Melinda Chase Books in Order

Melinda Chase writes paranormal women's fiction and cozy female mysteries, and her books tend to start from a very specific question: what if your life got stranger, funnier, and more romantic after forty instead of before it? That idea runs through much of her work, from witches and fae to murder, family secrets, and second chances.

Her public author bio is fairly simple, but the shape of her work is clear. She likes paranormal stories with a playful edge, and she writes for readers who want magic without giving up grown-up problems. Divorce, family baggage, new careers, old houses, talking pets, and impossible crushes all have room in her world.

Before she started publishing fiction, Chase is widely described as having worked as a junior manager at a Fortune 500 company. Several author profiles also paint that period as a very corporate, very travel-heavy chapter, complete with flights to far-off meetings. The contrast with her fiction is part of the appeal. She stepped away from that life and into stories packed with witches, fae courts, and women starting over.

Midlife, in her books, is not a winding-down phase.

Her debut series, Midlife Mayhem, launched in 2020 with Forty, Fabulous and... Fae? and introduced Shannon McCarthy, a divorced forty-year-old who moves back home and discovers her family history is a lot more magical than she thought. Readers who click with the series usually like the mix of snark, romance, mystery, and an older heroine who has bills, history, and opinions. The follow-up books, including Divorce, Divination and... Destiny?, Spandex, Spells and... Shadows?, and Wings, Whispers and... Weddings?, push the stakes outward into bigger fae trouble while keeping the emotional center close to home.

Chase returned to the same general lane in Gone with The Witches, the opener to her Accidentally Magical at Midlife? series. That set of books brings in a new heroine, more fae chaos, a brooding coven leader, and a lighter, chatty energy that includes talking pets and a best friend with secrets of her own. Titles like Some Like it Hexed and Bye Bye Banshees show the same fondness for quick pacing, humor, and serialized magical trouble.

She has also branched into cozy mystery territory with Cannoli and Corpses, a New Orleans-set collaboration with M. Alfano. Between that book and her earlier series, a pattern emerges. Chase likes capable women who get thrown into magical trouble, family-centered chaos, and romances that have a little bite to them. She also clearly enjoys a title with a wink, which is part of the fun.

She knows exactly what shelf she wants to sit on.

Outside the novels, Chase has described herself as the owner of Witchy Mysteries and Whiskered Mysteries Publishing. In interviews, she has also mentioned two very practical parts of the writing life, a love of coffee and a soft spot for all things paranormal. She is not trying to write solemn high fantasy. Her corner of the genre is breezier, more domestic, and happily interested in what happens when the supernatural crashes into everyday life, especially for women who are long past being told that the best part of the story is already over.