Books in series
#1
The Crane Diaries
Homecoming
2018
New Orleans is a city known for its paranormal history—and it’s the place Emma Rose Crane, AKA Mattie Hathaway, has come home to.
She hopes she can start over in New Orleans, where her ability to see ghosts isn't so freaky. She’s even starting college, but the whole thing would be a lot easier if she weren’t faced with a family she barely knows, all while dealing with the loss of someone she loved.
Can she really escape her past and be semi-normal? Even with her sister Mary and best friend Eric by her side, it's going to be a wild ride once she agrees to help Mary's new friends investigate a "haunted" house.
The house’s new occupants are terrified, and the ghost seems to be attacking their little girl, leaving everyone desperate for answers. Emma isn’t sure what to think when she discovers Dr. Lawrence Olivet was also invited to investigate.
Will her gifts be enough to save the family that is currently being stalked in their own home? And when some of her own family’s long-kept secrets come to light, will her fresh start be over before it even begins?
#2
The Crane Diaries
Dirty Blood
2018
Deep in the swamps of the Louisiana bayou, a horrifying secret lies waiting to be discovered.A legend haunts the bayou, a chilling tale of a beast that is born from a curse…the Rougarou.When Emma Rose Crane lets hunter Cass Willow convince her to help him on a ghost hunt, she never imagined she’d be trudging through the swamps, let alone stumbling upon a mess of mangled bodies—or running into the creature responsible for the rotting remains.With no backup available to them, she’s forced to show Cass her demonic side to help them escape, but that’s not the only problem. When the creature attacked them, it infected them with the same curse that drove it mad. There’s only one hope—kill the beast to cure the infection.Time is not on their side as they race to save themselves and discover the truth behind the legend. But first they have to survive the effects of the curse long enough to find the creature and put it down… Before they succumb to the hunger eating them alive.
#3
The Crane Diaries
Stained
2019
I Am Death.
I Am Darkness.
I Am Creation.
These are the simple truths Emma Rose Crane, AKA Mattie Hathaway, has run from for the last two years, but the situation she finds herself in will not let her flee her past anymore. It’s barreling toward her at the speed of a bullet.
Mattie finds herself back in Charlotte, North Carolina, for the trial of Dan’s mother. She’s determined to see this ordeal through for Dan, even though his vindictive mother uses the situation to try to tear them apart.
If that weren’t enough, she lands on a supernatural hit list and has to rescue a woman who’s close to death—and survive the psycho who took her to begin with.
But just when things start to go right, the unthinkable happens.
Three gunshots.
Three truths.
But in the end, will her past save her future…or will it take everything she cherishes from her?
#4
The Crane Diaries
The Red Church
2019
In the swamps of New Orleans sits an old church.
Its history is steeped in blood and death.
For over a century, this abandoned church has inspired fear, and the rumors of the creatures that inhabit it have kept the locals away.
The church has been sold, but work on the property has stalled. Centuries-old fears resurface when accidents start to befall the construction crews and ghosts are seen wandering the derelict stone building. No one dares go back until the property has been cleansed.
The Hathaway Foundation is hired to rid the property of ghosts so that work can begin again, only Emma Crane soon discovers it’s not the ghosts they have to fear, but something far more evil.
There was a reason the church was abandoned, a reason a powerful protection spell was put around the property, and a reason everyone from her father’s priest to Silas, her demonic grandfather, is warning her to stay away.
But now that she’s discovered what roams the halls, she can’t walk away. She can’t be responsible for innocents dying when she might have prevented it.
She’ll gather her team and go up against something she thought existed only in books and movies, something even the hunters in the area fear—a primordial evil, a creature that spawned the first vampires.
But can she stop the creature before it’s too late, before its family destroys hers?
#5
The Crane Diaries
Bayou Secrets
2019
Deep in the bayou is a place so dark even nightmares tremble in fear. It has been whispered about for a century, and even the hunters of New Orleans don’t trek into the shadows of Madame’s island, a Necromancer more feared than any other. But all that is about to change.
A hunter has gone missing.
Cass Willow calls in Emma Rose Crane, AKA Mattie Hathaway, to help him investigate the disappearance of his best friend, Alice, but they discover more than a missing hunter. There are eleven other women who have vanished.
Alice tracked the disappearances to a bar, but more importantly, to one man. Emma and Cass trace her footsteps and land right in the heart of shifters who don’t like Cranes any more than the rest of the bayou.
Through a little investigation and more than a few threats, they discover the name of the man who took the other women.
Kristoff.
Madame’s first child, as she called her vampires. Now that Madame is gone, Kristoff has taken over the island.
Cass and Emma must not only breach the island, but also deal with the onslaught of questions about themselves the shifter bar revealed.
But will they be too late to save Alice?
#6
The Crane Diaries
Bayou Revelations
2020
Secrets.
Emma Rose Crane thought she left all that behind in North Carolina, but she can’t escape them.
She was robbed of her childhood memories and the protections she was born with, making her human body vulnerable to the superhuman gifts she’d inherited. But why? It’s just another secret she must unravel.
But it’s not only her secrets she’s dealing with.
Her friend and fellow hunter, Cass Willow, has asked her to help him find out who his father is, but also exactly what he is, as Cass has discovered he’s not quite human. However, the fallout from the truth may destroy them all.
And then there’s Kristoff—the psychotic vampire who seems to think she’s his shiny new toy. To get to him, they must unravel the mysteries of Madame’s island in the middle of the bayou, and for that, they need help.
Saidie Walker always knew she’d return to the island where she learned what it was to be a Necromancer, but she never thought it would be so soon. Kristoff is forcing her hand. He’s the one thing that truly terrifies her, but she must face him not only to save Emma, but get justice for all the women he’s murdered since she killed Madame and set him free. She blames herself for their deaths and will do everything in her power to stop him.
But she’s not sure she can do it alone. Together, she hopes she and Emma can finally put an end to his reign of terror.
#7
Bayou Reckoning
2020
Serial Killers.
Vengeful Ghosts.
Soul Eaters.
Fallen Angels.
Rougarous.
Primordial Evils.
These are just some of the big bads Emma Rose Crane has survived. She always comes out the other side a little more broken, but she hides it from the world. No one knows how vulnerable she really is. Not even Officer Dan, who loves her more than she thinks she deserves.
But a new danger has entered her world that threatens to destroy everything she’s fought so hard to build and protect—Kristoff, a psychotic vampire who’s fixated on her. He’s one of the few things she’s afraid of because he knows her greatest fears.
And he has no problem using them against her.
He’s cut her off from everyone she loves, everyone who could help her, and she’s back to where she began.
Alone.
Now she must use all the skills she learned in foster care to survive the hell Kristoff has thrust her into, but will it be enough?
#8
Reflections
2022
Emma Rose Crane.
Mattie Louise Hathaway.
Human.
Demon.
Living Reaper.
Goddess.
She is all of these things, yet she’s none of them.
She doesn’t understand how to be any of them.
She’s lost.
She’s about to come face to face with her own demise.
In the end, which will she be? All of them? None of them?
Or will the darkness take over and create something new altogether when she touches the Eternity Jewels?
Are Emma Rose and Mattie Louise gone forever?
#9
The Ties That Bind
2022
You are cordially invited to the wedding of:
Emma Crane And Daniel Richards
August 6, 2022 at 7pm
Our Lady Of Hope Presbyterian Church
New Orleans, LA
Reception to follow at The Crane Plantation
Please beware the ghosts in the church as they are hostile and could potentially do you bodily harm.
Otherwise, join the parents of Emma and Daniel to rejoice in the celebration of their marriage.
Author
Apryl Baker
Author · 44 books
So who am I? Well, I'm the crazy girl with an imagination that never shuts up. I LOVE scary movies. My friends laugh at me when I scare myself watching them and tell me to stop watching them, but who doesn't love to get scared? I grew up in a small town nestled in the southern mountains of West Virginia where I spent days roaming around in the woods, climbing trees, and causing general mayhem. Nights I would stay up reading Nancy Drew by flashlight under the covers until my parents yelled at me to go to sleep. Growing up in a small town, I learned a lot of values and morals, I also learned parents have spies everywhere and there's always someone to tell your mama on you. So when you get grounded, what is there left to do? Read! My Aunt Jo gave me my first real romance novel. It was a romance titled "Lord Margrave's Deception." I remember it fondly. But I also learned I had a deep and abiding love of mysteries and anything paranormal. As I grew up, I started to write just that and would entertain my friends with stories featuring them as main characters. Now, I live Huntersville, NC where I entertain my family and watch the cats get teased by the birds and laugh myself silly when they swoop down and then dive back up just out of reach. The cats start yelling something fierce...lol. I love books, I love writing books, and I love entertaining people with my silly stories. You can reach me at any of these places: Blog: http://apryl-baker.blogspot.com/ Twitter:@AprylBaker The Promise Book Trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YO2zTi... PS: DO NOT GET IN MY WAY IF THERE IS A SALE ON AT TARGET - my home away from home!
