Most urban fantasy worlds have a built-in requirement that the general population is not allowed to know what’s going on. This rule often leads to all sorts of hiding-it-from-the-best-friend shenanigans.

Will the best friend believe in the ghosts/vampires/werewolves/gremlins if she accidentally finds out? Will she be angry with our heroine for not trusting her enough to tell her about the upcoming zombie apocalypse/escaped souls looking for vengeance/nest of baby aliens in the basement/sea serpent giving birth in the swimming pool? Will she demand our heroine stop sleeping with vamps/running with were-panthers/using her own blood as an offering to the old gods/refusing to share the delicious pastries made by the new closet monster who just moved in?

Being the clueless best friend has to suck. You’re constantly catching the heroine in stupid little lies. The heroine borrows your clothes and keeps returning them with mysterious stains or holes in them. Plans get cancelled all the time, sometimes when you’re already somewhere waiting for the heroine to get there. Sometimes, she stands you up and doesn’t even bother to call.

In the Monster Haven series, this poor, left-out-of-the-loop best friend is Zoey’s business partner, Sara. In the first book, Monster in My Closet, Sara is ignored, lied to, left to do extra work, pushed around, abused, and memory-wiped. Still, Sara’s back for round two in Pooka in My Pantry.

How can Zoey possibly keep Sara in the dark with an invisible, pants-less pooka wreaking havoc in the office, the Leprechaun Mafia leaning on them for protection money, and Zoey’s bad-luck curse causing a car accident in Sara’s own bedroom?

But there are rules. The best friend isn’t supposed to know. Unless she does. But if Sara finds out, will that be the end of the friendship? Sara’s pretty tough, and she runs a tight ship. She probably irons her underwear. The supernatural might not fit very well into her world view.

It might be best if Zoey tried to keep her secret for a little longer.

Or not. You’ll have to read Pooka in My Pantry to find out. And if you haven’t read Monster in My Closet yet, you might want to start there.

And just for fun, tell your best friend you’ve been slaying demons in your spare time and tell us what she said.

Or better yet, you be the clueless one and follow your best friend around in case she’s been hiding a gargoyle in the shed behind her house. Accuse her of not trusting you. Demand answers (be sure to have your hands on your hips and give her the stink-eye). Tell her you’re tired of the lies! Be dramatic and loud.

Then report back to us how it went. It’s for science.

For a free short story set in the Monster Haven world (with a bonus peek at the first chapter of Pooka in My Pantry), visit here: Ill-Conceived Magic 

Rachel’s head is packed with an outrageous amount of useless Disney trivia. She is terrified of thunder, but not of lightning, and tends to recite the Disneyland dedication speech during storms to keep herself calm. She finds it appalling that nobody from Disney has called yet with her castle move-in date.