Bethany's Book Nook

      During the gold rush, prospectors came to Miracle Mountain in northern Georgia, looking for their fortune in the local waterways. Legend tells of a mysterious event, of a girl falling to her death from the local waterfall and miraculously coming back to life the next day. Tourists now come to this legendary location looking for a miracle of their own. Nearby is a rustic historical inn that welcomes visitors looking for their own miracle and a glimpse of the local ghost Freija. Ellie and her team are called in to help the owners get rid of the malevolent spirits that are scaring away business.      I love this entire book; I swear every time it gets scarier as the series goes on! Ellie and Jordan come to the Highwater Inn to help rid of the malevolent ghosts but are told to steer clear of the friendly welcoming ones. The owner Willow, who claims to be a spiritualist, is trying to contact the dead and even goes as far as to welcome them into the inn. Wi...

  "Come here, children, play with me, I'm the friend in your TV..."      The Calvert family's new home used to belong to a deceased creator of a forgotten puppet children's program. The younger children are fond and fascinated by the basement, where the stage still stands and rooms are full of the sets, props, puppets, and costumes. The parents are happy and thrilled to see the children using imagination instead of being focused on screens, but their experiences throughout the house become more and more haunting. Reruns are happening in all aspects of this house and Ellie and team must protect the family, especially the children, before they're drawn and become part of the show.      This was the CREEPIEST one of the series. I am literally haunted by the thought of the family being strung up like marionette puppets. There is so much history and lore in this book that it completely immerses you into it. Absolutely nightmare fuel. Possessions, puppets, a...

      An old mansion overlooks a derelict small town that has seen better days. Having had many lives, the mansion is clinging to life by being the Sunshine House, a retirement home full of locals that have fond memories of their hometown. A new resident finds herself being tormented by a violent reminder of her past and the team is called in to get to the bottom of it. The spirit is careful and capable of transforming into what every resident either fears or feels deeply for, making it extremely dangerous and nearly impossible to trap. Ellie has to find a way to remove this ghost before it causes more harm or even death.      Once again hit a home run with this book, it was perfect and has a wonderful balance of fun and scare. The new characters fit in with the team and are more than willing to lend a hand, being more interested at first than realizing they are possibly in danger. The plot is full of twists and turns but in the best way. Full of ghosts, do...

    Canterbury Gardens is a plantation outside Charleston, South Carolina that once hosted lavish banquets and balls. The gardens being full of sculptures, canals, and large scale follies that resembled ancient medieval ruins. Due to years of neglect, the gardens have become overgrown and nature once again reclaiming the grounds. The new owners, who is recovering from tragedy, devoted themselves and their money to restoring the estate to its former glory. Unfortunately, due to the construction, the ghosts and spirits left behind are more active than ever. Shadow figures walk the gardens, throughout the house, crying ghosts throwing themselves off buildings, and so so much more. Including a decrepit wishing well is a local legend. That you only get one wish and that it will always come true-but at a cost. Ellie and the team travel to the gardens and are forced to stay on property due to the distance from Savannah and due to cost. The dark history is dying to make itself known a...

 "Close your doors and cabinets tight, or Jack will climb out to see you tonight."      This investigation leads to the team to a former railroad stop in Timbermill, Georgia. Having fallen into disrepair after its boom era faded, it is coming into its second life. Unfortunately, with all the new businesses and families moving in, they aren't privy to the urban legend of past generations. These legends focus on a supernatural figure who emerges through doors, cabinets, and cabinets that are left open at night. Once a couple relocated to a local antique home, restoring it in this hopefully up and coming town, this urban legend is stalking them and their children. They turn to the team to help defeat this evil and finally rid it of the area.     This has to be hands down the scariest book so far in this series. It was extremely unique and had my skin absolutely crawling by the end of it. Not only does it include a powerful supernatural urban legend that is in ...

  ""The only clear pattern I've seen is that, whether the hunting party is led by a pagan god, a demon, or a ghost, it's always bad luck to see it. Some say it's an omen of death." "Oh, I'm so glad we saw it then." Stacey shook her head and went back to work."      A secret client hires Ellie Jordan to investigate an island getaway that was once home to an Industrial Age aristocrat, solely used to escape the harsh winters of the upper northeast. These once grand mansions were slowly abandoned, and the weather and wilderness took over once again. One such island, that is temporarily home to Ellie Jordan for this investigation, was modeled after a royal hunting lodge, complete with weapons, artifacts, hunting trophies, and exotic taxidermied predators from around the world. The secretive client is trying to bring the island back to life as a grand gesture to his fiancée whose family used to own the island. Unfortunately, while trying to fix t...

      A refurbished drive in has found a new life after being dormant for years. With help of a young family, it gives it it's much needed facelift and modern vision moving forward. Unfortunately, not everything has been left in past as it's been haunting the projection room, screen tower, and parked customers. Ellie Jordan and her team are on the case, especially when she realizes it is impacting Daisy, the daughter of the owners. Between no obvious murders or agendas, they have to figure out what is causing these hauntings and get down to the bottom of it before the show begins.      With every new installment I feel myself absolutely loving the characters more and more. The new places, faces, and haunts that are so sight specific and thought provoking. This one was no exception! There was a whole lore and in-depth storyline that truly felt like it could have been something that happened in Hollywood long ago. It truly felt like a story within a story, if...

  "Why would teenage boys go out on a boat in a storm" Stacey wondered. "Well, now that I say it aloud, it kinda answers itself"           The team is brough to an old campground that is full of local legend. It is next to the mysterious mounds of a vanished people and once a summer camp for children before it was abruptly shut down due to mysterious deaths. The Conner family moved from the city, to create a space for children in need. They're on a deadline and the construction in the camp is stirring up the spirits of the grounds and woods. Between the deaths within the camp, Josh Conner's inability to accept the paranormal, and an old Indigenous legend of the Trailwalker, there is no shortage of possibilities. One thing remains the same though, t hese spirits are mainly targeting the Conner kids. Ellie and the team have to dig into this campground's rich history and determine what or who is threatening the family. Or else they may be forced to give u...

  "Find us a hotel. Something NOT HAUNTED. Can't emphasize this enough"       Ellie and her team are in pursuit of a possessed friend and the demon who killed her parents, along with countless others, across the United States. We come across a dramatic backdrop of ghost towns, highways, and haunted hotels all leading up to a final horrific location. A town that was completely demolished and destroyed by fire that is not haunted by hundreds of spirits. Ellie is prepared to fight for her life along with her team and a quirky exorcist from Texas. Here her past and present collide in the final confrontation that gives her the chance to finally get rid of her own personal demon. Hopefully it doesn't kill her or the people she's closest with first.      This story was the perfect climax to Ellie's personal growth story and how Anton Clay really was her own personal demon, having been obsessed with her since she was a child. It was time for him to finall...

      Ellie takes a case in Foxboro, Tennessee, which is a little further than home, during the Christmas season. She goes ahead and takes it while Stacey and Jacob are in Alabama celebrating with her family. The email came in from Dr. Weirdman's Mountain Museum of Monsters, Curiosities, and Ancient Mysteries. A tourist attraction that offered travelers the adventure of a lifetime, the unusual underground caves, "scientific" exhibits, and artifacts from the creators owns adventures. The museum is in less than favorable conditions and the spirits roaming are going after the children of its new owner, a distant relative who has no idea what he's doing and his young children. On top of the case, Michael and Melissa come back into the picture and volunteer to go with Ellie to go to the local Christmas market nearby. This of course leaves Ellie with more anxiety and uncertainty, wanting to keep them away from any ghostly activities after what happened in the corn maze but ...

      Ellie Jordan and her team take on a new case in downtown Atlanta, inside a crumbling historical skyscraper! The prominent family that created this skyscraper empire and lived on the top floors are having some unwanted visitors that are getting more violent every day. This care proves extremely dangerous, unraveling the past of this prominent family and the crime, corruption, and wealth that happened within those walls. Every floor has its own dangers and hidden rooms with residual spirits, leaving this one of the most challenging cases Ellie and the team have ever come across!      Even at work in the middle of the day, this one had me looking over my shoulder constantly. The hidden secrets are so deep and wild that it took my breath away, also saying I was so worried that Ellie and Stacey were going to be abducted in that basement! Poor Ellie is still trying to deal and cope with what has happened with Michael and is still tracking down Anton Clay so...

 "Sooner or later, each of us reaches that point where the evil ghost that's been stalking me since childhood is trying to murder everyone we care about"     The south channel lighthouse is an abandoned crumbling historical building at the mouth of the Savannah River. Stories tell of the woman in white who often stood at the top of the lighthouse, watching the sailors coming into port and waving them off and ensures their safe travels. She is still seen years after her death. The property is now owned by a famous movie star with local ties to Tybee Island. The old ghosts of the river and lighthouse are in full force because of the construction of a new mansion connected to the lighthouse cottage. The team with the help of the "Hoff", have to remove the ghosts who are getting increasingly, violent. They're threatening the team, the client and her family, and her personal staff. This latest installment dives into the dark history of the lighthouse, its ghosts,...

  "You want to see if you can train the evil singing nursey ghost to...do what? Babysit evil children?"     Ellie Jordan's life just got a whole lot more complicated; Calvin sells the company, and the new owners are in town calling all the shots...not to mention Michael is in a coma due to the injuries sustained on one of her last investigations. The new client they are to meet is a pregnant woman who has a ghost that appears in the nursey singing an eerie lullaby. As always, the team discovers there are more ghosts in the house and that one hunts children, and they need to stop them before they try to kill again. All while figuring out where the now dormant Anton Clay is hiding.      Once again Bryan just absolutely knocks it out of the park with this new addition. I just want to open this up with saying how much I absolutely hate the new owners PSI, and Kara the Russian woman overseeing everything. she is extremely in touch with the paranormal and has a f...

  "Don't you love fall?" Stacey asked. "All the little festivals, the changing leaves, kids in Halloween costumes, the dead spewing up out of the graves to haunt the living..."      This case leads us to Pine Hollow Farm, an old time family farm that has all the fall activities one could want, including a 'haunted' hayride through the woods past an eighteenth-century cemetery and a corn maze. A local legend, the ghost of a horseman that has ridden through the same dirt road through the woods, along with other ghosts who are threatening visitors and the family. Ellie and Stacey travel to the farm to discover the truth behind these spirits and are racing against time as Halloween approaches.      I absolutely love this series so any new addition to it just makes my day! The danger and the spook factor of this book was off the charts. Between the ghosts, the ones in the woods and the one who crawls up the stairs in a pool of her own blood just blew me awa...

  ""So why were we all summoned here today?" Jacob asked. "Is there a murder mystery involved? Someone in this restaurant is the killer? I'm guessing it was the chef, in the kitchen, with the sausage gravy. Did the victim die of rapid-onset heart disease?""     Ellie and Stacey are on to another case in an extravagant community that never got off the ground because of bankruptcy. It's a ghost town, with only a few residents-including the clients. In this house there's a Banshee that thrives off the misery and sadness of everyone that it comes into contact with. Though it seems like an open shut case, as usual, there is more underneath the initial haunting. While surveying the community they came across a defunct railroad that acts like a conduit for ANY lost souls near by, including the dark ones. Between the severity of case, turmoil with Calvin- the owner of the company, and the budding romance between Ellie and Michael. It is easy to get los...

 "An interesting thing about kitchens: while ghosts are most drawn to the dark, deserted areas of the house, typically the attic or basement-or closet, in the case of our current boogeyman-the kitchen, in my experience, tends to be the least haunted area. Maybe it's the fact that kitchens are well-lit, but they're also the center of the activity for the living, the emotional energy constantly churned and refreshed. They're the heart of the home, and I think something about that keeps the restless spirits at bay, hiding in the shadows. There are plenty of exceptions, of course"      Ellie Jordan and her team face a dangerous shape-shifting entity that she and her mentor Calvin has once encountered before-the one that led him to being paralyzed. The spirit has the power to reach into the mind of the living and transform into their deepest fears. Unbeknownst to everyone involved, there is even more evil and darkness in the home than anyone imagined...and it's tar...

      In this case Ellie Jordan and her team are called to a family home that seems to be occupied by several ghosts. Shortly into investigating, it seems that the seven-year-olds invisible friends may not be so invisible after all, but rather the spirits of the children that previously lived there. Upon further research into the homes' previous owners, it seems that she must help them move on before they take it upon themselves to make the living join them.      The horror factor in this book is an upgrade from the last, and I have a feeling it will only keep increasing as we go on! What I love though is for every scary moment there is a humorous one not far behind. Truly, I love this little misfit family that is growing closer together with every case. I'm going to be so sad whenever this series comes to an end. 

  ""You don't understand, Mercy," I said. "You're dead, you died--"  A howling shriek hit me right in the brain. The ghost charged me, her misty face distorted and distending as she put on speed, her empty eye sockets and mouth hole stretching to inhumane shapes."     Set in Savannah, Georgia, Ellie Jordan's job is anything but normal. Her job is to catch and remove unwanted ghosts, but also act as a private detective. Delving into the past of the family, house, property, and even items inside the home. Ellie surveys every family that contacts her to see if there is a true haunting. In this story Ellie surveys a family that contacted her to deal with a restless presence in their historical mansion that is undergoing construction. Ellie is joined by her unwanted coworkers- Stacey and Jacob, a psychic. The team manages to get one ghost out of the house, the one that was targeting the young daughter, only to discover there were many many more dang...