2024 COVERS

2024 covers

Welcome to the Dark Side!

We are writers mainly from Australia and New Zealand who write speculative fiction with romantic elements. Be it fantasy, paranormal, dark urban fantasy, futuristic and everything in between.

Tuesday 24 May 2022

DarkSider News - Special Edition - ARRA 2023 Signing Event

 


Catch up in person with these DarkSiders...







ARRA 2023: A Romantic Rendezvous




This is a multi-city signing event to be held February 2023. The following DarkSiders will be signing - some in multiple cities.



You can alsoenter the Ticketpalooza to win a ticket. 


Keep an eye out for ticket details.




BRISBANE

Cassie Laelyn
HM Hodgson
Imogene Nix
Keri Arthur
Melody Beckett

 

 






SYDNEY

HM Hodgson
Keri Arthur

 






MELBOURNE

Donna Maree Hanson/Dani Kristoff 
HM Hodgson
Keri Arthur
Leisl Leighton
MJ Scott
ML Tompsett
Samantha Marshall

   


 
   









PERTH

D.D. Line
Lana Pecherczyk


 



Tuesday 17 May 2022

DarkSider News - May Part 2!

 



Grab a cuppa, sit back and relax while you enjoy our news...




NEW RELEASES




Pack Bound
Leils Leighton
Book 1, Pack Bound
has a new cover and has been re-edited and re-released.
Released: 10 May



One Pack, one Coven, a destiny intertwined...

Five hundred years ago, facing extinction, a group of powerful witches united to create a pact with the Were to save Witch-kind. The pact expelled an ancient evil, known only as the Darkness, that blocked the Were from their wolves. With the Darkness destroyed, the Packs and Covens grew strong as they thrived beside each other in their brand-new world.

But the Darkness was not destroyed.

Skye Collins has been brought up to fear her magic and shy away from Witch and Were alike. But when Jason McVale, the Alpha of Pack McVale, comes in search of her, she is intrigued and tempted. Yet, the intensity of passion she shares with Jason threatens her control – and if she loses control, she just might turn into the weapon the Darkness intended her to become all along.

Can she trust this Were when he says his Pack will die without her? More importantly, can she trust her magic before the Darkness has its way?







Homecoming
Mel Teshco and Kylie Sheaffe
Book 3, Awakenings
Released: 22 April



What will it take for doctor-in-training, James Edward Bowheart, to drop his pre-conceived beliefs and fully awaken to his innate psychic abilities? That believing in them might well have prevented the death of the professor—his good friend and mentor—has left James reeling. His sister, Josie, never once doubted in his surreal visions and messages, making him realize he owes it to himself—and to the memory of the professor—to at least explore what he consciously turned his back on.

With the love of his girlfriend Marina helping to shift his energy, James soon pieces together some of the hidden truths from his past. But will his soul searching deliver him the happily ever after he yearns for or will he be forever entwined with the visions that haunt him?



Buy links
Amazon  | Books2Read |


Cover by Eleni Konstantine's alter ego, HelzKat Designs.





Emperor
Anna Hackett
Book 1, Galactic Kings
Released: 29 April



When an experimental starship test goes horribly wrong, a scientist from Earth finds herself fighting for her survival, and her only lifeline is a wild, powerful alien king.

Waking on an alien world, wracked by pain, Dr. Poppy Ellison is confused and adrift…until his voice calls to her in the darkness. The big, wild, enthralling man reveals that she’s been infected and is turning into an alien shapeshifter. Poppy has always been smart, practical, and boring, but with her entire life turned upside down, there is no one she can trust…except for this alien wolf.

Emperor Brodin Damar Sarkany is king of Damar and its shapeshifters. As wild as the forest city they call home, the Damari can be volatile, always fighting to control the wolf inside. Brodin uses his immense strength to keep his people in check and protect them from the most dangerous evil of all—his war-mongering father. He can’t afford the distraction of a small, tantalizing woman from Earth, even when everything about Poppy sings to the instincts of both man and wolf.

As his father’s ruthless warlord attacks, innocent children are at risk, and Poppy knows she has to help by mastering her new, emerging abilities. She must also face the shocking passion that explodes between her and Brodin. But as Poppy and Brodin hunt down the enemy, they uncover a plot that could mean the destruction of all the Damari…if they don’t stop it in time.











The Secrets in Shadow and Blood
Lana Pecherczyk
Book 1, Season of the VampireFae Guardians
Released: 12 April in audio format




In the shadows, vision can turn blurry. Truths can become lies. Enemies can become lovers.

When Violet inexplicably wakes thousands of years after a nuclear holocaust, she finds the world very different. Fae exist now. They’re vicious, animalistic monsters who pervert magic and can morph into any shape—including vampires. They hoard the bounty of the new world, and keep humans banished to the wasteland. At least, that’s what the humans of today have told her. Determined to make up for an unforgivable mistake in her past, she becomes a covert assassin and seeks revenge for her human brethren. And she’s good at it. But when the thing she hunts saves her life, injuring himself in the process...her crystal clarity suddenly becomes blurry.

Vampires are meant to be monsters, not protectors...not charismatic, annoyingly handsome, and loyal and...everything.

Indigo is a Fae Guardian, and a ruthless vampire protector of Elphyne. The Order has tasked him with finding a human with deadly secrets before the unhinged Unseelie Queen, or the fanatical human leader, can exploit her. They chose him for one reason, and one reason only – the taste of human blood does things to him. Addictive, dark, insatiable things. And when he catches Violet’s scent, they know he’ll do everything in his power to possess her and keep her safe. But Indigo hides his own shameful secret in the shadows of his heart, and if it ever comes to light, Violet will never trust him. She’ll kill him.






A Labyrinth of Fangs and Thorns
Lana Pecherczyk
Book 2, Season of the VampireFae Guardians
Released: 19 April in audio format





Since Peaches woke up in a fantasy world full of monsters and fae, she’s been treated like a piece of tasty human meat. After six years as a blood slave to vampires and the evil Unseelie queen—beholden to all, and master of none—there’s nothing left but a broken shell with a fractured soul. Until a deadly warrior turns up unannounced in her room.

Vampire Haze is the muscle of the Fae Guardians elite cadre of 12. He is a spy, a protector of the weak, hammer and sword, a rigid enforcer of rules. He allows no one close to his heart, lest they see the shame driving him. But when he stumbles across a beguiling woman with sad, desolate eyes, he knows he must help her. She calls to him in more ways than one, igniting a passion neither of them can deny, despite the risks.

The Unseelie queen has other treacherous plans for Haze and Peaches. From a twisted masquerade ball, to a labyrinth filled with goblins, to a hidden prison deep underground, they must work together to survive. The only way out is to trust each other....

Easier said than done when all he wants to do is feast on her blood.

A Labyrinth of Fangs and Thorns is book five in the Fae Guardians series, book two in the Season of the Vampire.










Finders Keepers
Lily Rose
Book 2, Adventures of the Misfit Monsters
Released: 4 November 2021



The finders keepers rule is getting out of hand. Things are going missing – objects that the misfit monsters need. This is causing disharmony between the misfit monsters, and everyone is on edge looking for someone to blame. That someone is Nit.

Nit, part vampire, part elf, with a little bit of shade, hasn’t been taking objects despite being blamed.

How can he solve this mystery, find the culprit before he’s locked away and charged with a crime he’s not committed?











   
Mystic Warriors
Marie Dry
is a serial novel found on Webnovel. 
So far there are 56 chapters.




Sabrina married Mark after only knowing him for two weeks. Although she loves him more than life itself, sometimes, she could swear he moves faster than the human eye can follow, and she's sure she's seen him change into something with wings. Could he be a vampire? A gargoyle? She tries to tell herself she's being ridiculous, that those things don't really exist. But when a strange being bursts through her bedroom window and kidnaps her, Sabrina is forced to admit the truth--not only are the creatures from her nightmares real, her own husband is one of them, and he married her for reasons other than love...








Non Spec-Fic



A Mischievous Matchmaker
Helen Walton
Novella, Stonecrest Bay
Released: 6 May


Dog sitting shouldn't be too hard for soon-to-be divorcee, Matilda Edwards. Determined to start over with a sparkling, newly renovated bed-and-breakfast business, she can't believe the catastrophe her sister's dog Bosco causes in the first five minutes of his weekend stay. Nor the gorgeous man who comes to her rescue.

Who happens to be her new contractor, Nate Hudson.

One dog sitting disaster after another leads her to Nate, and spending time with him is a bonus. As much as she likes Nate and is attracted to him, it'd be inappropriate to act on her desire to kiss him. He's her employee. She's technically still married. He's younger. Hotter.

Nate Hudson falls for his new employer big time. Matilda is fun, and beautiful, with integrity and a big heart. Coming to her rescue is his new favourite pastime. Until he offers to teach her how to surf.

Except for one problem with the surf lessons, he has a secret he must keep hidden. Otherwise, she might never accept his help again.

Despite the obstacles, can they find love with the help of a canine matchmaker and his mischievous ways?








I will Find You
Amanda Ashby and Sally Rigby 
writing as Amanda Rigby
Released: 15 March


Three sisters…One terrible secret


Ashleigh: A creative, free spirit and loyal. But Ash is tormented by her demons and a past that refuses to be laid to rest.

Jessica: Perfect wife and loving mother. But although Jessica might seem to have it all, she lives a secret life built on lies.

Grace: An outsider, always looking in, Grace has never known the love of her sisters and her resentment can make her do bad things.

When Ashleigh goes missing, Jessica and Grace do all they can to find their eldest sister. But the longer Ashleigh is missing, the more secrets and lies these women are hiding threaten to tear this family apart.

Can they find Ashleigh before it’s too late or is it sometimes safer to stay hidden?















PRE-ORDERS



Despair
Lana Pecherczyk
Book 9, Deadly Seven
Expected Release: 30 May


Can Villains turn over a new leaf?
Crime rages in Cardinal City.

The fanatical Syndicate’s answer is to be judge, jury and executioner, even if that means destroying half the world to eradicate sin. The only thing standing in their way is a family of genetically modified vigilantes known as the Deadly Seven. Each of the Seven must find a lifemate, or become the sin they're destined to destroy.

Despair is the final book in the award-winning Deadly Seven superhero romance series.





Captain of the Guard
Anna Hackett
Book 3, Galactic Kings
Expected Release: 17 May




An alien warrior and a fierce shapeshifter who drive each other crazy must work together to save an entire planet from a terrifying evil.

First Claw Annora Rahl is tough, fierce, and loyal. She stands at her emperor’s side to protect the wolf shapeshifters of the planet Damar, and she isn’t afraid to use her claws. Stopping an evil king from a neighboring planet, who’s intent on enslaving all the planets in their system, is her top priority. She won’t fail her family, her people, or her emperor. Even if it means joining forces with an infuriating rival warrior…one who she isn’t sure if she wants to kill or kiss.

Captain Thadd Naveri is strong, unyielding, and dedicated. As captain of the guard for the overlord of the planet Zhalto, he lets nothing threaten his king or his people. He’s still recovering from his capture and torture by the enemy, but he readily accepts a top-secret mission into enemy territory. He’s less than pleased to share that mission with Annora—the one woman in the galaxy who fills him with scalding hot anger…and burning desire.

To save their allies on the planet Taln, Thadd and Annora must sneak into the enemy’s most feared science labs. As they fight side by side, they are forced to face their overwhelming attraction. But as the enemy closes in, it is a race against time to save not only Taln but themselves.









Wolf Soul
TJ Nichols
Book 3, Outcast Pack
Expected Release: 28 May



The Outcast Pack is part of the Familiar Mates world but stands alone. For readers who enjoy steamy gay wolf shifter romance.









The Billionaire's Familiar
TJ Nichols
Book 8, Familiar Mates
Expected Release: 28 July


Fated mates...there's only one problem: their families hate each other.


***
Discover the world of the Familiar Mates mm fated mates paranormal romance series. Each book in the Familiar Mates series has a new couple and a HEA with no cliffhangers.


The Billionaire's Familiar is a steamy gay enemies to lovers romance between a billionaire witch who is expected to follow family tradition and a fox shifter who doesn't realise his own power.








The Firefighter's Familiar
TJ Nichols
Book 9, Familiar Mates
Expected Release: 28 August


Join firefighter witch Callum as he navigates his accidental familiar bond and tries to explain magic to his human boyfriend.

Discover the world of the Familiar Mates mm fated mates shifter witch romance series.
Each book in the Familiar Mates series has a new couple and a HEA with no cliffhangers.










The Bodyguard's Convenient Marriage
M.L. Tompsett
Book 2, Second Chance at Love
Expected Release: 30 June



Too busy for love. Family curse or just bad luck. A woman scorned is deadly.

Three rules to stand by:
Business and pleasure should not be mixed.
Don’t get involved with a client.
Don’t get married.

Never one for relationships, hard-working retired-FBI agent Essy Raiker has made it her business to abide by the rules in her bodyguard business. She preferred her work protecting people until the day Declyn Bianchi hired her, and everything changed.
Rules… what rules!

More than bullets fly hot and fast when Essy faces her estranged husband.
Essy will stop at nothing when unexpected enemies emerge, endangering what she loves most.
Can Essy overcome her pride, exposing her heart to win Dekk’s love or has he replaced her with someone else?

Declyn Bianchi is fed up–with his high society family controlling his life–and his trouble-seeking identical twin. Life has been less than idyllic. Dekk’s prayers were answered in the form of a sinful looking body—his new bodyguard, Essy Raiker, to protect him from poaching females and business enemies.
He turns to Essy when a family curse hovers dangerously over his and his twin’s heads before she leaves for her next assignment.
Free from the family curse, Dekk must face reality when the family he thought he could trust betrayed him the most.
Will he have the chance to tell Essy he loves her and win her heart before it is too late?
Discover the news Essy had kept from Dekk. Who is behind the assassination attacks against the Bianchi family and see if the passion will burn deep in this second chance story at love.
Not all secrets remain dead and buried.










Neoro
Mel Teshco
Book 1, Alien Fugitives
Expected Release: 31 January 2023



She’s afraid to love again. He’s afraid to lose again.

Jack Ashton appears from out of nowhere, saving Brynn like a knight in shining armor from her terrifying ex. Though her heady attraction to Jack opens up her heart again, she discovers her knight comes with scales and a fin. She should be terrified, but there is something about him that draws her in and makes her feel safe.

Jack hid his identity so well from the dronians—an alien enemy intent on hunting him and the last of his species down—he managed to brainwash himself in the process, forgetting his name and the real him while living and working on Earth. But when his memories come flooding back and he becomes protector of a human woman, he realizes life on Earth isn’t going to be any easier than what it had been on his own world, especially with a vulnerable human in his care.

Lying low and not drawing attention was his one and only goal. But when he falls for Brynn and dronians threaten her life, he knows he can’t lose another loved one again. He’ll do whatever he must to keep her alive and safe, even if he has to draw on every one of his unstable alien powers to do so.


Pre-order links









The Highland Earl's Revenge
Cathleen Ross
 Highland Lords and Ladies
Expected Release: 21 May



Lady Arabella Fraser will do anything to protect her clan, even if it pits her against the man she loves and the army of the English king.

Scotland 1744–1746

At sixteen, Lady Arabella Fraser, is forced into marriage with seventy-year-old, Lord William Gordon. Her father, Lord Fraser, insists the union will bring him and the Gordon lord a dukedom from Bonnie Prince Charles, and free the Highlands from the scourge of English rule.

In desperation, she throws herself at the man she loves, young disposed noble, Alexander Gordon, and begs him to marry her, greatly humiliated when he refuses.

Two years later, unhappily married, Arabella swears she’ll never forgive Alexander for leaving her and joining the enemy army to fight under King George instead of marrying her.

The day after the Scottish defeat at Culloden Field, Captain Alexander appears in Gordon castle at the head of the English army to wreak havoc on all traitors to the throne. Alexander cannot forget that Arabella wouldn't wait for him and married his uncle for the wealth, title and castle, that should have been his.
Except he still loves her and wants to make her his.













Non Spec-Fic




The Sheikh's Forbidden Wife
Mel Teshco 
Book 3, Desert Kings Alliance 
Expected Release: 31 May



She chose to escape a future of tyranny. He has no choice but to take her as his wife.

Sheikha Yasmine Al-Fasih will do anything to escape her soon-to-be-arranged marriage to a vile man older than her father. If that means sleeping with esteemed guest—Sheikh Jamal Qadir—and forcing his hand in marriage, then so be it. Better to live with the mistrust of a fair man than to endure a life with a brutal despot.

Sheikh Jamal is grateful that his routine business trip to discuss trade with his neighboring country’s leader, Sheikh Zameer, is almost over. A quick overnight stay and he’ll be on his way. But on finding a blonde bombshell asleep in his bed all tiredness fades away. Zameer clearly knows Jamal’s taste in women.

When it turns out Yasmine is Sheikh Zameer’s virginal daughter—not one of his many harem women—Jamal is gutted. He’s been setup! Yasmine is forbidden fruit and he took a bite.

There is only one way now to repair the damage. He has to marry the girl. But it doesn’t mean he has to like her. A pity fate always finds a way to have the last laugh.








The Sheikh's Secret Mistress
Mel Teshco
Book 4, Desert Kings Alliance
Expected Release: 15 September


She's a commoner, he's a powerful sheikh. Will she ever be good enough?

Jazmina Fadel might be praised for her beauty and for being mistress to the powerful Sheikh Fayez Al-Khan, but she can’t ever forget she came from a broken and destitute family. Not that Jazmina craves material wealth. A lovely house and a closet filled with designer clothes and jewelry means little when she desires her fairytale dream of a husband and children. And she won’t take a backseat while every eligible princess and sheikha in the Middle East vies for his attention and, ultimately, his hand in marriage.

Shiekh Fayez Al-Khan never meant to fall in love. He never even dreamed it possible for someone of his self-centered ways and lofty upbringing to believe in love at first sight. Not when there are scores of women willing to enact his every sexual urge. But although Jazmina has no pedigree, she is his every fantasy come to life. He won’t give her up. Not for anything or anyone. Not even for the wishes of his people who would see him wedded to the Sheikha of Lomada to strengthen their nations alliance. In the end though, will he have a choice?









The Sheikh's Secret Mistress
Mel Teshco
Book 5, Desert Kings Alliance
Expected Release: 30 December



She desires the man of her dreams. Can she resist the attention of another?

Sheikha Aisha Al Wahed might be the sister to Sheikh Hamid—one of the most renowned and unconventional Sheikhs on the planet—but it doesn’t mean she is cut from the same cloth. She wants what almost every girl wants: to marry the love of her life. That she’s had a crush on Tabari Usamah for so long makes her more determined for him notice her. So why is Dhamar, one of her brother’s many friends, distracting her beyond all reason?
Sheikh Dhamar Qadir desires one thing—Aisha Al Wahed. A pity she is besotted with another man not worthy of her affection. But Dhamar won’t give up, he’ll do whatever is necessary to make her fall in love with him, and he’s not above using every tool in his arsenal to make that happen, including removing Tabari from the picture and sending him away. But will his interference cost him the love and respect of the one woman he wants above all else?


Covers by Eleni Konstantine's alter ego, HelzKat Designs.






Her Wicked Scot
Christina Phillips
Book 4, The Highland Warrior Chronicles
Expected Release: 3 October


A warrior rumored to have no heart. An ice princess, who has vowed never to love again. A forced marriage that could break them both…

Sent into Pictland to discover the identity of a desperate assassin, Ewan MacKinnon fights his fascination with the aloof princess, Briana. Although he wants nothing more than to take her into his arms, he won’t taint her with the curse that has blighted him all his life.

After her first disastrous marriage, Briana is determined to dedicate her life in service to Pictland and her beloved goddess. But her goddess is elusive, sending only visions of a splintered future–a future that is tied irrevocably to the one man she fears could shatter her heart forever. The enemy of her people, Scots warrior Ewan MacKinnon.

Coerced into a marriage of convenience, Briana and Ewan battle both duty and desire as political intrigue tightens its noose around them. But with the assassin edging ever closer they must forsake the shackles of their past and risk their fragile love for a chance of surviving an ultimate betrayal.












COVERS



Exiled
Mary Brock Jones
Book 3, Arcadia
Expected Release: late May/early June




A sharp nosed businessman from a planet facing environmental disaster must face the cost of his actions  when he meets a brilliant biome scientist.

When Seolta den Coille is falsely imprisoned by the corrupt Ecological Survey bosses, he comes out wanting one thing only. Revenge. When offworlders offer him a way to get back at those who threatened him, he takes it with both fists. Not surprisingly, it doesn’t end well and he’s banished into exile. All that does is give his hunger for vengeance a few more targets. Top of the list, the two off-worlders who lured him into betraying his home world.

Anyara a Prithand2 wants only two things in life. To be left in peace to manage the biota systems of her space station, and to avoid giving her uncle an excuse to kill her. When a newcomer to her homeworld offers to help her escape, she accepts. Now she just has to survive this new adventure.

Chased across Alliance space by their enemies, Seolta and Anyara’s only chance lies with the Alliance Council, the overall governing body of settled space. An organisation as riven with political strife as the enemies they are fleeing. Some want to kill them both while others only want to kill Seolta and seize control of Anyara and her research findings.

Can the cleverest of the den Coille’s and a lauded artificial habitat scientist stay alive long enough to save both their home worlds?









~~~


Congratulations to our DarkSiders.

Thanks for joining us. Until next time, be safe and well.


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DarkSide DownUnder's book lists (dsdu-books shelf)