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The Restorer by Amanda Stevens:

My name is Amelia Gray. I'm a cemetery restorer who sees ghosts. In order to protect myself from the parasitic nature of the dead, I've always held fast to the rules passed down from my father. But now a haunted police detective has entered my world and everything is changing, including the rules that have always kept me safe.

It started with the discovery of a young woman's brutalized body in an old Charleston graveyard I've been hired to restore. The clues to the killer—and to his other victims—lie in the headstone symbolism that only I can interpret. Devlin needs my help, but his ghosts shadow his every move, feeding off his warmth, sustaining their presence with his energy. To warn him would be to invite them into my life. I've vowed to keep my distance, but the pull of his magnetism grows ever stronger even as the symbols lead me closer to the killer and to the gossamer veil that separates this world from the next.

Summary from GoodReads.

Amelia Gray’s childhood of caring for graveyards and dodging ghosts shaped her adult life. In her world, ghosts will siphon off your warmth and energy, feeding like psychic vampires. As a cemetery restorer she spends her days resurrecting to the resting place of the dead and carefully following the rules her father taught her:

1. Never acknowledge the dead. Not their presence or their touch.
2. Never stray too far from hallowed ground.
3. Keep your distance from those who are haunted.
4. Never, ever tempt fate.

But this lifetime of training and daily isolation is destroyed when the cemetery she is working at becomes a crime scene. Enter Detective John Devlin who needs her help identifying the grave symbolism behind the body’s burial. Although attracted to his magnetism, Amelia fights to stay away from a man haunted by the ghosts of his wife and daughter. But with the discovery of more bodies, does she risk becoming involved with a man walking with death? And is there more to the dead than her father taught her?

A serial killer, a secret society, a cemetery with possible ties to the Underground Railroad and the paranormal combine in The Restorer, the first book in The Graveyard Queen series by Amanda Stevens. As our narrator through all things ghostly, Amelia Gray is a character who embodies her name – living a half life caring for graveyards and getting most of her interaction through her blog “Digging Graves.” While she has friends (and her family) that she is close to, she maintains a distance between her life and the life of those who do not deal with the paranormal.

Everything changes when she meets Devlin, the handsome, mysterious and haunted detective. Stuck between the pull of his dead wife and child and the life going on around him, Devlin has also separated himself from long lasting connections. Able to view the dead that walk him at all times, Amelia starts to break through that barrier, only to discover that her knowledge of the dead is incomplete, and what she doesn’t know…well, yeah, it just might kill her. This also sets the reader up for the inevitable oscillations of John and Amelia’s relationship throughout the series.*

In first book tradition, there are some awkward passages and dialogue involved in the introduction to the world and the characters that inhabit it. We’re treated to the city of Charleston, SC in all its hot, southern glory, and although Amelia’s

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The Interrogation of Gabriel James by Charlie Price:

Eyewitness to two killings, fourteen-year-old Gabriel James relates the shocking story behind the murders in a police interrogation interspersed with flashbacks. Step by step, this Montana teenager traces his discovery of a link between a troubled classmate's disturbing home life and an outbreak of local crime. In the process, however, Gabriel becomes increasingly confused about his own culpability for the explosive events that have unfolded.

Summary from Amazon.

Cults, murder, drugs, hate crimes: there’s a lot going on behind the scenes of Billings, Montana, and Gabriel James has (unintentionally) seen it all. What begins as an interest in a girl in his class leads to two dead boys and Gabriel sitting in an interrogation room. Was he involved or did the wrong choices leave him as the not-so-innocent bystander?

I picked up The Interrogation of Gabriel James because a review called indicated it was the Usual Suspects of Young Adult fiction. If by The Usual Suspects, they meant a story framed by the interactions in the interrogation room, then yes. But let’s be clear, Gabriel ain’t no Keyser Söze. As someone who likes to believe that Kevin Spacey unconsciously drags his foot whenever anyone references Keyser Söze, I can see how someone going into this story with that in mind could be disappointed. Not only is Gabriel not a criminal mastermind, he’s not even an unreliable narrator. Sure, he has his ramblings, but their the ramblings of a teenager who’s nervous. He’s distracted by the girls in his life and wanting to be better at cross country – not giving hidden meaning to picking beans in Guatemala.

Got it?

Good, now you’ll enjoy the story without that expectation. Gabriel is a rather aimless teenage boy who, in trying to do a good thing, makes everything a lot worse. He’s seen too many procedurals and this increases his nervousness with the cops (much like I imagine I would be in the same situation). This true-to-life teenage boy mentality and nervous mental state combined with the interrogation room set up make for a story that jumps back in forth from the present and the past events that led up to the deaths.

It’s a rather windy path, but worth it. Charlie Price has created a very accessible character in Gabriel, one who genuinely wants to do the right thing. His motivations, horniness, aimlessness and curiosity all ring true. This kid is the teenage everyman. To that everyman’s plot we throw in a cult who believed in share and share alike when it came to their partners, murders, and multiple personalities.

The crimes in Billings might start out with the occasional missing pet and recreational drug user, but things escalate until Gabriel and the reader are desperate to put together the clues.

The Interrogation of Gabriel James will appeal to reluctant readers who want a fast-paced story to keep them interested. While the interrogation scenes toward the end strained my sense of believe, I can see why someone not in the Keyser Söze state of mind wouldn’t question the situation. The story will leave readers with the answers they need and the ability to feel their legs. The same cannot be said for some of the characters in the book, however.

You can purchase The Interrogation of Gabriel James at these

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Chicken and Couscous
Serves: 4 as an entrée, more as a side| Hands-On Time: 10 minutes | Total Time: 25 minutes

Ingredients:
1 package of Chicken breasts or thighs
3 tablespoons Olive Oil
½ to 1 Red Pepper
1 small package (or two handfuls) of Sugarsnap Peas
1 container of plum tomatoes
½ small container of crumbled feta (dry, not in brine)
1 cup Couscous
1 ½ cups water or chicken broth
½ to 1 cup torn basil (depending on how much you love it)
Salt
Pepper
Additional Seasonings for the adventurous:
2 teaspoons Cumin
1 teaspoon Paprika
1 ½ teaspoons Curry

Instructions:

Heat 2 tablespoons of olive oil at medium heat in a skillet. Salt and pepper the chicken to taste (and add your choice of the additional seasonings), and then add it to the warmed oil. Thoroughly cook the chicken until it is golden brown on the outside and white on the inside. Remove the chicken from the pan and let it cool until you can handle it enough to chop it into bite sized pieces. Place these pieces in a large mixing bowl.

Heat the water (or chicken broth, depending on what you have on hand) and 1 tablespoon olive oil in a sauce pan on high until it comes to a boil.* Add the couscous, cover, and remove from the heat. Let the couscous remain cover for at least five minutes while you chop up the veggies.

Half the snap peas and tomatoes. Chunk the red pepper into quarter to half inch pieces. Add them to the mixing bowl with the chicken. Add the ripped basil.

Uncover the couscous and add it to the mixing bowl. Throw in as much feta as your little heart and stomach desires. Thoroughly mix all the ingredients together with a fork.

This recipe is perfect served hot with pita and hummus on a cold night (the better to pretend you are in a warm desert climate) or chilled as a salad at your next summer BBQ or potluck. If you choose to serve it chilled, prepare the recipe at least two to three hours ahead of time.

*I like to add 2 tablespoons of onion and jalapeños to my water to start so that the flavors are infused in the couscous. You don’t have to do this unless you want to.

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Soon after I reviewed Steel by Carrie Vaughn, Slate's Brow Beat posted "A Short History of Lady Pirates" in honor of the newest Pirates of the Caribbean movie. I thought it important to link to this as it features Anne Bonny and Mary Read, who both have cameos in Steel.

The column culls its history from David Cordingly's Seafaring Women: Adventures of Pirate Queens, Female Stowaways, and Sailor's Wives, which seemed appropriate as Cordingly's Under the Black Flag sailed on to the non-fiction bestseller lists with the first Pirates of the Caribbean.

For those of you looking for a jolly good pirate read on the fiction side, you should check out the Bloody Jack series by LA Meyer.

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Spoiled by Heather Cocks and Jessica Morgan (aka The Fug Girls):

Sixteen year old Molly Dix loves her ordinary life in suburban Indiana, so when her single mother passes away, she is shocked to discover that her biological father is Brick Berlin, world famous movie star and red carpet regular.

Equally intrigued and terrified by her Hollywood lineage, Molly moves to Southern California and plunges head-first into the deep end of Beverly Hills celebrity life. Just as Molly thinks her new life and family couldn't get any stranger, she meets Brooke Berlin, her gorgeous and spoiled half-sister whom welcomes Molly to la-la land with a healthy dose of passive-aggressive "sisterly love."

Set against the backdrop of a sparkling and fashion-filled Los Angeles, this deliciously dysfunctional family soap opera will satisfy every reader looking for their next lifestyles-of-the-rich-and-famous beach read.

Summary from Goodreads.

Molly Dix has had a rather shocking year – not only did her mother die, but she found out that the deceased father she’d never met is actually alive, physically well* and living in Los Angeles. Oh, and he happens to be Brick Berlin, the famous action movie star turned director. Now she’s leaving her childhood sweetheart, best friend and grandparents all behind, and moving to LA to live with Brick and her half sister, Brooke.

Brooke Berlin is not amused. She can barely get her father’s attention with a temper tantrum that rivals a category five hurricane. Her newly discovered half sister getting all of Daddy’s attention, and she’s even hogging the spotlight that should be firmly focused on Brooke at her big birthday party. What’s a girl to do but sabotage the scene stealer and reveal her for the homewrecker** she actually is? Brooke’s going to have to be sneaky though if she’s going to ride this new Hollywood scandal to her inevitable stardom because her enemy is about to become Molly’s frenemy.

As parents go, Brick’s not as spacey as he seems (even if he does sound like a cross between Bruce Willis and Cocks and Morgan’s Lagerfeld impression), and soon he’s imposing his own interesting brand of parenting to this sisterly hatefest. From sharing a room to working on the school play, Brook and Molly are going to have to work out how to live with each other, their shared father’s absenteeism, and the Hollywood rumor mill at its worst.

I’m a long time reader of Go Fug Yourself, and throughout the years of columns I’ve often thought that they should tackle fiction. These two funny ladies can make you laugh out loud with just a few lines and know how to skewer bad fashion. So when I heard they were writing a YA novel, I decided that it was worth taking my hard earned gift card*** down to B&N to pick up a copy (which they had well before the release date). Spoiled is everything I expected from Heather and Jessica: over the top characters, fashion critiques, and fun times.

Through Molly we get to experience Hollywood (and the Berlins) from the outside looking in, while Brooke provides the perspective of self-focused starlet with a secret pain. Once Brooke gets over mean girl-ing Molly, and Molly stands up for herself with an added dose of vengeance, the girls realize how important it is to have family, especially a sibling, to help you deal.

With all the name dropping of designers and celebrities, I’

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What I Saw and How I Lied by Judy Blundell:

When Evie's stepfather returned home from World War II, the family fell back into its normal life pretty quickly. But Joe Spooner brought more back with him than just good war stories. When movie-star handsome Peter Coleridge, a young ex-GI who served in Joe's company in postwar Austria, shows up, Evie is suddenly caught in a complicated web of lies that she only slowly recognizes. She finds herself falling for Peter, ignoring the secrets that surround him . . . until a tragedy occurs that shatters her family and breaks her life in two.

As she begins to realize that almost everything she believed to be a truth was really a lie, Evie must get to the heart of the deceptions and choose between her loyalty to her parents and her feelings for the man she loves. Someone will have to be betrayed. The question is . . . who?

Summary from GoodReads.

Growing up in the shadow of a beautiful and witty mother, Evie spends a lot of time observing those around her. Unfortunately her mother’s desire to keep her a child has undermined her ability to understand the subtext of the opinions that make up her world. A last minute trip to Florida – supposedly as a vacation to celebrate her step-father’s return from the war, but quite possibly just to get away from the mysterious man calling the house – finally gives Evie the chance to reinvent and grow.

Basking in the attention of the mysterious and godly Peter, Evie slowly becomes aware in a way she never was before. The opinions she’s been living her life by just might not be right, and maybe everything is not perfect with her mother and stepfather. The intensity of the Florida is searing away the cover not just on the Spooner family secrets but those of the other hotel guests as well, and the situation comes to a head with a slur, a hurricane, and a possible murder.

What did Evie really see? What sacrifices will she make for her family and love?

And most importantly, what will she say on the witness stand?

What I Saw and How I Lied illustrates the opposites of the post WWII to era where people celebrated the fall of Germany even as they discriminated against people with Jewish last names. Evie’s awareness of the dichotomies in class, culture and her own life grows as she is forced to step out of her innocence and into a role filled with the kind of decision making that would break grown adults. Blundell weaves Evie’s innocent observations with an undercurrent that hints at the problems around her, and slowly builds the character and reader’s awareness. The time period and the historical details never overwhelm, layering into the plot to build the tension of the story.

I admit that I was slightly intimidated by the idea of a book set post the Great War. While I love the occasional classic movie, my own knowledge of the period is kind of glossed over by my high school AP History rush to cram everything in before the test. Blundell overcame this within the first few pages with her imagery of Evie pretending to smoke a chocolate cigarette. Her descriptions managed to convey that rush to grow up and capture a very iconic image I have in my mind of my own mother smoking. From there she creates a story so filled with layers that each page is a discovery building on the real contest of what Evie saw.

Does Blundell give us all the answers? No. And I can definitely see people having problems with Evie’s decision to lie and how she goes about it. But Evie has problems with it.

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Sixteen-year-old Jill has fought in dozens of fencing tournaments, but she has never held a sharpened blade. When she finds a corroded sword piece on a Caribbean beach, she is instantly intrigued and pockets it as her own personal treasure.

The broken tip holds secrets, though, and it transports Jill through time to the deck of a pirate ship. Stranded in the past and surrounded by strangers, she is forced to sign on as crew. But a pirate's life is bloody and brief, and as Jill learns about the dark magic that brought her there, she forms a desperate scheme to get home—one that risks everything in a duel to the death with a villainous pirate captain.

Time travel, swordplay, and romance combine in an original high-seas adventure from New York Times bestseller Carrie Vaughn.

Summary provided by GoodReads.

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