The Blackwood Security World
Blackwood is where it all started. First came the Blackwood Security series, and then things expanded. Each series works on its own, but you might see people, locations, and events that look a little familar popping up in other books!
For the optimum spoiler-free reading experience, here’s the recommended reading order:
- Start with the Black Trilogy (Pitch Black/Into the Black/Forever Black)
- Slot Oxygen, Lithium, and Carbon in at some point after Forever Black.
- Read the Blackwood UK series at some point after Forever Black.
- Read Stolen Hearts at some point after Forever Black.
- Slot Rhodium, Platinum, and Lead in after White Hot.
- Read the first three Baldwin’s Shore books after When the Shadows Fall, then read Pretties in Pink and Chimera, then read Secret Weapon.
The Blackwood Security Series
The OG series. This is where it all started for Emmy and co. (and Elise). Do you like unhinged characters who don’t take any shit? Do you like twisted mysteries? Do you have a warped sense of humour? Then these are totally the books for you. Okay, so Emmy starts by having a mental health crisis, but she does recover and she soon gets back to blowing stuff up.
All of the novels/novellas are written as standalones except Emmy’s story (Pitch Black/Into the Black/Forever Black) and Alaric’s story (The Girl with the Emerald Ring/Red After Dark/When the Shadows Fall). While each of these books does contain a full story with no hard cliffhangers, they’re best read as trilogies to understand the full story arc.
| 0.4 | Dali (within For the Love of Animals) |
| 0.5 | Black is My Heart |
| 1 | Pitch Black |
| 2 | Into the Black |
| 3 | Forever Black |
| 4 | Gold Rush |
| 5 | Gray is My Heart |
| 5.5 | Neon |
| 6 | Out of the Blue |
| 7 | Ultraviolet |
| 7.5 | Glitter |
| 8 | Red Alert |
| 9 | White Hot |
| 9.5 | Sphere |
| 10 | The Scarlet Affair |
| 10.5 | Spirit |
| 11 | Quicksilver |
| 12 | The Girl with the Emerald Ring |
| 13 | Red After Dark |
| 14 | When the Shadows Fall |
| 14.5 | Phantom |
| 15 | Pretties in Pink |
| 16 | Chimera |
| 17 | The Devil and the Deep Blue Sea |
| 18 | Blue Moon |
The Blackwood Elements Series
These are the Blackwood Security-adjacent books that don’t quite fit into the main series but Elise wanted to write them anyway because she has no self-control. They tend to be a little less “all guns blazing” and more romcom. And also Sofia poisons people. And Emmy wreaks havoc in Egypt. And somehow Blackwood Australia got involved…
| 1 | Oxygen |
| 2 | Lithium |
| 3 | Carbon |
| 4 | Rhodium |
| 5 | Platinum |
| 6 | Lead |
| 7 | Copper |
| 8 | Bronze |
| 9 | Nickel |
| 10 | Hydrogen |
| 10.5 | Out of Their Elements |
The Blackwood UK Series
Still Blackwood, but these books are set in Elise’s home country of England rather than all over the world.
Elise likes writing these because (a) she doesn’t have to do so much research and (b) she doesn’t have to translate the dialogue into American.
| 1 | Joker in the Pack |
| 1.5 | Cherry on Top |
| 2 | Roses are Dead |
| 3 | Shallow Graves |
| 4 | Indigo Rain |
Baldwin’s Shore Romantic Suspense
Small-town romance with a side of darkness. Plus one of the folks is secretly a vigilante and you have to guess which one…
How did this series happen? Well, every morning, Elise drives her other half to the train station. And on the way, she goes past a street named Baldwin’s Shore. And she thinks “that’s a dumb name for a street, it isn’t even near the sea” but it would be kind of a cool name for a small town in Oregon. And so she created the whole town in her head and wrote it down.
| 1 | Dirty Little Secrets |
| 2 | Secrets, Lies, and Family Ties |
| 3 | Buried Secrets |
| 4 | A Secret to Die For |
Blackwood Security vs. Baldwin’s Shore
Yup, Emmy finds herself in Baldwin’s Shore, and havoc ensues…
| 1 | Secret Weapon |
| 2 | Secrets from the Past |
Blackstone House Romantic Suspense
Ten roommates, their lives torn apart by tragedy, forever bound by the past. What will their future hold?
Well, it holds a reasonably high bodycount, a gang of unhinged female assassins, and the mother of all blackmail plots, for starters…
| 1 | Hard Lines |
| 1.5 | Blurred Lines |
| 2 | Hard Tide |
| 3 | Hard Limits |
| 4 | Hard Luck |
| 5 | Blind Luck |
| 6 | Hard Code |
| 7 | Hard Evidence |
| 8 | Hard Heart |
| 9 | Hard Truth |
| 10 | Bitter Truth |
The Happy Ever After Series
Write a fun romcom story, she thought. Keep it lighthearted, she thought. Elise almost managed it. Things started out okay, and then…
Book 1 – She’s a care worker, he’s a doctor. And also a stripper. Fine
Book 2 – She’s an actress, he’s a tech nerd. Also okay.
Book 3 – She’s a hairdresser, he’s an MMA fighter. Still doing reasonably well.
Book 4 – She’s an heiress, he’s a private investigator working for Blackwood. Things are starting to go off-track here…
Book 5 – He’s a Hollywood hearthrob, she’s an assassin. Dammit, Elise.
| 1 | A Very Happy Christmas |
| 2 | A Very Happy Valentine |
| 3 | A Very Happy Halloween |
| 4 | A Very Happy Easter |
| 5 | A Very Happy Thanksgiving |
Blackwood Case Files
All the unhinged mystery plot, but without the romance. Okay, so Emmy and Black are spicing things up a bit, but there’s no new couple.
| 1 | Stolen Hearts |
The Trouble Series
Lighter romcom with a side of suspense.
Fun fact: Trouble in Paradise was the first book Elise published (but not the first book she wrote). She came up with the idea while riding a horse in the mountains of Dahab, Egypt, when a friend mentioned that a local dude had recently found a head in the desert but nobody knew where the rest of the body was. Come on, how could she not write a story based on that?
| 1 | Trouble in Paradise |
| 2 | Nothing but Trouble |
| 3 | 24 Hours of Trouble |
Keeping Score
Spoiler alert…
So, in Secret Weapon, Elise might just have mentioned something about Emmy having a half-brother. And naturally, she decided to write more about him. And somehow, his bestie ends up getting involved with a group of three girlfriends who are having a murder competition and things only go downhill from there…
| 1 | Dark Art |
Power Games
Another fun fact: Elise isn’t just a writer, she’s also a chartered accountant. And there is soooooo much dirt in the world of finance, but she can’t talk about any of it 😳 But she can write “fiction,” so…
| 1 | Sweet Equity |
Standalones
Sometimes, Elise writes totally random books that don’t fit in any series. And sometimes, Emmy shows up in them.
| x | Life |
The Planes World
It’s life, Jim, but not as we know it…
There’s a technical term for this that Elise didn’t find out until after she wrote the first book – magical realism. The real world, but with added layers of weirdness. The Planes books are filled with the same deranged mysteries you know and love, but now there are ghosts. And vampires, and werewolves, and a whole host of other supernatural beings.
The Electi Series
Let’s go back in time (bear with me)… Elise started writing when she got bored at work one lunchtime. At the time, she was working with a client whose corporate headquarters was a big old manor house (see pic for evidence), and she was also struggling to find enough books with snarky, gun-toting heroines, so she decided to write one. Enter Emmy. At that time, Emmy took a job as a receptionist at Luke’s company, which was based in a building that looked like…you’ve guessed it. The one Elise was working in at the time.
Pitch Black got rewritten a bunch of times, and Emmy wound up working with horses instead, but Elise decided that building still needed a story.
And she also decided that the story needed ghosts.
Enter Will and Rania…
| 1 | Cursed |
| 2 | Spooked |
| 3 | Possessed |
| 4 | Demented |
| 5 | Judged |
The Planes Series
Okay, where did the Electi come from? No, seriously. Okay, Elise finally worked it out and explained a little about the wider workings of the whole cosmic assassin thing in the Planes series.
| 1 | A Vampire in Vegas |
| 2 | A Devil in the Dark |
Standalones
Elise decided that her magic world should also have magic trees…
Fun fact: The idea for Coco du Ciel came from a writing prompt in a short story contest, and Elise later expanded it into a novel. The original version was told entirely from Rhys’s POV, and she later expanded it further to include Coco’s. It’s also the only novel she’s written entirely in 3rd person POV, and she won’t be doing it again because she didn’t enjoy that.
| x | Coco du ciel |
Downloadable book lists
Blackwood World / Planes World
Where to find Elise’s books:
