CONTROL MY NIGHT

Urban Fantasy/Paranormal Romance

A perfect weapon, perfectly controlled

Heiress Keanna Backhus is business-smart and street-naïve, and discovering she is an untrained banshee with a unique—and deadly—wail wasn’t in the plan. After an accident leaves Keanna with blood on her hands, she is snatched from the streets by criminals determined to weaponize 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 abilities 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.

Control My Night is the award-winning first instalment in an interconnected standalone new adult urban/paranormal fantasy series, and mixes mafia vibes with romance, action, and spice in a reimagined, modern-day Prague. This series is perfect for fans of Laura Thalassa, Lana Pechercyzk, Richelle Mead, and Karen Marie Moning's Fever Series.

Cover design: Jaqueline Kropmanns at Jaqueline Kropmanns Professional Cover Design

READ IT NOW

ADD TO YOUR GOODREADS

The Tropes

Forbidden love

She’s a kidnapped banshee

Stabby stabby female characters

She falls first, he falls harder

Very slow burn

Everyone is morally grey

He’s a mage henchman keeping her prisoner

“I can’t stay away from you”

“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

Awards:
- WINNER Australian Romance Readers Association Favourite Debut Romance Author 2024
- WINNER Romance Writers of New Zealand Koru Excellence Award 2025 for Best First Book
- SHORT-LISTED FINALIST Georgia Romance Writer’s Maggie Award for Excellence - Published Paranormal Romance for 2025
- FINALIST Romance Writer’s Association of Australia Emerald Award for 2024
- NOMINEE 2025 Indieverse Awards for:
  - “Couldn’t put it down… it was that good!”
  - Memorable Mentor
- NOMINEE 2025 Indie Ink Awards in six categories
!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)