{4.5 stars}

Eerie & suspenseful. Stevens brings in old south superstitions to mix with a great suspenseful mystery. This all started with Amelia restoring an old cemetery in Charleston, where she found herself right in the middle of the path of a serial killer. This is where she meets John Devlin, the detective working the case. But he has his own mystery surrounding him, the death of his wife and daughter. After taking a trip to the Blue Ridge Mountains in book two, where we discover Amelia's roots, we have now returned to Charleston, and back to Devlin. The mystery surrounding Devlin is not simple, it has many layers, suspects, and lots of supernatural elements. If you are not from the south some of the aspects of this series may be confusing, but I think it's all blended well with the core mystery of the book. Stevens has a real knack for the this kind of mystery, I really love her style. And I'm really happy to find out that this series is going to continue on past this trilogy. Amelia is a great character, and each cemetery she restores has its own story to tell. Give Graveyard Queen a try, I think anyone with a taste for suspense will enjoy them.

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After receiving a message from Detective John Devlin asking her to come home, Amelia Gray has returned to Charleston. But Amelia is hesitant to get involved with John again. He is being haunted by the ghosts of his wife and young daughter. Amelia knows she should keep her distance from them; but those ghosts are not keeping their distance from her. And neither is the ghost of Robert Freemont, a cop who asks her to help him find who killed him so he can cross over. As Amelia works to discover the identity of the murderer, she once again becomes involved with Devlin and his ghosts.

I'm glad to see Amelia back in Charleston. She is once again restoring an old graveyard to its original beauty and trying to avoid the ghosts the lurk there. But trying to help Robert Freemont cross over leads Amelia to root doctors, gray dust, and palm readers.

This book was a good follow-up of the first story in the series. It ties up a bunch of loose ends that were left after that book. My rating: 4.5 Stars.

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5 stars for a completely originally concept (a graveyard restorer who sees ghosts) but 2 stars for a very repetitive writing style that pulled me out of the story. It felt like the first paragraph of each chapter was a summary of the last chapter! Also, she does such a great job of creating an eerie, spooky atmosphere (I attribute one bad dream to this book!) but it's undermined when she then also tells us that it's eerie and spooky. I do think I will read the other books just to get the full story. I was also surprised to see it categorized as paranormal romance as it felt much more like a mystery with one sex scene than a romance novel.

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I was not impressed by this - the 3rd of Amanda Stevens "The Graveyard Queen" series. I did really enjoy the 1st - The Restorer". The 2nd "the Kingdom" was alright, but left you hanging.
But this book was dull as if she knew the 1st was good and would attract readers to buy the next two.
I'll go back to Heather Grahams Books - I haven't been disappointed in her Ghost/Romance style yet and have read most all that she has written.

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