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Amanda Stevens is an engaging storyteller and the books kept me interested throughout the series. The main characters were likeable and realistic. This is an engrossing set of novels with a high creepy factor. The paranormal aspect is insidious without being intrusive and does not edge into the horror genre.
The bad news--the author tends to skim over secondary characters, even if they are instrumental to plot denouement. The endings on both the second and third novels felt rushed--it was as if she had an annoyed movie director standing over her shoulder telling her to wrap it up.
Ms. Stevens does her research--I enjoyed reading about the religion of Western Africa and the Gullah traditions. She also has either an encyclopedic knowledge of the unique flora of the Deep South or a good friend that is a botanist. The serial killer in the first,the witches in the second, and the voodoo in the third were all mentioned, briefly investigated, and then abandoned. She has a marked dilettante tendency to forsake these subplots. This was annoying as she started to pique my interest and then left me hanging. For example, I wanted to know more about the voodoo aspects in the third book and the circle of witches in the second. Case in point--how did Luna stay so young and gorgeous? She touched on it in one sentence, but that was all. How did Darius Goodwine get such a following? What did he and Mariama learn about in Gabon? A little more information would have made these books outstanding.
The other annoyance I had--and this is petty, so forgive me--is that the author has a penchant for the same words and phrases. Perhaps she was trying to give the character a unique voice, but it bugged me. To wit, the word "niggle" was used three times (p.51, p.135, p.298) in the third installment and twice in the second. Ms. Stevens has a formidable vocabulary--I mean, how many people use "diaphanous" in a book? It just seemed to me that she could have picked another word. Isn't that Creative Writing 101?
My biggest contention is with the love story. Ms. Stevens' normal genre is romance, so I would have expected better in that department. Granted, I liked both of the characters. Amelia is educated, sensible, and independent. She is pretty without being ridiculously beautiful. Devlin is handsome, wealthy, and refined yet also epitomizes the Byronic tortured hero. Yet these two never actually talk to one another.
It isn't until halfway through the third novel that they have a serious conversation about their lives, yet Amelia keeps droning on how he is the love of her life before then. I mean, he doesn't know that she can see ghosts? This aspect is such a fundamental part of Amelia as a person. Perhaps she was afraid to appear crazy in front of Devlin; but honestly, a girl as rational and educated as Amelia would be more pragmatic about his acceptance--or lack thereof--of this quirk. She doesn't know about how the deaths of his wife and daughter occurred, nor anything about the events leading up to it? Really? They are supposed to be madly in love (read LUST) with one another yet they know nothing about the other.
Amelia admits to having a weakness for Gothic heroes. (Hell, don't we all? Having a handsome, brooding man emerge from the mist is enough to set even the most cynical girl's heart aflutter.) However, she is 27 and intelligent--I would think she would know the difference between lust and love. Yet she constantly harps on the fact that she will love Devlin forever despite the fact that she knows nothing about him other than rumors and hearsay that others relay. Therefore, the love story felt forced.
Despite these flaws, the novels were very enjoyable. I stayed up well past my bedtime finishing all of them. They are a great example of how a paranormal series can be intelligent, romantic, and scary without reverting to purple prose, melodrama, or stereotypes. (Take some lessons, Stephenie Meyer. Or learn how to write.)
