Review: The Restorer

Amelia Gray saw her first ghost when she was nine years old, and at her father’s bidding has spent her life trying to ignore them. But when her work restoring an old Charleston cemetery is interrupted by a murder, she is thrown together with Detective John Devlin — a man whose past trails behind him in the form of two spirits.

She knows she should put as much distance between herself and John as possible, but Amelia’s desire to solve the murders and unravel the detective’s past is irresistible. Can Amelia catch the murderer and discover who is haunting John…without becoming a target herself?

So much fun

This book (first in a series by Amanda Stevens) has been on my TBR list for quite some time, and it finally popped up on PaperBackSwap a couple weeks back. I was worried it might be a little too dark, but was pleasantly surprised to find it just what I needed: a fun adventure/mystery with a paranormal bite.

Despite being the heroine of a quasi-paranormal romance, Amanda is a surprisingly normal character. She’s not wildly beautiful or even particularly special (aside from the seeing ghosts thing) — she’s simply intelligent, methodical, and more than a little nosy.

The world Stevens has built for the Graveyard Queen series is intriguing, and The Restorer does a good job of setting up an over-arching plot while also feeling like a cohesive story. It was a fun read, and I’m excited to see where the rest of the series takes me — and Amelia.