by Amy McNulty

I’m not sure if I’ve ever read a book in the horror genre, and I didn’t watch what would qualify as a true “horror” movie until I was in my late 20s. While the thoughts of things going bump in the night appeals to quite a few people, there’s always been a dichotomy about the way I enjoy a holiday like Halloween: I love the aesthetic and the vague sense of “spookiness,” but I don’t want to be kept up at night imagining things in the shadows. If that sounds like you, be sure to dive into a cozy paranormal read this Halloween.

It’s a Nerd! Witch Is Slain! (Witchy Expo Services Mysteries Case 2: Comic Hero Con) is my latest release in the cozy paranormal mystery genre. In Witchy Expo Services Mysteries, a town full of witches operates a convention center for us human folks who want some magical additions to our conventions, trade shows, and expos. Each witch in town has a cute animal familiar, who can only speak (telepathically) to their own witch. My main character, Nimue Toothaker, has a dragon familiar named Gowdie, and the two find themselves racing to solve cozy mystery murders that occur during Witchy Expo Services’ conventions. There’s magic and mystery, but the violence is kept to a minimum and there aren’t any spine-chilling scares. Start with the first book, Don’t Judge a Book by Its Hover (Witchy Expo Services Mysteries Case 1: Bookshop Con), recently released on audiobook, too.

Cozy paranormal mystery is a popular subgenre under cozy mystery. Witch amateur sleuths are among the most common, but there are ghosts, vampires, and other paranormal creatures, too. If sweet romance is more of your thing year-round, there are cozy paranormal romances. Imagine a human in love with a vampire—without all the angst and blood you’d find in most paranormal romances. Of course, vampires aren’t the only paranormal creatures who show up as romance novel heroes and heroines in the genre. And for fans of women’s fiction, cozy witch fiction in general takes a lot of the themes you’d find in women’s fiction—coming to terms with getting older, juggling family and career, trying to keep up relationships with friends, and finding a second wind in middle age and later—and weaves them into stories through a magical lens.

Cozy paranormal books are the ideal books to curl up with as the temperature drops and you can wrap yourself up in a blanket and put on your warm, fuzzy socks. If you like decorating with cute Halloween décor and prefer to leave the bloody, chilling stuff on the shelf at the store, you’re bound to enjoy a Halloween read that fits your snug aesthetic.

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Amy McNulty is an editor and author of books that run the gamut from YA speculative fiction to contemporary romance. A lifelong fiction fanatic, she fangirls over books, anime, manga, comics, movies, games, and TV shows from her home state of Wisconsin. When not editing her clients’ novels, she’s busy fulfilling her dream by crafting fantastical worlds of her own.

Disclosure: This post contains links to an affiliate program, for which we receive a few cents if you make purchases. KRL also receives free copies of most of the books that it reviews, which are provided in exchange for an honest review of the book.