Nichole Chase Books in Order

Nichole Chase grew up in Florida, and the coast clearly stayed with her. Years later, when she set Flukes in a tropical setting, she linked that choice to missing the beach and the water.

She has said that she started writing when she was little. Stories and characters kept turning up in her head, even while she focused on more conventional jobs for a while.

Eventually, writing stopped being something she pushed aside. She began putting those stories on the page and building a career that moves easily between paranormal fantasy, contemporary romance, holiday magic, and romantic suspense.

The ideas won.

Her first published novel, Mortal Obligation, arrived in 2011. Set in Savannah, it introduces Ree McKenna, a teenager grieving her brother while dealing with visions, dangerous supernatural forces, and the discovery that the gods have plans for her. It became the opening book of the Dark Betrayal Trilogy, followed by Mortal Defiance and Immortal Grave.

Chase then took a very different route with Flukes, a paranormal romance about Meena, a young woman with a secret connection to the sea, and Blake, the community-service worker who gets too close to it. The book's animal sanctuary, tropical atmosphere, and mermaid mythology show how much she enjoys putting romance somewhere a little unusual. The short companion story A Mermaid for Christmas returns to Meena's world on a smaller, warmer scale.

For readers who prefer contemporary romance, Suddenly Royal is often the natural place to start. Samantha Rousseau is working on a wildlife-biology degree and helping care for her father when she learns she has an unexpected connection to the fictional country of Lilaria. The Royal series continues with Recklessly Royal and Reluctantly Royal, giving other members of the royal circle their own love stories.

Those books helped bring Chase to a wider romance audience. She later shifted the premise from a European court to Washington in the American Royalty books, beginning with Bedmates, where the president's daughter and the vice president's son are forced into close quarters through community service.

She also likes mixing danger with a playful setup. In The Accidental Assassin, an American visitor in London accidentally kills a man and finds herself caught up with a professional assassin. On Christmas Hill adds a family legacy and seasonal magic, while Unholy Night, written with Karpov Kinrade, turns a child's badly addressed letter to Santa into a paranormal holiday romance.

The range is part of the fun.

Chase has written openly about the anxiety and self-doubt that followed the success of Suddenly Royal, and about taking time to focus on her health before releasing Bedmates. Her author biography has described family life in South Georgia with her husband, daughter, dog, tortoise, and cats, alongside interests that include reading, painting, and crafting. Across the different settings, her books tend to come back to people whose ordinary plans are interrupted by love, responsibility, or a little bit of magic.