Riss M. Neilson Books In Order

Publication Order of Standalone Novels

Publication Order of Anthologies

Riss M. Neilson is a published author.

She attended Rhode Island College and graduated Magna Cum Laude. She received the Jean Garrigue Award from the English department, which was judged by Nick White (a novelist).

Riss is from Providence, and she really enjoys the arts and the culture there. When she is not busy writing, she can be found taking in some anime or spending time with her two children playing video games.

The first book to come out from this author was Deep in Providence. It was published in 2022 and ended up being a finalist for the New England Book Award. It was followed by the second novel I’m Not Supposed to Be in the Dark in 2023 and A Love Like The Sun in 2024, which featured representation of characters with chronic illness.

Riss says that she enjoys writing stories that have main characters who are often messy but love in their own ways. They are complicated and when they do something, they do it with everything that they have. She also likes writing about a place to make it feel like a character, sibling relationships, and people who are haunted.

Riss deals with writer’s block in different ways depending on how bad it is. Sometimes she decides to put on music to listen to and dance, and then she sits down and sprint writes for ten or fifteen minutes. Other times she really needs to take a break before she can get back into writing. She likes to start a new project when she has writers block but is careful with it because she doesn’t always want to return to her original story. She also occasionally starts going back to the first page of a manuscript and revising.

Deep In Providence is the first fictional novel from author Riss M. Neilson. Pick up a copy of this young adult fantasy story and find out why people like award-winning author Emily M. Danforth are calling this a novel ‘to watch’.

This story follows along with three girls who are all best friends. They end up turning to practicing magic after the death of a friend starts haunting them. They think that maybe it is her spirit hanging over them, but who knows for sure?

Jasmine, Natalie, Inez and Miliani all live in Providence, Rhode Island. They grew up there, and to them, the place is filled with magic. It has everything from bodegas to food trucks that offer food late at night to The Hill, a place where you can see over the city.

Different parts of Providence have the different memories of the girls practicing doing their spells, mixing their potions and conducting seances thanks to the help of the magic that Miliani learned from her Filipino grandmother.

Then the friends find that their world is turned upside down when a drunk driver hits Jasmine. The friends are struck by the loss and the grief that they feel, but also think that Jasmine’s spirit is sticking around. They think that they can bring her back by using their magic if they just come together, knowing that they are going to be pushing not only the limits of magic but just about everything that they knows when it comes to life and death and their friendship.

The only problem is that the plan that they have to bring Jasmine back to life starts to become way more demanding than they thought it would and even darker. As this goes on, their lives start to tear apart the ties that they need, which means that secrets come up that could hurt those that they care about.

Now Natalie, Inez, and Miliani will have to do even more than just rely on the magical abilities that they have in order to find the light. This is the story of what happens when three girls seize the power and try to take what they want, as well as the story of three grieving friends who just want to bring back their friend the only way that they know how, through magic. A great young adult fantasy story that is worth a read!

I’m Not Supposed to Be in the Dark is the second book to come out from Riss M. Neilson. This is a romance story for young adults that features the story of a teen who thinks that her best friend who has now turned into her enemy may be possessed by a ghost.

Aria Cayetano is just 17 years old, but she always has dreams of ghosts. She used to be able to see them in person, but her grandmother made a special tea for her to get rid of this ability. Since then, Aria has not been able to connect to the spirit world.

Then a rosebush that has been flourishing for decades suddenly dies across the street. This is the one tip-off that makes the teen think that something supernatural is definitely going on in the neighborhood. Aria wants to look into it, but it’s located on her former best friend’s front lawn.

Aria can’t ask Derek Johnson about it because he doesn’t like her at all now. She has no idea what came between them, but Derek has been acting weird for weeks at a time. She’s even noticed that he’s been going out in the middle of the night to different places, doing who knows what.

She doesn’t have any idea what is happening when Derek starts talking to her again. This is just days after the demise of the rosebush. Aria thinks that it really is him but then she finds out that he has a ghost inside of him that’s going to kill him if it isn’t able to find what it’s looking for.

Now Aria and Derek have to figure out what’s going on and Aria has to figure out if she’s able to save Derek when it puts herself at risk. Read this fun ghost story to catch all of the supernatural antics for yourself!