He particularly likes smart, competent women and in every book he falls in love, platonically except when he meets Dani in Love and Other Wild Things, and expands his chosen family. Zed is not the reason that new people are arriving in Mystic Bayou, but he draws people into his orbit, adopts them, and turns them into a family. The heart of the series is the Mystic Bayou mayor, Zed Berend. The rift is the first of the series story arcs and is eventually resolved. It’s energy is starting to become erratic and humans in the area are starting to develop supernatural powers, even as adults. Just outside of Mystic Bayou is a tear in the fabric of reality called the rift. Also in the know are the employees of the League for Interspecies Cooperation, a not entirely benevolent shadow government-ish organization. The human denizens of Mystic Bayou know about their not so human neighbors, but the rest of the world is still in the dark. Mystic Bayou is a small town in Southern Louisiana (New Orleans is “in the north”) in which humans and the supernatural live together (mostly) peacefully. The Mystic Bayou series is 5 novels and 2 novellas (so far). Three, I needed a long break from reality because sometimes reality sucks. Two, the entire series is included in my Audible membership. One, some reader friends have been talking positively about the series for a while. Three things happened that resulted in a multiday binge of the Mystic Bayou series, narrated by Amanda Ronconi and Jonathon Davis.

How to Date Your Dragon by Molly Harper