Kristine Mason Books in Order
Browse all Kristine Mason books in order, with quick summaries, series guides, and easy ways to choose between her CORE thrillers and romances.
Last updated: July 8, 2026
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Publication Order
30 books
Kiss Me
by Kristine Mason
2013
Jenna Cooper wants a no-strings sex buddy, and Luke Sinclair seems perfect for the job. Luke has other ideas, and his no-sex, kissing-only plan starts to crack open Jenna's guarded heart and the past she hides.
Love Me or Leave Me
by Kristine Mason
2013
Reality TV realtor Carter James finally gets a chance with designer Brynn Dawson, the woman he has wanted for years. But when he tries to secretly save her job, his good intentions threaten the relationship they just started.
Pick Me
by Kristine Mason
2013
To save a fading reality show, production assistant Valentina Bonasera steps in as the bachelorette and instantly regrets it. One of the bachelors is Colt Walker, the unforgettable one-night stand she disappeared on six months earlier.
Shadow of Danger
by Kristine Mason
2013
When four women are found murdered outside a Wisconsin town, clairvoyant Celeste Risinski becomes the only witness through her terrifying visions. Skeptical CORE investigator John Kain has to decide whether her gift is nonsense, or the key to catching a killer.
Shadow of Perception
by Kristine Mason
2013
Chicago reporter Eden Risk receives a gruesome DVD and a warning not to call the police. CORE assigns her ex, Hudson Patterson, to the case, forcing them to untangle both a vicious mystery and the feelings they never finished.
Shadow of Vengeance
by Kristine Mason
2013
Hell Week turns deadly at a Michigan university when fraternity pledges start disappearing. CORE analyst Rachel Davis and former Secret Service agent Owen Malcolm race the clock to find a missing student before revenge claims another victim.
Ultimate Fear
by Kristine Mason
2014
Detective Jessica Donavan is still haunted by her daughter's abduction when a case involving missing babies and pregnant women pulls her back toward her estranged husband, Dante Russo. Together they chase a kidnapper whose grief has turned into something monstrous.
Ultimate Kill
by Kristine Mason
2014
Naomi McCall has been hiding from a murderous past, even from the man she loves. When a madman starts sending explosive messages and bodies pile up, Jake Tyler must decide whether to walk away or help Naomi turn herself into bait.
Ultimate Prey
by Kristine Mason
2014
When Ian Scott and Lola Tam's mother are kidnapped and released into the Everglades to be hunted, Lola rushes south to stop the game. Former Navy SEAL Ryan Monahan becomes her guide in a rescue mission that could turn fatal.
Celeste Files: Unforgotten
by Kristine Mason
2015
Ghosts of murdered children lead Celeste Kain into a cold case involving a little girl kidnapped years earlier. With only visions and the dead to guide her, she races to find Sophia before her captor kills again.
Celeste Files: Unjust
by Kristine Mason
2015
A Florida fishing trip turns sinister when Celeste Kain reels in a corpse and unleashes a vengeful spirit. To save John and stop a ghost bent on revenge, she must dig into a dead man's violent past.
Celeste Files: Unlocked
by Kristine Mason
2015
Celeste Kain thought her psychic visions were gone for good. When a murdered woman starts using her body to tell the truth, Celeste has to reclaim her gift and protect her family before old secrets trigger fresh bloodshed.
Perfectly Toxic
by Kristine Mason
2015
Melanie Scarlet moonlights as a cleaner for Above the Law, a secret her husband Cash never expected. When homeless men start vanishing and a scientist begins testing a drug on psychopaths, their marriage and lives both come under fire.
Perfectly Twisted
by Kristine Mason
2015
Ex-con Shane Monahan and deputy Beth Price are drawn together just as mutilated corpses and a copycat killer turn a Florida case bizarre. Their attraction grows fast, but so does the danger surrounding A.T.L.'s latest investigation.
Celeste Files: Poisoned
by Kristine Mason
2016
Hudson and Eden's dream house comes with a malevolent spirit and a trap full of tortured souls. Heavily pregnant Celeste Kain steps in to help, only to find the entity wants something worse than a haunting, her unborn child.
Perfectly Tortured
by Kristine Mason
2016
ATL agent Harrison Fairclough dates a suspect's sister to get close to a serial killer he cannot legally touch. Then he falls for Kiera Forrester, turning a calculated move into a dangerous emotional gamble.
Sinful Deeds
by Kristine Mason
2016
Detective Jag Stone asks forensic artist Kenna Jordon to give a skull its missing face. Their hunt for the dead man's killer leads to a vigilante plot, and to the truth Kenna has been keeping from everyone, including Jag.
Unmask Me
by Kristine Mason
2016
Ali Crawford agrees to marry a stranger on a reality show as a favor to a friend, then finds her groom is ex-lover Wade Morgan. Their fake wedding comes with a real honeymoon, old feelings, and a deadline for turning make-believe into forever.
Celeste Files: Possessed
by Kristine Mason
2017
When John Kain starts acting violent and unstable, Celeste fears addiction until a vision reveals something far worse. An old gangster's spirit has taken over John's body, and Celeste must drive it out before her family pays the price.
Celeste Files: Primal
by Kristine Mason
2017
Celeste Kain is abducted by a madman obsessed with psychic powers and her mother's past. While John searches desperately, Celeste fights to survive a living nightmare that could end in torture, surgery, and death.
Sinful Sacrifices
by Kristine Mason
2017
A bus of elite schoolboys is hijacked and stranded at an abandoned amusement park in a blizzard. To save the hostages, CORE agent Chase Sawyer must work beside Summer Raines, the woman he left behind and still loves.
Sinful Vows
by Kristine Mason
2017
Undercover agent Sloan North and detective Whitney Russell pose as husband and wife to watch a suspected drug lord in suburbia. Then bodies start surfacing, tempers flare, and their fake marriage begins to feel dangerously real.
Smile for Me
by Kristine Mason
2018
Lisa Duplain checks into a quaint bed-and-breakfast rumored to make women young and beautiful again. What she finds inside Melody's Grace is not beauty, but a wicked trap with a smile on its face.
Stab at Love
by Kristine Mason
2018
Photographer Ashton Wolfe enters a bachelor auction looking for his next victim, then chooses a haunted mansion for the date. Ivy Ellis thinks she is bidding on mystery and chemistry, not a weekend with a killer who may fall for her.
Undying Love
by Kristine Mason
2018
Morgan Smithwell refuses to accept that her first love is truly gone after a fatal car crash. When grief curdles into obsession, she becomes willing to do the unthinkable to keep him with her.
Undress Me
by Kristine Mason
2019
Casting director Erica Reese sees producer Derek Delmont as a temporary distraction, until work and attraction send them to a Caribbean island. Lost in the jungle after a storm, they have to face whether their affair can survive real life.
Jude
by Kristine Mason
2020
Garage owner Jude Kendrick falls hard for Paige Daniels, only to realize she is dating his best friend. As Paige's painful past and violent ex-husband close in, their forbidden attraction becomes impossible to ignore.
Ross
by Kristine Mason
2020
Ross Webber can barely handle living with his gorgeous new roommate, Heidi O'Neil. She is a former nun with plenty of fantasies and no plans for forever, until one night of heat forces both of them to risk something real.
Sully
by Kristine Mason
2020
Mechanic Sully Dolan thought Jane Cooper was just a one-night stand, until the detective with the guarded heart vanished from his life. A new investigation throws them back together, along with the secret that tore them apart.
Vlad
by Kristine Mason
2020
Former assassin Vlad Aristov wants nothing more than a quiet life under the hood of a car. When frightened schoolteacher Lucy Spencer turns to him for protection from the cult family she escaped, desire and danger arrive together.
Where should I start?
If you want the main CORE entry point: Shadow of Danger → Shadow of Perception → Shadow of Vengeance
If you prefer darker, action-heavy suspense: Ultimate Kill → Ultimate Fear → Ultimate Prey
If you want ghosts and psychic mysteries: Celeste Files: Unlocked → Celeste Files: Unjust → Celeste Files: Unforgotten
If you'd rather start with contemporary romance: Pick Me → Love Me or Leave Me → Unmask Me → Undress Me
If you want a short creepy read: Smile for Me → Undying Love → Stab at Love
Author bio
Kristine Mason came to fiction a little later than some writers. She has said she did not pick up her first romance novel until her late twenties. Then she read a lot of them, and eventually decided to try writing one herself.
A baby pushed that idea into action. After the birth of her first son, she started writing because she needed something creative that felt like her own, and Sesame Street was not going to do the job. That first book never made it into print, but it showed her she had found the work she wanted.
Mason studied journalism at Ohio State University, and that background shows up in the way her stories move. The setups are clear, the stakes arrive early, and the pages do not wander. She writes contemporary romance too, but suspense is where she seems most at home.
Fear is her lane.
Across Shadow of Danger, Ultimate Fear, Perfectly Twisted, and Celeste Files: Unlocked, she keeps circling the same big question, what makes people afraid, and what do they do when that fear walks right into their lives? Her villains are often cruel and inventive, but the books are not only about shock. They are also about trust, loyalty, chemistry, and people trying to hold onto love when everything around them is going bad.
The CORE books sit at the center of her bibliography. Those stories follow investigators, former military men, detectives, psychics, and ordinary people pulled into violent cases, often with Ohio, Chicago, Florida, or the Upper Midwest in the background. Readers who click with Mason usually seem to like that blend of crime plot and relationship drama, along with her willingness to make the danger feel personal.
Then there is the paranormal side of her work. The Celeste Files books build on the CORE world by following Celeste Kain, a psychic, wife, mother, and baker whose gift keeps dragging her toward the dead. Mason also shifts gears when she wants to. The Reality TV Romance books are lighter and more playful, while the Mechanics & Mayhem novels trade agencies and crime scenes for garage banter, veterans, and messy love lives.
She likes dark material, but she does not stay in one mode.
That range is part of what makes her catalog easy to browse. You can start with the serial killer tension of Shadow of Danger, move to the grief and obsession at the heart of Ultimate Fear, then jump to the camera-ready chaos of Pick Me or the hotter, more everyday setup of Kiss Me. Even when the subgenre changes, Mason keeps returning to secrets, damaged people, family ties, and relationships tested under pressure.
She lives in Northeast Ohio with her husband, four kids, and two dogs, and outside writing she has mentioned gardening, collecting gnomes, and making chocolate chip cookies. It is a nice contrast with the darkness in her books. There is something homey under all that menace.
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