these entities was freaky-tastic! The flow of the novel was wonderful, and Steven’s descriptive writing style kept me reading late into the night. I am in love with this writer and must read more of this series. My favorite type of series are ones that can be read as standalones, but also have sub-plots, romances etc running through them. Where each book solves a case, shows character development and further advances these overall sub- plot. This appears to be the recipe Stevens is using. Eep! I have not been this excited since reading The Passage by Justin Cronin and if you know me at all, you are rushing to ordered this book!
Kimba the Caffeinated Book Reviewer