Liz Ussery

Author
Liz Ussery
Liz Ussery

Liz Ussery is the author of The Retreat: A Kepos Novel (Book 1 of The Kepos Files) and Dandelion Pact. She writes the kind of books that make you double-check your doors at night, or sigh dramatically into a glass of wine, depending on the genre. 

When she's not typing furiously at her keyboard or rewriting the same paragraph seventeen different ways, Liz runs a crystal shop where she hoards pretty rocks like a slightly mystical magpie. She has a deep love for psychological thrillers, dystopian works, twisty plots, morally gray characters, and thriller movies that leave you reeling at the credits and questioning your life choices. (Yes, she did call that twist halfway through, and yes, she's still mad about the one she didn't.) 

Liz lives in Illinois, surrounded by cornfields, with her three extremely judgmental, but adorable, cats who graciously allow her to live in their house. Her writing blends emotional depth with sharp turns, whether she's pulling readers into a slow-burn romance or a mind-bending thriller. Either way, you might need tissues. Or therapy. Or both. 



Books

The Retreat

A Kepos Novel
Book #1 from the series: The Kepos Files

You can’t heal in a place that’s still hurting you.

Cassie Vale came to Kepos Retreat for one reason: to forget.
Surrounded by silence, stripped of her phone, and promised radical trauma therapy, she expects discomfort—but not surveillance. Not secrets. And certainly not Jude.

He’s quiet. Controlled. Off-limits. And the only person who seems to...

Dandelion Pact

They made a pact when they were ten.
Best friends. First crushes. A dandelion ring and a promise to always come back.

But life has a way of testing even the strongest promises.

Fifteen years later, Charli is successful, cautious, and done believing in fairy tales. Kyle is quieter now, carrying the guilt of the mistake that drove her away. They...

Blog

He wasn’t supposed to touch her.

She wasn’t supposed to want him.

But magic doesn’t care about rules—and neither do they.

Romantic fantasy readers, get ready.

A new witch rises in early 2026.

h23s1ddx4s2g6nviy4vidnlrc3ox 1.62 MB

BONUS CHAPTER - The In Between  (Blog Exclusive - For readers of The

(Blog Exclusive - For readers of The Retreat)

Cassie

The safehouse wasn't safe.

Not in the way people meant it when they said the word, like it could be soothing. Not in the way therapists, government agents, or trauma counselors defined it.

It was just... less dangerous.

Cassie sat on the edge of the mattress, knees pulled up to her chest, and stared at the blank white wall in front of her. She'd counted the cracks in the paint a hundred times. A hundred and six, if she started in the top...

Read More
Cassie and Jude are Back... A year after the fire, Cassie Vale is still

A year after the fire, Cassie Vale is still haunted by what they took from her. But when someone from her past resurfaces, she realizes the program isn't dead, it's just begun again.

Here's your exclusive first look at The Directive: A Kepos Novel.


--------------------------------------------------------

The wind danced through the mountains in a way that felt alive, unlike the sterile air of Kepos. Here, among the towering pines, the forest exhaled its secrets. Cassie could hear the soft...

Read More