Jolie Wilkins runs a psychic shop in Los Angeles with her best friend, reads tarot cards, and lives a quiet life that is perfectly fine, if not exactly thrilling. Then a ghost walks into her store one night—followed by Rand Balfour, a devastatingly handsome British warlock who insists she isn’t just psychic, she’s a witch, and a powerful one. He hires her to help investigate the ghost’s death. She not only uncovers how the ghost died—she accidentally brings him back to life. Word of Jolie’s ability to reanimate the dead spreads through the Underworld like wildfire, and suddenly she’s the most wanted person in a supernatural world she barely knew existed. H.P. Mallory opens the Witch, Warlock and Vampire series with the paranormal romance that launched a New York Times bestselling career. ✨
Jolie finds herself at the center of a three-way custody battle: a villainous witch who wants to control her, a six-hundred-year-old English vampire with his own agenda, and Rand—her warlock boss, who is torn between professional boundaries and something considerably more magnetic. The Underworld is in chaos, and she needs to master powers she didn’t know she had yesterday. What makes the novel work alongside its supernatural action is Jolie herself—self-deprecating, funny, and genuinely surprised by everything happening to her. 🔍
Mallory is a New York Times, USA Today, and Amazon bestselling author who launched her career as a self-published writer before her series gained major readership. The Witch, Warlock and Vampire series runs to 30 books. This one is the complete starting point. ⭐
Why this captivates: A tarot reader who accidentally resurrects the dead, a warlock who insists she’s more powerful than she knows, and a supernatural world suddenly very interested in her abilities—free.
Shara Isador is back—and she’s riding to war. House Isador has reckoned with the Triune, confronted the threat that has been circling since the original Their Vampire Queen series, and now begins the greatest crusade this world has ever seen, carried by the last Templar knight. Queen’s Crusade opens the Their Vampire Queen Returns series, which continues Shara’s story following the events of Burkhart’s beloved six-book House Isador saga. New lore deepens the world: Ancient Egyptian mythology, a Japanese dimension, and the Army of Sekhmet—because Sekhmet herself may be the first vampire who ever existed—join a narrative that has grown epic in scope. Joely Sue Burkhart opens her continuation series with the paranormal reverse harem that her devoted readership has been waiting years for. 🩸
This is a continuation series, and readers new to Burkhart’s world should begin with Queen Takes Knights. For returning fans of House Isador, this is precisely what it promises: the same steamy, magical, vampiric energy with expanded lore, a cast that’s as magnificent as ever, and Shara finally taking the fight to the forces that have been threatening her world. The harem in this series is notably devoted—every member entirely committed to Shara, with the possessive intensity the genre’s most passionate readers come for. 🔍
Burkhart is celebrated for her reverse harem paranormal romances with morally complex heroes who hide behind masks, and the Their Vampire Queen universe has become one of the subgenre’s defining series. Queen’s Crusade carries a 4.51-star Goodreads rating across nearly 900 ratings. ⭐
Why this captivates: Shara Isador rides to war with House Isador behind her, ancient Egyptian mythology ahead, and a crusade that will define her world—the long-awaited return of the Vampire Queen, free.
On May 22, 2018, every person on Earth sneezes. Simultaneously. Hours later, an alien spacecraft appears over New York City and broadcasts a message of impending doom—delivered by an extraterrestrial who has chosen to appear as Walter Cronkite, the deceased news anchor. The alien is sanctimonious, powerful, and has a set of demands for the surviving human population that nobody has any idea how to interpret. Ex-FBI troubleshooter Jake Corby has faked his death and is living like a hermit in a small town. The president is convinced he’s still alive. He wants Jake’s unique problem-solving skills on the team trying to figure out what this alien actually wants—before it’s too late. Al Macy opens the Jake Corby series with the first-contact thriller that defies every familiar genre template. 🚀
Macy tells the story through four perspectives—Jake, a presidential aide named Charli, Marie, and Alex—each giving a distinct window into how the world responds to the alien’s increasingly strange and costly demands. The tone balances genuine tension with sharp humor, which is a difficult combination to pull off and which reviewers consistently single out as the novel’s specific pleasure. One reviewer described it as “Jack Reacher meets Star Trek: The Motion Picture,” which captures it well. 🔍
Macy is an award-winning author who built his reputation on quirky premises with satisfying payoffs, and Contact Us was praised as a Next Generation Indie Books Award winner. Goodreads readers call it “a quirky alien invasion story” and describe it as impossible to put down from the 10% mark onward. ⭐
Why this captivates: A worldwide simultaneous sneeze, a spaceship over New York, an alien who looks like Walter Cronkite, and the hermit ex-FBI agent dragged back to save the planet—free.
Misdirection
When Olive Sterling was a teenager, her entire family was murdered. The loss left her with two things her con artist father had taught her before he died, and a determination to put those skills to work for justice rather than deception. Now she’s an undercover investigator for an elite private security firm, living in the shadows, using the art of misdirection to fight the kinds of crimes that straightforward methods can’t crack. Her latest assignment looks simple enough: identify a corporate mole who plans to sell dangerous classified technology to foreign operatives. Then she walks into the target company and comes face to face with Jason Stewart—the only man she’s ever loved. Christy Barritt opens the Pros and Cons mystery series with the high-stakes thriller that earns its tension from one specific question: can she trust him? 🔍
With thousands of lives potentially on the line and bodies beginning to drop, Olive can’t afford mistakes. But Jason’s presence threatens the carefully constructed walls she’s kept between herself and her past, and the secrets she’s been protecting could get her killed if she shares them with the wrong person. Barritt builds the corporate espionage thriller and the second-chance romance simultaneously, with the fast-moving, twist-heavy plotting that has made her a USA Today and Publishers Weekly bestseller. 💙
Barritt has published over 130 books and is celebrated for her clean, faith-infused mysteries with underlying messages of redemption. USA Today called her books “scary, funny, passionate, and quirky.” The Pros and Cons series has already run to seven books, each one following Olive into a new undercover assignment. ⭐
Why this grips you: A con artist’s daughter using everything she learned to fight evil, a corporate mole selling classified tech, and the man she once loved standing in the middle of her most dangerous case—for $1.99.
When a family tragedy leaves Wes Turner as the unexpected guardian of his one-year-old niece Rosie, he is drowning. Running his auto shop is hard enough. Raising a baby on his own? He finally admits defeat and hires a nanny. Enter Lena Carter—no-nonsense, warm-hearted, carrying a past she keeps carefully locked away. From the moment she steps into his home, she brings order to the chaos, warmth to the cold walls, and a temptation Wes absolutely cannot afford to entertain. She’s his employee. His lifeline. She’s supposed to be off-limits. Laura Ashley Gallagher opens the second Skeptically in Love novel with the grumpy single guardian and sunshine nanny romance that earns every tear its readers report. 💕
Lena has rules. Falling for her boss is a mistake she swore she’d never make. But with every passing day—every shared moment with Rosie, every time Wes’s walls come down a fraction—the lines blur in ways neither of them planned for. Gallagher develops both the slow burn romance and the grief both characters are carrying with the emotional intelligence and authentic character depth that have built her devoted Irish readership into a global one. Reviewers consistently report laughing and crying within the same chapter—and finishing with a full heart. 🔍
Gallagher was born and raised in Limerick, Ireland, and studied journalism before beginning her writing career. She is celebrated for tackling genuinely difficult emotional topics—grief, trauma, healing—within the structure of deeply satisfying romances. The Skeptically in Love series stands alone; each book can be read independently. At $1.99 this is exceptional value. ⭐
Why this moves you: A grieving man suddenly raising his niece, a nanny with a locked-away past, a toddler who melts them both, and a slow burn that refuses to stay slow—for $1.99.
Colton Keller has been in love with his best friend’s younger sister for years. It’s a secret he’s been carrying since she first showed up at the ranch, and loyalty to Brody has kept him from doing a single thing about it. He watches over her from a distance, quietly, obsessively. Then Brody assigns him officially—make it your job to protect Bianca, who is grieving her mother’s death and planning a solo trip to Europe that her brother doesn’t trust. Colton agrees immediately. As if he hasn’t been doing exactly this already. Harloe Rae opens the second Cloverleaf Meadows novel with the protective bodyguard, best friend’s sister romance that earns its emotional heat from five years of built-up feeling that Colton finally can’t contain. 💕
Bianca knows something is different about Colton now that his role is official. The wall of muscle wrapped in mysterious darkness has spoken less than five words to her in years, and now he’s following her like a reclusive shadow she can’t shake no matter how creative she gets with her evasive maneuvers. Just as she’s about to escalate, a genuine threat to her safety pushes him to the extreme—and the secrets Colton has been carrying about his past surface in ways that force both of them to confront what’s actually between them. 🔍
Rae is a USA Today and Amazon Top 5 bestselling author celebrated for broody heroes, swoony and emotional romances, and the specific satisfying heat of feelings that have been suppressed too long finally breaking through. Saddled in Secrets can be read as a complete standalone. ⭐
Why this hooks you: Five years of secret obsession, an official bodyguard assignment, a rodeo princess determined to ditch him, and the secrets from his past that change everything—for $2.49.
… See the rest of today ‘s Book Picks here on page 3Page 3