The Abandoned

Title: The Abandoned
Author: Amanda Stevens
Publisher: Mira
Publication Date: April 1, 2011
Format: eBook
Genre: Paranormal
Source: NetGalley
Series: The Graveyard Queen (prequel)

Let us just say that it is a good thing I had read book number two - or is it book number one if you do not count the prequel, I always get confused when authors do this - or I would have never continued with this series.

The Abandoned comes across more of an outline for a book then an actually novel, with no real catch or lure.

Ree Hutchins is a graduate student working in a psychiatric hospital on the evening of the death of Violet Tisdal, one of their longest residing patients. Ree is curious about this woman and on the chance of returning files to the “dungeon”, Ree snoops out her patient’s records only to be attacked by an unknown assailant, a person who is determined to keep Violet’s past a secret.

Being a paranormal novel, you know that the spooky factor has to come in to play, so one evening Ree finds herself half-undressed in a cemetery in front of Hayden, a moonlighting ghost hunter. She has no idea how she got there, but was it possible that the spirit of Violet or Ilsa, Violet’s mother, entered her and was now using Ree to exact revenge.

See how convoluted this tale is? The storylines are not developed and you are left wondering, “what am I missing, what am I not being told about the past”. Sudden character comments are made and you find yourself going back a couple of pages, trying to figure out what you missed only to realize that it was never there in the first place.

My advice, skip this book and start with The Restorer you will like that installment much better.