Terminal by J.L. Bryan

My rating: 2 of 5 stars

Category: Adult
Genre: Mystery, Ghost Story, Paranormal
Content: Clean


 
Ellie Jordan and her apprentice Stacey investigate a house in an elaborate planned community that was only half-built before it went bankrupt, leaving an instant ghost town with only a few residents. Unfortunately for Ellie, this is no simple haunting, but just one symptom of the cursed land on which the suburban community was built.

After liking the last book so much and thinking it was an improvement over the first two, I had high hopes for this one. Unfortunately this one was a disappointment. The story fell flat and was just plain boring at times. The idea of the ghost train with all the ghost passengers was kind of cool, but there was no real tension, and none of the ghosts were creepy to me. The whole point of reading a ghost story is for it to scare you at least a little bit. So yeah, this one fell flat.

Then there was the lack of any chemistry in the relationship between Ellie and Michael that was beginning to build in the last book. I was really happy that Ellie was dating someone and had a personal life other than just solving cases. There was huge potential there, but this time around she is ignoring Michael's calls because apparently she is scared of getting into a relationship. It felt like needless drama to me. Eventually she ends up talking to Michael after Stacey forces her to, and makes a date with him. A really weird cheesy date in which they double with Stacey and Jacob. There was some of the fun banter between the two of them that I liked in the last book, but that was about it. Then he ends up joining her on her ghost hunt. At times it felt like it did when reading Nancy Drew when Ned tagged along on one of her cases. Needless to say, I was disappointed that there wasn't more spark between them.

After being this disappointed I'm having to reevaluate this series. Since it is so hit or miss I'm not sure if I want to continue.