Books

New Adult Urban Fantasy/Paranormal Romance

CONTROL MY NIGHT

AVAILABLE NOW ON PAPERBACK AND KINDLE/KINDLEUNLIMITED

“Sarah Richhelm has created one of the most unique, vivid, fast-paced, intriguing, beautifully crafted worlds I’ve read in an age.”
- H.M. Hodgson, award-winning Paranormal Romance author

"I couldn't guarantee his safety. He should be scared of me. I was scared of me.”

Keanna is a business-smart and street-naive banshee with a uniquely deadly wail. When she is abducted by a calculating mafia boss to be exploited as a supernatural weapon, she also falls in forbidden love with a fellow prisoner. Escaping this unforgiving world will cost everything Keanna’s known about herself—and her heart, too.

Control My Night is The Mortal Instruments and X-Men meets The Godfather. This series is for you if you love romantic feels with spice, and a night-luxe supernatural-mafia aesthetic in a European setting.

It’s perfect for fans of Laura Thalassa, Maria Lewis, Lana Pechercyzk, Richelle Mead, Karen Marie Moning's Fever Series and Ilona Andrews.

Control My Night is the award-winning first entry in an interconnected standalone new adult urban/paranormal fantasy series.

Cover design: Jaqueline Kropmanns at Jaqueline Kropmanns Professional Cover Design

Official blurb:

Heiress Keanna Backhus is business-smart and street-naive. Something she’s kept off her resume? That she’s an untrained banshee armed with a unique—and deadly—wail. After an accident leaves Keanna with blood on her hands, she is snatched from the streets by criminals determined to weaponize the “beast” lurking within her.

If Prague is a chessboard, Arwood Sayer rules one side—and he needs Keanna, his new pawn, to find his missing daughter. Forced into service alongside Arwood’s henchmen, Keanna realizes that mastering her inner beast is the only way to outwit a man who is always two steps ahead of her.

Her only ally is another prisoner, a mage called Silas. He’s just as charismatic as he is secretive, and he has his own reasons for working with Arwood. As their forbidden relationship develops and Keanna sinks further into the world she is desperately trying to escape, she soon discovers earning her freedom may cost not just her heart—but everything she’s ever known to be true.

  • !SPOILER WARNING BELOW!

    Control My Night is a new adult fantasy for mature audiences and contains strong language and content some readers may find distressing including profanity, violence, alcohol use, graphic sexual content, disordered thoughts around food and self-image, death of a family member, and mentions of death during childbirth (off-page).

    A full list of content and/or trigger warnings can be found below. If there is something not included that you as a reader found distressing, please contact me so it can be added.

    Profanity

    Violence (including gun & knife violence)

    Alcohol use

    Graphic sexual content

    Disordered thoughts concerning food and self-image

    Parental death

    Murder

    Assault (not sexual)

    Torture (references to)

    Instances of coercive control

    Instances of gaslighting

    Instances of body shaming/fatphobia

    Mentions of death during childbirth (off-page)

    Mentions of human trafficking (off-page)

    Mentions of terminal illness leading to death (off-page)

Awards:

  • WINNER Australian Romance Readers Association Favourite Debut Romance Author 2024

  • FINALIST Romance Writer’s Association of Australia Emerald Award for 2024

  • NOMINATED 2025 Indieverse Awards for:
    - “Couldn’t put it down… it was that good!”
    - Memorable Mentor

  • SILVER Reader Views Reviewer’s Choice Awards 2024-2025 - Fantasy

  • WINNER Reader Views Reviewer’s Choice Awards 2024-2025 “One Stop for Writers Award”

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  • Hooked from the very first page, the story moves at a great pace with great characters and amazing descriptive details. It features unpredictable twists and turns that, when I thought I had it all figured out, surprised me and went a whole different way! I will think about this book every time I hear Africa by Toto. “Control My Night” has easily become one of my favourite reads of the year.

    Goodreads reviewer

  • This book exceeded my expectations (and I had high expectations too, so that's saying something!).

    Goodreads reviewer

  • I could not put this book down, every chapter felt like I had unfinished business to keep reading, and I'm not afraid to say I lost many hours of sleep flying through these pages!

    Goodreads reviewer

  • Control My Night’ was everything I love in a book + everything I didn't know I was going to love. I've never read a banshee story, let alone a banshee/mafia/romance story, and this book really did deliver on all three promises!

    Goodreads reviewer

  • I am absolutely sold, when I saw that it was urban fantasy (my favourite genre) mixed with mafia vibes and had a good bit of spice (my other favourite genre) I was in, hook line and sinker! Not only were the vibes immaculate but the pace of the whole story kept you on the edge of your seat and I found it impossible to put down!

    Fable reviewer

  • This fast-paced, gritty urban fantasy definitely delivered on its promise of nostalgic CW show vibes. Just when I thought I had it all figured out, a fantastic twist got me in the end. The romantic subplot was very sweet, but Steadman will forever be my favorite character.

    Goodreads reviewer

  • To the author, Sarah, thank you for writing this book. For making me feel seen. For creating one of my favorite stories I’ll ever read. These characters, this book — they’ve latched onto my heart and I want MORE.

    Fable reviewer

  • Control My Night is a fun mafia meets X-Men novel that's set in modern day Prague with a hint of early 2000s nostalgia... certainly an escape from reality and worth the read!

    Goodreads review