The Cryptid Therapist
"You're barely begun."
Helena lets out a humorless laugh. "I'm fifty-five."
The gargoyle does not blink. His charcoal-dark eyes remain steady on hers.
"To me," Bastian says quietly, "you are still sunrise."
Dr. Helena Graves thought her life was over.
Forced into early retirement at fifty-five, divorced, and estranged from her daughter, Helena's days have shrunk to microwaved dinners and empty rooms. Thirty years spent helping others navigate trauma and life transitions - and now she can't seem to survive her own.
Then a letter arrives.
An offer from a secret council claiming that cryptids - lake monsters, mothmen, gargoyles, banshees - live hidden among humans... and they need a therapist.
Helena assumes it's a prank.
Until a 347-year-old gargoyle named Bastian appears at her door as her assigned protector.
Suddenly, Helena finds herself counseling anxious mothmen, grieving banshees, lonely lake monsters, and displaced gargoyle families struggling to survive in a modern world that fears what it doesn't understand. But the deeper she steps into their hidden community, the more she discovers something unexpected:
They aren't monsters.
They're people.
And they're just as lonely as she is.
As threats rise from within the cryptid world itself, Helena must decide whether she's brave enough to build something new at an age when society says she should be winding down. And Bastian - ancient, patient, heartbreakingly devoted - must confront the truth he's avoided for centuries:
Loving a human means watching her grow old.
The Cryptid Therapist is a warm, slow-burn paranormal romance about second chances, found family, and discovering that life doesn't end at fifty-five - it begins.
Cozy Small-Town Paranormal Romance
Midlife Heroine (Age 55)
Neurodivergent-Coded, Emotionally Intelligent FMC
Ancient Gargoyle Protector MMC
Slow Burn Romance
Found Family
Therapy & Healing Themes
Grief & Second Chances
Mature Love Story
Gentle Fantasy With Emotional Depth
Low Spice / Emotional Intimacy Focus
Underserved Midlife Romance Representation
Book One of The Midnight Menagerie Series
For readers who love heartfelt paranormal romance with emotional maturity, quiet magic, and love stories that honor experience instead of youth.
Early Reader Praise"The characters were appealing, complicated, and absolutely perfect together."
"Connection, understanding and a group dynamic that catches and holds."
"Life doesn't end at fifty-five-it begins."
Customer Reviews
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