The Prophet by Amanda Stevens
Harlequin/MIRA (April 24, 2012)
Mass Market: $7.99; ebook: $7.99
ISBN: 9780778313397
Favorite Lines: “But I could already feel the exchange of energy, the stealthy siphon of my warmth as Devlin unwittingly replenished his life force with mine. One of the ironies of falling for a haunted man. My haven protected me from his ghosts, but hallowed ground couldn’t shield me from him.” (p. 230, e-galley)
My name is Amelia Gray.
I am the Graveyard Queen, a cemetery restorer who sees ghosts. My father passed down four rules to keep me safe and I’ve broken every last one. A door has opened and evil wants me back.
In order to protect myself, I’ve vowed to return to those rules. But the ghost of a murdered cop needs my help to find his killer. The clues lead me to the dark side of Charleston—where witchcraft, root doctors and black magic still flourish—and back to John Devlin, a haunted police detective I should only love from afar.Now I’m faced with a terrible choice: follow the rules or follow my heart.
The Prophet is book three in Amanda Stevens’ Graveyard Queen series and so far is scheduled to be followed by an additional three books. It returns the reader to the creepy world introduced in book one, The Restorer.
The ghosts in Stevens’ world are leech like. They feed on human energy and only some people can see them. The heroine, Amelia, was taught to ignore ghosts when she was a child, but began breaking the rules after meeting a detective named, Devlin. I never understood Amelia’s interest in the detective, but it’s back in full force in The Prophet.
I’ve got to tell y’all that The Prophet is my least favorite book of the series primarily due to Amelia’s interest in Devlin. I don’t like her unhealthy obsession with Devlin and really don’t get her lack of self-preservation. She seems to have a death wish and it interfered with my ability to enjoy The Prophet. I think Michele at GoodReads put it pretty good when she said, “Amelia’s grating personality, her annoying, repetitive inner dialogues, and her inactions when it mattered.”
Despite my irritation with the Devlin/Amelia relationship story line I found myself enjoying parts of the book. Never enough to make this a book I’d read again, but I wanted answers and I got some. Mysteries surrounding Devlin’s deceased wife and child and semi-solved, places visited in book one were re-visited and a “power” was discovered. There is definite fallout from the events of The Prophet to come in future books. I’m just not interested enough to read them.
Scooper Speaks 