The Visitor (Graveyard Queen, #4) in Audiobook Junkies

Mar 06, 2013 ☕️Kimberly (Caffeinated Reviewer) rated it really liked it

I love ghost stories and find old cemeteries beautiful, creepy, and fascinating so it is easy to see what drew me to the Graveyard Queen series. If you have not yet tried them, I recommend you begin with book one The Restorer. While each book has a case to solve the overall arc, character growth and romance make them best read in order.

The Visitor begins with a female entity haunting Amelia. This spirit both fascinates and terrifies her. I was completely hooked and slipped right back into her wo I love ghost stories and find old cemeteries beautiful, creepy, and fascinating so it is easy to see what drew me to the Graveyard Queen series. If you have not yet tried them, I recommend you begin with book one The Restorer. While each book has a case to solve the overall arc, character growth and romance make them best read in order.

The Visitor begins with a female entity haunting Amelia. This spirit both fascinates and terrifies her. I was completely hooked and slipped right back into her world. Amelia soon finds herself entwined in a puzzle involving the Kroll Cemetery. The graveyard is over half a century old and her scariest graveyard to date! The tale was spine-chilling with odd, quirky characters, entities, and other forces that delivered a deliciously dark tale.

If you have read the series then you know Amelia has some unique gifts. She has carefully guarded her secret. She even has a set of rules given to her by her father. She has begun to break those rules and forge her own path. In doing so, she has begun to awaken her powers. We see real development in what Amelia is and receive information about her heritage. Stevens’ wove these tidbits into the case revealing information about her power, of darkness to come and information about her parents.

The Kroll Cemetery is home to Ezra Kroll and his disciples. There is a shroud of mystery surrounding their deaths and something is at unrest within the walls of this unusual cemetery. Turn on the lights when reading this folks. Steven’s created some of the most chilling entities. Her writing was so vivid that I could see them, hear their unearthly noises and feel the temperature plummeting. It all gave me chills. As Amelia researches, we see old friends and meet ancestors of Kroll. What a strange family. Some were overly sweet and others well let us just say you will feel the need to cross the street if you see them heading your way. Ever see those old creepy black and white historical photos ..yep that kind of creepy!

The cemetery itself and old artifacts aided Amelia in her research. Stevens’ gives us a quest filled with danger and eerie discovers. I love piecing together this tightly woven mystery. We discover things as Amelia does and I have learned to pay attention and file tidbit as Amelia uncovers them. It is such an exciting game.

The romance between Amelia and Devlin gets plenty of page time. Devlin is annoying me a little, not that I doubt his feelings towards Amelia, but his lack of faith in her grates at me. However, Amelia learns some things that raised questions about their future. It was accidental and left me screaming for more information. Devlin is indeed important to the overall plot but …well spoilers darling.

Copy provided by publisher. This review was originally posted on Caffeinated Book Reviewer ...more

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Apr 07, 2016 Lisa Kay rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: challenge-2016-bc, challenge-2016-rlftci, setting-usa-south-carolina, authors-s, m-audible-dot-com, m-multiple-media, genre-urban-fantasy, character-ghosts, characters-twins, authors-a

★★★★★ (This is a review of the audio book.) Whoa. Khristine Hvam continues her narration of this eerie series. She does a wonderful job with this atmospheric book. Beautifully done. Amanda Stevens’ lyrical words are almost poetic, yet there is some creepy stuff in this installment. Ms. Hvam delivers them with just the right balance of Southern charm, but is still able to deliver on the ominous undertones, bringing the characters to live - or death, where applicable! If this genre isn’t your favo

★★★★★ (This is a review of the audio book.) Whoa. Khristine Hvam continues her narration of this eerie series. She does a wonderful job with this atmospheric book. Beautifully done. Amanda Stevens’ lyrical words are almost poetic, yet there is some creepy stuff in this installment. Ms. Hvam delivers them with just the right balance of Southern charm, but is still able to deliver on the ominous undertones, bringing the characters to live - or death, where applicable! If this genre isn’t your favorite, but you want to dip your toe in, try starting with the audios in this series.

The story line this round is one of my favs, and I found myself frustrated with so much company arriving on my doorstep. LOL! (Not that I don't love them.) But I was so close to the end when they arrived! The circumstances, ghosts, and the suspects are beyond spooky, they are down right creepy. Eeep! Some of the scenes are AS's scariest thus far.

The legends and folklore of Kroll Cemetery is haunting enough on its own, but Amelia has several puzzles to figure out. (view spoiler)

Ms. Stevens is so good at depicting Amelia as an innocent child and in her recollections of spending time with her father in cemeteries. We get a little bit more about her father each time; however, it is a tease, the mystery destined, hopefully, for a future book.

Of course, there is a connection to her past, and it’s quite good. While I did figure out the villain right away, I didn't get all the grizzly details correct. It was neat to find out why the different ghosts were haunting Amelia. Nevertheless, for all that ghosts and graveyards are about the past, Amelia is also evolving, too. It is always nice when a character grows throughout a series.

I wouldn't exactly call it a cliffhanger ending, as we get resolution on the ultimate mystery... but man-oh-man, I can't wait for the next installment! ...more

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Apr 22, 2013 Sunny rated it really liked it

Shelves: arc, a-mystery-thriller-horror

Worth the wait.

It's a video review on the Scandalicious Book Reviews blog. ...more

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Jan 02, 2013 Darcy rated it liked it

Shelves: net-galley-books, 2016, e-book, mystery, ghosts

I was so glad to see this book coming after a long wait. This book was so creepy and a lot of the time it was hard to put a finger on what was creepy. It also seems like things are building to a head.

Once again Amelia learned more about her family. It seems like there are so many secrets within the family and for every knew fact that Amelia learns she comes away with many more questions.

Things seem off with Devlin. It sucks for Amelia that she knows he's hiding something from her, things that s ...more

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Jun 21, 2018 The Audiobookworm rated it liked it

The Visitor may have been the creepiest installment in this series and that’s saying a lot. Like The Kingdom, it explored another side of Amelia’s heritage. Believe it or not, The Visitor had a creepier angle than The Kingdom. Creepy or spooky is the perfect way to describe Stevens’ writing. It’s not necessarily outright scary. It’s never caused me to stay awake at night. But I definitely get spooked while listening.

Amanda Stevens has atmospheric writing down to a science. Curiously enough, the ...more

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Nov 13, 2016 Melindeeloo added it

Shelves: x2016

3.5 stars = I liked it - though I'm not 'all in' on the relationship with Devlin - Amelia has always been a bit obsessed with him and I don't care for all the secrets between them. definitely will read the next but may wait til closer to when the next book comes out ...more

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