"Someone was following her.
Alli slowed and shifted the bags on her shoulder, the straps twisting and catching her hair. She winced and pulled her head to the side while trying to place the odd sound behind her.
There it was again.
Her heart skipped, stalled, then pounded in her chest.
Not someone, but something. Those weren't footsteps she could
hear on the pavement. It almost sounded like ... claws.
NEW RELEASES
M.J. Scott
Wicked Games
Book 1, Techwitch
Released:
12 February
12 February
in audiobook format
Narrated by Suzanne T. Fortin
Duration: 9.9 hours
My mother was a wicked witch. And all her spells ever brought was trouble. Since her death, with no power of my own, I’ve stayed far, far away from magic . . .
In a San Francisco struggling to recover from earthquakes and rising seas, and where technology can do things that are close enough to magic anyway, Maggie Lachlan is a computer whisperer. The one they call when no one else can find the elusive bug bringing a complex system to its knees. They call her the Techwitch. But she knows there’s nothing magical about what she does. It’s just hard-earned skill.
So when Damon Riley, owner of the world’s biggest virtual reality gaming company comes calling with a problem that his entire empire of geeks can’t fix, Maggie leaps at the job. Riley Arts is the kind of place she feels at home. Wall-to-wall tech. No magic. Except, perhaps, for the unsettling chemistry she has with the man in charge.
But she never imagined stepping into one of Damon’s games would reveal her mother lied about Maggie’s magic. Or that technology could break a spell she never knew she was under. Now she has a demon hunting her and a whole world she knows nothing about to navigate. To save herself—and the world—she needs to learn fast. Because, when it comes to magic, too many games are wicked. And if you lose, the price can be very, very high . . .
Wicked Games is the first book in the TechWitch series, an exciting dark and sexy futuristic urban fantasy from RITA® Award nominated author M.J. Scott. This series has witches, demons, an ongoing relationship that will have an HEA, sexy times, and a lot of computer geeks. Perfect if you like the idea of a strong heroine, a hot protective billionaire and magic and technology colliding. Enjoy!
Author's note: For tropes and CW, please check the author's website.
TJ Nichols
Scream and Steam
Released:
14 March
Failing college was bad enough, but moving back home feels like a nightmare for Timothy. A stepmother he barely knows, a curious five-year-old sister, and eerie noises in the night have reignited his childhood fear of monsters under the bed. Then he learns the truth: the monsters are real.
Farrow, a guardian of the magical bridges hidden beneath children’s beds, has one mission—keep the human and magical worlds apart. But everything changes when he records Timothy in a very private moment. Convinced by a monster friend that selling videos on Scream and Steam will be easy money, Farrow opens an account—and Timothy becomes his unwitting star.
When Timothy discovers Farrow in his room, they strike an uneasy deal: Timothy will appear in Farrow’s videos if it means no more scares. But as sparks fly on and off camera, Timothy begins to see magic where he never expected it, and Farrow realizes Timothy’s past holds secrets that could shatter both their worlds.
Can they bridge the gap between fear and love, or will their worlds collide in chaos? Dive into this steamy monster romance where love pushes all boundaries.
Leisl Leighton
Book 3, Dawn of the Curse
Released:
10 March
A Hunter, a Fae Shifter, a power to face the Darkness …
Were Hunter, Callum MacHeath, wants nothing more than to help his Alphas build their new Packlands into a place of safety and welcome. His only sadness is that his brother, Bram, still refuses to leave their old Alpha and venture north to join them. But then Leanna, half of his Alpha team, has a vision: he must journey south to find an incredibly powerful and mysterious Being whom only he can manage to bring into the pack. A Being they will need if they are to survive the dark times ahead even while death and destruction follow in her wake. Even as Callum heads south, he worries whether he really should bring this woman back to his pack – until he claps eyes on her and realises she's his mate!
Anna Hackett
In The Devil's Nebula
Book 2, Phoenix Adventures
In The Devil's Nebula
Book 2, Phoenix Adventures
Re-Released:
March
She wants her freedom, and only one daring starship pilot can help her get it.
On a deadly mission to the lawless Devil’s Nebula, Commander Zayn Phoenix lost it all: his career, his friend, his sanity. Now the former Strike Wing pilot fills his days with dangerous adventures with his treasure hunter brothers. But his nights are haunted by the friend he lost.
Then a beautiful assassin lures him into a hunt. An assassin with the face of a dead woman.
Ria Dante wants to escape the Assassin’s Guild, and she needs the help of the man she’s been dreaming about for months. What she doesn’t need is the distraction of Zayn’s muscled body and charming grin. And she definitely doesn’t need him thinking she’s his dead friend.
Zayn and Ria embark on a perilous adventure for an ancient artifact used in the infamous assassination of old Earth president, Abraham Lincoln. As the undeniable heat between them intensifies, they head straight into the heart of the Devil’s Nebula, and collide with the ghosts of their pasts.
Previously published – has been lightly edited.
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Anna Hackett
Marc
Book 3, Hunter Squad
Released:
31 March
We survived the invasion and beat the aliens. But they left something behind…
Killing monsters is what I do. Like my father before me, I fight side by side with my twin brother and my squad to protect our people.
Since the invasion, life is dangerous. I know how short it can be, so I live it to the fullest. I work hard on Hunter Squad, I party harder, I love a joke and a good time, and I never get tangled up in relationships. I watched my father’s grief at losing his brother. I almost lost my own twin. I’ll never let myself get in too deep.
Then our squad’s pilot crashes alone in monster-infested mountains.
Tiny, opinionated Colbie who’s the best pilot I know. A fierce redhead who never hesitates to stand up to me.
Everything changes. Every protective instinct I have is in overdrive. I have to find her and bring her home.
I’ll risk it all—monsters, raging rivers, dangerous terrain—but when the two of us are alone and fighting for survival, I realize that what’s most at risk is the one thing I’ve always guarded—my heart.
M.L. Tompsett
Her Vampire Fated Mate
Her Vampire Fated Mate
Released:
27 March
Some soulmates are found in the dark. Their bond was written before time. Now it’s being rewritten in blood.
Mandlyn Daniels - Maddy to her friends - thought she knew her life: a fiancé she has never met, a family, a future. But betrayal shatters everything. The fiancé betrays her. Her father, Shamus Donohue, and his wife confess to murdering her mother. Her grandmother, Margaret Livingston, is bound to a Fay prince. And the child she always believed was her cousin… is her son.
Her blood carries power. Her magic runs deep. Every secret has been kept from her. Until Xavier.
Xavier is a vampire. He sees her. He saves her. He remembers the bond she’s forgotten—the ancient connection that ties them together as fated soulmates.
But darkness doesn’t rest. Her step‑mother, Pamula Molly Sweed, is coming for her, determined to destroy her. Her half‑sister, Mimmi Donohue, is twisted by envy and malice. And every truth Mandlyn uncovers drags her deeper into a war of blood, betrayal, and destiny.
Now she must decide if love written in fate can survive when family becomes the enemy and the darkness wears her step‑mother’s face.
Annie Seaton
March Magic
Book 3, The Enchanted Village
Released:
20 March
Ten years of marriage. Ten years of hope, disappointment, and the slow, silent drift that comes when every month brings fresh heartbreak. Sophie and Daniel Ashford thought a fresh start in the Cotswolds might save them—a sabbatical, a break from the constant medical appointments and whispered apologies. Just six months in Violet Cottage to remember why they fell in love.
But Violet Cottage has other plans.
A tender story of marriage, grief, and the courage it takes to start again with the person you thought you'd lost.
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Annie Seaton
April Blossoms
Book 4, The Enchanted Village
Released:
15 April
Olivia Morrison came to protect her dead sister's memory. Three years isn't long enough for Hugh to move on. Especially not with Joanna.
But Primrose Cottage doesn't tolerate bitter hearts or unkind thoughts. And it has very pointed ways of teaching lessons about love, loss, and letting go.
Flowers wilt. Doors lock. Gardens refuse to bloom.
Liv's about to learn that grief and kindness can't coexist. And only one of them will help her survive an enchanted cottage with opinions.
Sometimes the gardens we tend most carefully are the ones inside our own hearts.
She came to protect her sister's memory. The village had other plans.
Buy
Ebook - Amazon
Ebook - Author store
Print - Author store
Annie Seaton
The Drowning Hour
Book 2, Catherine Snowden Mysteries
Released:
31 March
Detective Catherine Snowden is supposed to be on medical leave. Instead, she's lying in a hospital bed when a dying man's spirit reaches out to her with a desperate message: I was murdered.
Oliver Ashford-Kent's car went into the Thames, his brakes sabotaged by the uncle who's been embezzling millions from the family pharmaceutical company. Now Oliver's trapped in a coma, caught between life and death, and Catherine is the only one who can hear him.
But proving murder means finding evidence the killer thought was safely buried. As Catherine digs deeper, she discovers Oliver isn't Marcus Ashford-Kent's only victim. Bodies have been disappearing into the Thames for years—young professionals who knew too much, who asked the wrong questions, who threatened to expose the truth.
The river remembers everything. And when the dead start calling for justice, Catherine must risk everything to answer—even as Marcus closes in, determined to silence her before she can prove what he's done.
Some secrets are worth killing for. And in the drowning hour, the Thames claims everyone.
Ebook - Amazon
Ebook - Author store
Print - Author store
K.E. Turner
Wolves' Witch
Book 5, The Wolves of Langeais
Released:
31 March
Two wolves. One mate. A love that defines the future.
Witch Isobella Rodriguez is dying. With chemotherapy and invasive surgery, she has a thirty-five percent chance of, maybe, another five years. Zero percent chance of having a family of her own. There is one thing that can save her—being turned into a werewolf. Only one pack has that ability. The Langeais wolves.
They won’t sanction a turning. That’s a privilege reserved for human mates. But they do offer her a solution. Take on a dangerous mission to tenth century France and change the face of modern witchcraft and they guarantee she’ll not only survive but thrive.
Twins Edmond and Aubert Montagne are formidable warriors on their own. Together they are terrifying. With a bond so strong, they have no need of words to communicate and are rarely seen apart. When they rescue a woman from the clutches of the witch hunter, their relationship is tested. Both of them want her, to claim her as their mate.
With a witch hunter gathering forces, they’ll need to band together to survive. They can let her choose between them, or they can do something never done before in the history of the Langeais wolves. Share a mate.
Ava Silvers
Leave No Grave Unturned
Book 8, Creatures of the Midwest
Released:
23 February
To save the world she broke, Hazel Goode must destroy the magic that defines her. The only question is: can she survive being just human?
Hazel Goode is standing at the edge of the abyss. The Broadcast is tearing through the firmament, bleeding entropy into the world and threatening to unmake reality itself. The armies are broken, her allies are exhausted, and the ley lines are silent. There are no more spells to cast, no more tricks to play.
The only way to stop the end of the world is to burn it out. To silence the noise, Hazel must channel a level of raw power that will crack the sky—and the only fuel strong enough is the Leabhar Draíocht. The sentient library living in her mind must die so the world can live.
But tearing the Book from her soul isn't just a sacrifice; it’s an amputation. To save Corwin, her family, and the future, Hazel has to rip out the very thing that makes her a warrior. She must embrace the hollow silence that follows and face her greatest fear: a life without power.
Trapped between a god-like sacrifice and a fragile future, Hazel faces one final, impossible choice: burn bright and die a legend, or extinguish the flame and learn to live in the dark.
In a world of gods and monsters, the hardest battle is the one for a quiet life.
Leave No Grave Unturned is the eighth and final book in Creatures of the Midwest, a gripping paranormal fantasy series adored by fans of True Blood and Midnight, Texas.
Ava Silvers
The Vampire Heir
Book 1, Threads of FateReleased:
1 April
My ambition will cost me my soul. Her defiance might cost me the throne.
I will stop at nothing to thwart the Unity prophecy and secure the Crimson Throne. It is my birthright, and I will burn the world down to claim it—even if it means kidnapping a fate-weaving witch with the power to reshape destiny.
Cressida.
She defies me at every turn. She refuses to weave the threads I demand, no matter the punishments I inflict. But where others would break, she burns brighter. Her unyielding resolve sparks an unsettling admiration I can’t afford, not when my kingdom teeters on the brink of ruin.
I am driven to darker, more desperate measures. But each time I compel her to wield her magic, a piece of her soul fractures. And as her reluctant obedience deepens, I find myself wanting to claim more than just her power.
I want to claim her.
Cassie Laelyn
Date with the Demon
Released:
10 April
When Emery accepts the contract of a lifetime to organise a ball in an abandoned castle, the last thing she expects to find is a squatter. Nox. The drop-dead gorgeous guy who’s convinced he owns the place. Oh, and thinks he’s a demon.
Kicking him out proves futile, so Emery powers on with the insane deadline, while Nox’s sinful whispers and annoying smirks distract her at every turn.
But as the deadline closes and Emery fears failure, Nox sweeps in, revealing more than his hidden talent for table decorations.e.
Buy
Danni Line
Magical Affairs
Tales from the DMA
10 March
Magic has a way of tangling with the heart.
From Valentine chaos to mission‑aftershock desire, Magical Affairs is a collection of spicy paranormal romances following the magical folk of the Department of Magical Affairs. Their lives are steeped in enchantment, danger, and heated passion that will not be ignored.
Each story offers a different spark: a bookshop rivalry that turns unexpectedly tender, a solemn ceremony that leads to something far more intimate, and a lovestruck agent who never expected to be outplayed at their own game.
Whether it’s a charm gone sideways or a late‑night drink at Aethers that changes everything, these tales deliver heat, heart, and a touch of paranormal trouble.
So go ahead. Fall under the spell.
JL Peridot
The Interrogation of Satine
Book 3, Satine Luna
Released:
9 April
After years of navigating life alone, Satine finally has someone she can call a friend. She has no intention of ratting them out when an evening of mischief goes wrong. Never mind Warden Jet and his new interrogation method. She’ll never tell—or will she?
Non Spec-Fic
Birdie Song
The Guy from the Airport
Sommerville Downs Sweet Romance
Released:
17 March
“I’m tired of telling myself you care, then finding reasons to doubt it’s true.”
Rachel Yeoh has known Ethan since they were kids. She’s liked him only to lose him, only to love him all over again. This all-right boy with the mussed-up hair is well and truly under her skin. Just don’t ask her about it directly, especially not after what happened when they were seventeen.
Ten years later, a chance meeting on the other side of the world sparks old hopes and fresh fears. Rachel already said farewell to the girl she was in Somerville Downs. If Ethan’s the same old guy he used to be, she’ll have to say goodbye to him too. And this time it’ll be forever.
The Guy from the Airport is a sweet, off-beat, second chance romance, set in the world of Somerville Downs.
Tags: second chance, off-beat, cosy fiction, multicultural romance, Australian romance
Content advisory: Push-pull relationship dynamics, references to critical parenting, and references to alcohol use.
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D.K. Hood
Watch Over Me
Book 29, Detectives Kane and Alton
Released:
17 March
Fear grips her as the heavy footsteps echo along the isolated trail path. She thought she was alone in the woods, but as a hand reaches out from the darkness to cover her mouth, she knows that nobody will hear her scream…
When Jan Pierce is reported missing, Sheriff Jenna Alton and her deputy David Kane rush to the forest surrounding Black Rock Falls. Jenna’s heart breaks when she sees Jan’s body at the bottom of a ravine. But it’s the purplish bruising in the shape of a boot on her back that tells Jenna it was no accident. Somebody killed her.
As Jenna investigates Jan’s last movements, she learns that Jan joined a self-defense class and told her closest friends that she thought someone had followed her home one night. Was someone watching her every move, waiting for the right moment to strike?
Then another woman from the same group, Sierra Lang, is reported missing. When Jenna finds Sierra at home, her lifeless body submerged in bathwater amid clear signs of a struggle, she is certain there is a serial killer in town. With no sign of forced entry, Jenna believes Sierra knew the killer and let him in. Could it be someone known to the whole group, someone they thought was a friend?
As Jenna looks into both women’s lives, her heart races when the trail leads to someone she knows very well—someone she trusts. As a member of her own team comes under fire, Jenna is shocked to her core and desperate to get answers. Could the killer be closer than Jenna ever imagined, and can she uncover the truth before another young woman’s life is taken?
Perfect for fans of Lisa Regan, Melinda Leigh, Kendra Elliot and Mary Stone, this absolutely addictive serial killer thriller from USA Today and Wall Street Journal bestselling author D.K. Hood will have you hooked from the start!
**Each Kane and Alton book can be read as part of the series or as a standalone**
She thought Rawhide would be a nightmare, instead it turned out to be paradise.
Everyone in Calla’s life who was supposed to protect and care for her has failed. Her stepfather takes it a step further when he drops her off at the dreaded Rawhide Ranch. The place with the research facility that he’s been tormenting non-verbal autistic Calla for months about taking her to so they can use her in all sorts of horrible experiments.
When she arrives, nothing is as she feared it would be. Mid-meltdown, her mind splintered, she finds herself in the strong arms of a man who’s gentle with her. Taken to a quiet room to recover, she struggles to believe this isn’t simply the calm before the storm.
While Eric’s endless patience and gentleness is more than she’s ever dared to hope for, its his scars, both physical and emotional, from his own tortured past that make him the perfect Daddy for Little Calla Lily. He has some sort of magic that makes him know exactly what she needs before she does.
Now if she could just believe that her life at Rawhide with Eric wasn’t all a dream that would fade at any moment, she’ll get a happily ever after beyond anything she could have ever imagined.
NO SALES this week
~~~
Congratulations to our DarkSiders!
Happy reading everyone. Be safe & well.
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