From the Desk of Ashleigh Stevens: Happy Memorial Day!

Ashleigh's YA Reads Ashleigh's Romance Reads Ashleigh's Whodunits
This week's newsletter contains the following features:
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What's new with Ashleigh?

Hartfield Chronicles

Free Books

Other Books on Sale

Ashleigh's Reading Challenge

Upcoming Events

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What's new with Ashleigh?

I don't know about you, but for those of us in New England, Memorial Day marks the unofficial start to summer. Many of our state campgrounds open this weekend. Since purchasing our first camper in 2017, Memorial Day has been one of our favorite camping weekends.

Until last year. Last year, in addition to being very hot, our family split up to march in two separate parades in two different counties. By the time we returned the to campground, it took an hour to travel one mile from the exit ramp the entrance of the state park. Which was closed due to capacity. Ultimately, not a fun experience.

So this year, I made the executive decision that we will not be traveling this weekend. This will allow us to participate in some good old-fashion Memorial Day staycation fun.

Thanks to some unseasonably warm weather, we put up our swimming pool a couple of weeks ago. I'm sure it will get a lot of use this weekend, although we still have a lot going on. In addition to the two parades, we are also participating in a memorial service and assisting a service project for a nonagenarian. It's sure to be a fantastic weekend.

How about you? How are you celebrating Memorial Day?

(Or, if your Memorial Day has already passed, what were some of the highlights?)

In Other News

I was so pleased with everyone's feedback regarding my Choose Your Own Path Stories. I am happy to announce that they will resume in the fall. Unfortunately, I will be unable to work on them over the summer because of a new project.

After much deliberation, I decided to particpate in the 2023 Inkfort Publishing Derby.

What's that, you ask? In 2020, I participated in my first Derby. I was given the cover and penname for One Night In Sedona. I will admit, that cover was not my first choice (though I no longer remember what was), but by the time the derby started, that cover spoke to me.

I and 49 other participants had two months to write and edit a novella. After another month of betas and ARCs, we published the books anonymously. Exactly one month later, we compared our sales information to see who had "won". (Although I didn't win, One Night In Sedona remains one of my most popular books.)

This year's derby has begun. I have ranked my favorite covers and am brainstorming ideas of stories to accompany them. Although I won't be able to tell you which book is mine until November, I look forward to sharing my progress with you over the next few months.

On a completely unrelated note, I enjoyed my last in-person author event so much, I have vowed to attend more. Keep checking my Upcoming Events section or the Live Event Preorder tab on my website to learn when I'm going to be and where.

Hartfield Chronicles

Season 5 of Hartfield Chronicles is here!

Melinda loves Pat, but sometimes she wishes he had friends of his own. When he starts spending time with her dance partner, however, Melinda can't help the feelings of jealousy that surface, especially when he starts choosing him over her. Will their relationship survive Pat's new bromance?

Hartfield Chronicles follows the lives of Melinda, Pat, and their friends as they navigate their way through boarding school life. Each episode features two stories, one from Melinda's point of view and one from Pat's, along with an excerpt from Melinda's writing journal. New episodes are published every Friday.

Here's what you missed:

Episode 130		Episode 131
Trying to complete his lab report turns out to be a bigger adventure than Pat anticipated.		Pat helps Brody and ends up stranding Melinda.

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Announcing the New Hammerhead Club

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Free Books

Magical Ambassadors of Justice
The Quest of the Last Dragon

All Gwen wanted was to rest, but all she could do was to keep fighting.

Lying, stealing, and running away from home.

How did things go so wrong?

Her desire was to fulfill her lifelong dream working for and learning from her idol.

Finally, a chance to make a name for herself.

But every dream comes at a price, and trouble has a way of catching up to her.

Her then perfect life uprooted by a hidden conspiracy.

She must choose between realizing her dreams or betraying her morals.

Innocent creatures endangered, betrayed by the system.

Who will protect them?

Hunter's Fortune
A sweet romance novella featuring two adorable, middle-aged characters.

A rich investor she dislikes, a forest in need of saving, and an indecent proposal she is more than willing to accept.

A chance meeting in the forest with Albert, an attractive middle-aged hunter, makes Luisa Horst reconsider her life filled with work and devoid of passion and romance. However, Albert turns out to be none other than the rich investor set on financing her father’s dream of building a large hotel in their sleepy little village - something that will have disastrous consequences for the forest Luisa oversees. She is prepared to go against her father’s wishes to save the woods she loves. But how far will she go to persuade Albert to help her? And what will he do when he discovers that she is more than willing to accept his indecent proposal?

This sweet romance novella takes place in a small village somewhere in the magical Black Forest and features two adorable, middle-aged characters who are about to discover that, despite their doubts, opposites indeed attract.

The Winterstone Murder
Book 1 in The Woodhead & Becker Mysteries

Two federal investigators, a dead graduate student, and a controversial hallucinogen.

Dr. Kep Woodhead is a brilliant, irascible forensic toxicologist with a dark past.

Bernadette Becker is a disgraced federal investigator with one last chance.

They're both assigned to a strange poisoning case: a graduate student has been found dead in a 15th-century chapel, overdosed on a controversial hallucinogen.

The list of suspects is long: the priest, the professor, the piscary president, the protestor, the protégé, and at least one wants to silence Becker.

Do Becker and Woodhead have a prayer of discovering the truth before the killer strikes again?

Would you like some free books in exchange for an honest review?

Free Review Copies - Ends 6/12 - All Genre

Want more free books? Check out these giveaways!

Do you have Kindle Unlimited? These books are free for you!

Summer Crime Reads - Ends 6/14 - Mystery

Other Books on Sale

Off-Limits Billionaire Fiancé
An Enemies to Lovers Fake Romance

I knew my ex-boyfriend’s brother was off-limits.
Now I’m stuck pretending to be this damaged billionaire’s fake fiancée.

Avoiding Christian Sanchester was so much simpler before I came back to Miami.

Fake-dating the groom’s best man for a month without falling in love? Easiest bet I ever won.

Or it would’ve been — if his mother hadn’t told everyone we’re engaged.

Behind the scenes, his jealous outbursts have us at each other’s throats 24/7.

Broad shoulders and a chiseled jaw can’t make up for his possessive streak, but I’d be kidding myself if I said he wasn’t . . . tantalizing.

Now we’re trapped together in this lie until he finds a way to break the news to his family, but that’s not the worst part.

The worst part is knowing it has to end.

Off-Limits Billionaire Fiance' is a high-heat, enemies-to-lovers fake romance about a dominant alpha male who meets his match in his brother’s smart, sassy ex-girlfriend.

Curses, Fowled Again!
A Mountain Springs Cozy Mystery

Something horrifically sinister lurks in the town of Mountain Springs…

Sharon Triplett’s life-change was to retreat to the majestic mountains, settle into her inherited family home with her two kids, plucky pet parakeet, Seymour, and try to recover from the tragic death of her husband, a hotshot, undercover, city detective. It was an elegant plan. It should have worked.

But then, astoundingly, Seymour, began eerily communicating to her in her dead husband’s voice and Sharon’s life was flipped upside down. Sharon’s been keeping it all hush-hush. Impressive, considering she also has to balance running her unique new tea shop/counseling office.

But bizarre things are happening around the quaint town of Mountain Springs, from an epidemic of insomnia that’s overtaken its citizens, to the increasingly violent assaults coming from the most unexpected places, to creepy disturbances in her home.

Together, Sharon and Seymour work to unlock the mystery of what dark forces are terrorizing their community. Could it be an illness? A gas leak? Something in the water? Or, as one local legend claims, something old and wicked?

Join Sharon and Seymour as they use their combined sleuthing skills to crack the case in Curses, Fowled Again!