Review: The Kingdom

The Kingdom by Amanda Stevens

My rating: 3 of 5 stars



I maybe enjoyed this second book of the Graveyard Queen series a bit differently than I enjoyed the first book. The Kingdom had all the intriguing elements of a ghostly, paranormal mystery; but at the same time, it kind of played off more in character development than it actually did in the mystery aspect. So, in a way, to me, this book felt more like a "bridging" novella (a long one at that) which will probably end up connecting The Restorer with The Prophet. Although, since I've yet to read The Prophet, maybe that assumption is too early to make.

Overall, I enjoyed this book. It wasn't the horror-fest that many would probably be expecting, and in a way, there was a rather monotonous telling that got me a little sidetracked. But upon reading further, I wanted to continue reading more.

Amelia is still intriguing as a character, while at the same time, she still doesn't stand out much. I doubt I'll recall much about her after I've finished with this series. The rest of the characters strike me as the same way -- interesting, but no one really stands out.

On a side note, one way to really kill the mystery excitement for me is to constantly have characters recite that all too familiar: "We don't like to talk about that." Yeah... so what do you talk about?

Anyway, nothing too overall exciting about this book, which was a bit of a disappointment since I'm enjoying it. We'll just have to see with the next book if there's going to be more excitement. For The Kingdom in general, I honestly already had the mystery figured out by the time I was a quarter of the way into it. Too many obvious clues were laid out that forced you to make those connections and so the the only thing you were anticipating was when Amelia would make those connections.



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Review: The Restorer

The Restorer by Amanda Stevens

My rating: 4 of 5 stars



As much as I'm a weeny when it comes to anything that has to do with horror or ghosts or the like, I really enjoyed The Restorer. A woman who can see ghosts choosing to live her life as a graveyard restorer is interesting. A murder mystery that she gets roped into when she's got so much to worry about concerning the ghostly visitors she's surrounded by and the danger that they impose on her life... Even more intriguing is the history and lore that goes into a story like this. How much of it is true and how much of it is only part of this fictional world doesn't really matter to me in the least; but it's always enticing to me when the elements are combined like this: a murder mystery, a ghost story, and tales of history and ghost lore to connect everything together.

On top of that, mysterious characters to propel the story line into progression.

What I liked mostly about this book would have to be that creepy vibe in connection with the ghostly appearances and the murder mystery.

The only thing I'm not too overjoyed about would be the characters. Amelia is interesting as are some of the supporting characters, but to be honest, no one really stands out in much of a unique way. In fact, Devlin is stock-trade main male character with his broody, mysterious, dark past and tragedy. It's a shame he's not more interesting, since I can sense that it would be nice if he weren't so standardized.

Nonetheless, this was a very good read and I'm off to ruin my reading list by jumping into the next book of the series. So many questions and so many curiosities...



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