Should I Start Louise Penny With Book One Or A Later Gamache Mystery?

Olivia Morgan never believed in monsters, but the woods outside her hometown seem to disagree. Haunted by dreams she’s never been able to explain, Olivia’s life takes a sharp turn one Halloween night when she discovers a black wolf caged beneath silver bars. But when the wolf shifts into Ezekiel—a warm-hearted Alpha with an infuriating smile—Olivia’s reality fractures. Upon freeing him, she finds out he's her fated mate and se's bound to him and a world of wolves and Lycans she never knew existed. Her senses heighten, shadows stalk her every step, and Ezekiel insists she’s no longer safe among humans. When her estranged grandfather, Roman, Alpha Ezekiel's Beta, appears with answers Olivia never asked for, she learns she’s not just anyone—she’s the daughter of a prince and part of a royal Lycan bloodline. Torn between the familiar world she’s known and the legacy pulling her deeper into Silver Lake’s supernatural web, Olivia is faced with enemies she can’t yet understand. Malakai, the feared adversary of her family, seems to know more about her past than anyone, and his motives feel far more complicated than simple vengeance. As Olivia unlocks her dormant powers and unearths secrets about her parents’ deaths, she realizes nothing is as it seems. And when an ancient curse sweeps through Silver Lake, threatening everyone she’s come to care for, Olivia must decide: run from the destiny she never asked for or stand and fight.

Meet Esmerelda Sleuth. Sleuth is her name and investigating is her game. (Paranormal Investigating, that is.) Esmerelda makes a good living as an investigator in a rather progressive firm. She lives a stable and sensible life until she meets Lance; an old money "hottie" who works for a real estate firm next to her building. After accepting an invitation for a weekend getaway party, she quickly discovers that Lance has a secret. He is wealthy. That part is true. And, yes, he's procured a job as a realtor in the building next door. His secret is that he belongs to an underground society of humans who didn't abandon their connection to magic centuries ago when religion declared it evil and he has traveled through time specifically to find her and bring her back to his time to marry him. If that isn't enough of a far fetched tale to absorb, he informs her that she was born in his time to a family belonging to that same secret society and was promised in marriage to him as an infant. When enemies who didn't want to see the union of families take place made attempts on her life, her parents sent her into the future and erased her memories of them as a precaution. Possessing virtually no belief in magic, ghosts, psychics, time travel, etc., it takes some doing on Lance's part to convince her to believe his story and go back with him. When she does, the lies, deceit and attempts on her life start all over again. Will she escape emotionally and physically unscathed? "The Other Side Of the Mirror" is a steamy-paranormal-romance- mystery-thriller and book one of the Esmerelda Sleuth series.

With her enemies in pre-civil war Virginia still seeking her death, Esmerelda is forced to return to the future only days after wedding Lance. Because it was necessary to fake her death in order to stop her enemies from following her to the future, her new husband, Lance, was forced to stay behind. He’d placed a magic box for them to communicate until he found a way to safely be with her beneath the floorboards of the house. Now, she must find it. A task that is easier said than done! “The Magic Box” is book two of the exciting paranormal-romance-mystery-thriller Esmerelda Sleuth Series

Raised in her father's gang, the young gypsy Emma Ferguson was persecuted all her life by the puritanical society of the 19th century, yet she never felt completely part of the Romani group. Vivacious and intelligent, the beautiful Emma only wished to find her true self and live the experiences she had been denied over the 20 years of her life, when an unsuccessful performance made her worst nightmares come true in that cursed Scottish town. Emma only survives all this with the help of the handsome British gentleman, Henry Dashwood, whom she met during the fateful performance, and when he rescues her from the roadside, she begins a new and dangerous journey. In a society where gypsy origin is considered worthy of capital punishment, Henry has decided to help Emma get back on her feet, and hatches a plan that could be the salvation or ruin of them both.

Rohama Avencia, a teen-age girl, who lived a life for her, was too plain. Nothing sparked interest, like a textbook dull and arid. The cycle continued; the events were constant. Thus, she was labeled as someone boring. Lacking social life, reading alone was the only hobby whom she felt could reinvigorate her soul. The love of science made her function based on facts and numbers. Unfortunately, with an incident she couldn't fathom, she was stucked in a world she never knew existed. It was too real to be a dream. Hoping to find answers, she was pulled deeper to the secrets of the unknown world.

Five years ago, Sera Blackwood walked away from the only man she ever loved—and the pack that wanted her dead. Now she's back in Crimson Hollow, and Dante Silverclaw, the alpha who let her go, isn't the same broken wolf she left behind. He's harder. Colder. And he has exactly thirty days to find a mate before the pack council forces him to marry someone else. Someone who isn't his true mate. When a series of brutal murders rocks the supernatural community, Sera finds herself working alongside the man who still owns her heart. But the killer isn't just targeting random victims—they're hunting wolves who know the truth about why Sera really ran. As the blood moon rises, Sera must choose between protecting the secret that could destroy Dante's pack or claiming the second chance at love that might cost them both their lives.