The Prophet ~ Amanda Stevens (eARC) review

The Prophet (Graveyard Queen #3)
Harlequin Mira
April 24, 2012
352 pages
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Back from in Charleston after her close call in Asher Falls, Amelia Gray is not quite prepared to see John Devlin again - even after receiving a text message from him saying, "I need you," As she prepares herself, her help is requested by the deceased cop Robert Fremont she meant once before.

It goes against her father's rules (the ones that have kept her safe from the ghosts all these years) to even acknowledge Fremont let alone agree to his request, but she's already broken all the other rules. And Fremont isn't exactly giving her much choice.

Will Amelia be able to help Fremont - and keep herself safe/ And what of her relationship (if there still is one despite how drawn she is to him) with Devlin? Will she be able to finally do something about the ghosts that not only haunt him but seem to threaten her?


The Prophet is the third book in Amanda Stevens Graveyard Queen series. The first (after the - free - ebook prequel The Abandoned), The Restorer was released in April of 2011 and The Kingdom the second came out at the end of March. While any future books in this currently at (hopefully) six book series don't have release dates, they should be coming.

This third book started out slow, getting everyone where they needed to be - Amelia back home in Charleston (with Angus!!), showing her reticence to see John again. As well as letting readers see what everyone was up to (the characters we already knew) and introducing some that we'd either never met before or only heard of in previous books. While I loved one of the newest characters (and, actually, wished there would have been need for more of them), I had trouble with the first half of the book.

I understand why everything that happened was necessary, but it was hard to get through that half compared with the second half. Amelia seemed much less sure of herself and more hesitant in this book. Though, it got better as the book progressed. John Devlin was also there but you didn't feel him as much as in the first book - this, too, got better later on in the book.

The second half of the book I truly enjoyed. It brought the characters together incredibly well. The different elements introduced - the mystery, ghost story, and even a bit of the Southern Gothic - in the first two books  seemed to come together here. Everything that was brought out in the first half of the novel was used and made sense here in the second half. Things were explained, resolved and worked out.

I love the resolutions that different characters received in The Prophet and hope to see more of their stories in latter books. The beginning (first half or so) of the novel was slow for me, but worth it because things introduced then made the second half even better!

Rating: 7/10

*If for any reason, these get new covers, I hope, hope, hope they're the double exposure cityscape/graveyard photographs Amelia has!

Thank you to NetGalley and Harlequin for my egalley of this title to review