The Restorer ~ Amanda Stevens review

The Restorer (Graveyard Queen #1)
Mira
April 19, 2011
376 pages
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Amelia Gray has been aware of ghosts practically her whole life. She's also followed her father's rules on how to stay safe from them and keep them out of her life and her mind. Now, as an adult works around the South cleaning and restoring graveyard to their former splendor. When a detective - an enigmatic but also haunted detective - requests her help in finding a serial killer, Amelia finds herself breaking those rules.


The Restorer is so much fun to read. It's a murder mystery with ghost thrown in. It doesn't go full out Ghost Whisperer, though, as Amelia's worked her whole life to keep the ghosts out so she only sees a few of them and lives somewhere that they can't invade her life. They aren't popping up at the foot of her bed for friendly chats, but they're definitely there and affecting things.

The relationships between Amelia and other characters as well as Devlin (the detective) and later Devlin and Amelia as they work together, is really brilliant. Even with a killer on the loose and the characters working to find who it is, battling their own personal struggles (which we get to see some of; and through different characters perspectives, too) the characters interactions and relationships aren't left by the wayside.

Mira, a Harlequin imprint, really publishes some great books. They don't have as much romance/sex in them as the true Harlequin romance reads, instead taking a more literary turn and I adore them. It's a publisher/imprint that I really watch for new titles from - this series being no different.

I'm currently reading the second title in this series (and like it even more) so there should be a review of that very soon!

(This is an adult novel but should be appropriate for most YA readers as well.)

Rating: 9/10