Graves Glen

Graves Glen is Erin Sterling's cosy paranormal romance series set in a fictional small Southern town where witches live amongst ordinary people, maintaining careful balance between magical and non-magical community life whilst navigating the same small-town dynamics - everyone knows everyone's history, gossip travels fast, and the past has a way of catching up with people - with the added complication that some residents can hex their exes, brew magical potions, and accidentally unleash supernatural chaos. Following different central couples across books whilst maintaining the town and its community as consistent connective tissue, the series delivers witchy romance that prioritizes warmth, humor, and genuine romantic chemistry over darkness, creating comfort reading that appeals to readers seeking paranormal romance with cosy atmosphere and accessible, witty prose.

The town of Graves Glen sits in the American South, its witch population integrated into community life whilst maintaining their own traditions, histories, and magical responsibilities. The town's annual Founder's Festival - celebrating autumn and the town's magical heritage - provides recurring backdrop and atmosphere, establishing Graves Glen as a place with genuine character and community rather than simply generic small-town setting. Sterling develops the world's magical rules across books, creating a consistent paranormal framework where witchcraft feels grounded in tradition and family heritage rather than arbitrary supernatural decoration.

Books in the Graves Glen series

The Ex Hex (2021) launches the series with Vivienne Jones, a witch whose teenage heartbreak over Rhys Penhallow led her to place a hex on him in the aftermath of their breakup. Years later, when Rhys returns to Graves Glen, the forgotten hex begins causing magical chaos neither expected to deal with. Vivi and Rhys must work together to undo the hex whilst navigating unresolved feelings, the history of their first relationship, and the reality that small-town life means they can't simply avoid each other. Sterling delivers the reunited lovers trope with witchy complications, balancing humor about magical mishaps with genuine emotional weight about first love, heartbreak, and whether people can change.

The Kiss Curse (2022) continues the series with Gwyn Jones - Vivi's cousin - as protagonist, following her story and romantic entanglement whilst expanding the Graves Glen world and its magical community. The new central couple allows Sterling to explore different romantic dynamics and character types whilst maintaining the series' signature warmth, humor, and witchy atmosphere readers enjoyed in the first book.

The series is characterized by witch protagonists with distinct personalities, small-town Southern setting with genuine community feel, autumn and Halloween aesthetic, humor balancing romantic tension, magical mishaps creating plot complications, family witchcraft traditions, cosy paranormal atmosphere, and comfort reading appeal.

Common themes include magic as metaphor for emotion and vulnerability, history following you in small communities, first love's lasting impact, witchy heritage as both gift and responsibility, finding home in places you tried to leave, and humor creating connection between characters.

Sterling's prose prioritizes accessibility and warmth, creating reading experiences where the witchy elements feel naturally integrated into small-town life rather than jarring supernatural intrusions.