Cold Shadows Review (Paranormal Fantasy)

Book cover for Cold Shadows by J.L. Bryan

Cold Shadows: Footsteps in the attic. Toys that play by themselves. A dark presence in an upstairs room.

Paranormal investigator Ellie Jordan faces a difficult new case. Her new clients are a family haunted by multiple ghosts and a poltergeist that wrecks their home at night. Their seven-year-old son’s invisible friends may not be imaginary at all, but the restless spirits of dead children.

To clear her clients’ house of the dangerous entities, Ellie must unravel the mysterious deaths of another family who lived in the old mansion more than a hundred and sixty years ago—and she must do it before the ghosts can carry out their malevolent designs on her clients and their children. – Goodreads

Cold Shadows Review

Cold Shadows is a great follow-up to the first Ellie Jordan book. J.L. Bryan has created an interesting team in Ellie and Stacey Rae. Calvin and Jacob (and Grant) are solid peripheral characters (though I’m really hoping the romance thread doesn’t continue too strongly in later books). Seriously, if the romance thing heads the way it’s already looking, I’ll stop reading the series. Ergh. Anyways, the interaction and relationships between all the characters are believable and mostly enjoyable. I’d love to see a flashback bit dealing with Calvin and Ellie’s first team-up.

The situation that Ellie and Stacey face in Cold Shadows was, again, not your typical ghost story. J.L. Bryan is good at putting unexpected twists on set-ups that look fairly straight forward. There was definitely a scene in here that made me sit up a bit straighter and go “What the ??” He kept everything moving along at a decent pace with plenty of action. The otherworldly presences have a few appearances that will definitely spook a gleeful scaredy-cat reader. The Paulding House was described just enough that you got a sense of the layout without having a clear cut picture of everything in your head. I think this works to make it creepier because you can see it happening in a house you know easier.

The Ghost Trapper series is a solid paranormal fantasy with creepy overtones. If the books were made into films, those would most likely be skewed towards the horror genre. They’re fast reads that will delight any readers who like their monsters to go bump in the night. Also, not to be forgotten, so far this series has been ‘clean.’ No cursing, no smoochies, no guts, and gore. While I wouldn’t recommend them for the under 13 age group, I’d have no problem recommending them to teenage readers. (Interest may vary depending on maturity level.)

Overall, Cold Shadows was a good read that thoroughly entertained me. Well worth what I paid for it! (Those covers, though…)