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Amanda Stevens is an incredibly productive author, who managed to write over fifty novels, starting from a very early age. She was born in Arkansas, in the foothills of the Ozarks. The area she was born in already suggested what could have been of her future: it was a place renowned for its superstition and folklore, the two things that fascinates Stevens the most. She starts reading as a little child, influenced in the choices by the stories she listens to while at school, and by those told to her by her father. Literature has always been “everything” to her, ever since she read The Diamond in the Window by Jane Langton. As she said during an interview: “I wanted to be a writer since childhood. One of my earliest influences was […] The Diamond in the Window. I’d been reading The Little House on the Prairie series and some Nancy Drew, but this story gave me my first taste of fantasy with a Gothic edge”. It was a paranormal mystery, filled with riddles and transcendentalism, and it gave a start to the author’s great passion for gothic novels. She discovered Mary Stewart, Victoria Holt and Phyllis A. Whitney. After that, the time had come to grow and discover more about the seemingly endless world of fiction: fantasy and horror, with Michael Moorcock and Stephen King.
In her twenties, willing to pursue an English major, she went through a long series of day jobs. She studied during the night, and that time of the day already being fascinating for itself, got to become the most useful and productive. While at the University of Houston, and more precisely during her junior year, she and her fellow students were challenged by their English professor: whoever managed to get published by the end of the semester, would get an A. She wrote and sold her first novel, Killing Moon, to a New York publishing house. Not only did she get the A, but she started to work as a professional writer ever since: as mentioned above, she published more than fifty novels, and The graveyard Queen Series, is now being considered for a television production. NBC already bought the rights to the series, but as the author’s site states, there are “no further developments on the TV project”, so far.
What is more compelling about this still young and flourishing author, is her passion for symbolism and imagery, for the aesthetic point of view, combined with an intense research. In numerous interviews, she refers to the importance given to the covers of her books specifically, and generally to that of every fantasy book: it can be as important as to change, from Stevens’ point of view, the success of a book. Also, she mentions the appeal given to her by folk magic, starting from the ghost stories her father used to tell her, and ending with poltergeist-like experiences witnessed by her own friends. She cares and researches a lot whenever writing, which allows her to create a rich and intriguing series of symbols that have so much to say, that they need a specific section in her site. When asked what would she be, if she were not writing books, she answers that she would love to work with the FBI. She would not like to have a glamorous job, like a field agent or a profiler: she would take care of the research. The same way she has been collecting information for her books, she would try and find interesting, puzzling, obscure clues even in real life.
The Graveyard Queen series is most likely her best renown work. It starts with The Restorer, an intriguing novel that was good enough to receive a RITA award nomination in the paranormal romance category. Starring a young cemetery restorer, Amelia Gray, it deals with greedy entities that prey on human emotions. Amelia, the daughter of the former graveyard keeper, can see ghosts. Her father warned her as a child; he told her to never look at one of those creatures directly in the eyes. If she did, the entity would cling to her forever. It would try and restore a connection to the land of the living, it would steal her energy. That is the reason why Amelia spends the twilight hours looking for refuge, trying to escape these ghosts by being indoors or looking for hallowed ground. She always follows her father’s rules:
Never acknowledge the dead
Never stray far from hallowed ground
Never associate with those who are haunted
Never, ever tempt fate
At some point, though, a young woman’s body is found in an old graveyard she was asked to restore. Detective Devlin, a mysterious, haunted hero, is now on the case, and Amelia tries her best to help him. He is unfortunately surrounded by those ghosts Amelia has been trying to keep out of our world for her entire life. She wants to help him, but she must keep them away.
This ghostly story leads to the second book of the series, The Kingdom. Amelia has now left Charleston, the city-scenario of The Restorer, and has gotten to Asher Falls, California. She was hired to restore an old cemetery, and she he is trying her best to forget about Devlin and all the rules she was forced to infringe because of him. But as soon as she gets there, she can feel maybe she was called there for another reason. Many mysteries start to invade the heroine’s world, beginning with that of the graveyard, strangely placed at the bottom of a lake. What is the purpose of such a cemetery? Why would anyone think of that? The answer seems to fade away just as fast as more mysteries arise. The town citizens, in fact, immediately prove to be dodgy, secretive, not to mention the fact that someone breaks into her place, poisons her recently adopted dog and menaces her in several other ways. The town of Asher Falls itself looks like it is in complete decline. And, what is most important, a ghost Amelia is trying to ignore, keeps haunting her, telling her to go away from that place. Amelia is somehow forced to stay there by the feelings she gets from the place, and also because of the appearance of a new character, Thane Asher, the heir to the powerful family after whom the town is named.
This second book manages to continue and evolve the previous settings, and it intrigues the reader with many kind of new fascinations, enriching an already fantastic and mysterious world.
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BOOK OF THE MONTH:
Everyones favourite Mossad agent and art restorer Gabriel Allon is back. This is the 26th novel in this excellent spy thriller series by Daniel Silva.
In the latest entry, with a release date of July 14th, Gabriel has to track down the missing wife of a British billionaire.
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Featured Series
Are you a Jack Reacher fan? If so, you absolutely have to read the Peter Ash series by author Nick Petrie.
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Are you a fan of psychological thrillers? A big fan of authors such as Gillian Flynn? These are our most recommended authors in the thriller genre, which is my personal favourite genre:
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