A.D. Enz

author | editor | bookbinder

Ashlee is an author of YA and adult fantasy and romance novels. She was first introduced to Ella Enchanted by Gail Carson Levine, which transformed her into a book dragon that cannot hoard enough novels.Ashlee is currently querying WHISPERS AMONG SPIRITS, an 90,000-word horror romantasy. This novel evokes the atmospheric forest magic of North is the Night by Emily Rath, lush folklore from Nettle & Bone by T. Kingfisher, and the Norse-inspired worldbuilding from the show Vikings.If she's not writing, she bookbinds, creating one-of-a-kind special editions you can't find anywhere else.

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Horror Romantasy |
Dark Fantasy

Whispers Among Spirits

Elin wants to stop the skogsrå spirits from dragging her people into the woods. They claimed her brother, and are hungry for more human bones. In an attempt to save a villager, she accidentally awakens a poisoned skogsrå named Mörker. The entity marks her with its claws and attacks her village, leaving a wake of destruction behind.Fleeing the devastation, she meets Dalrik, a cursed slave who knows Mörker can only be stopped by a forbidden spell hidden in a tower, but no one who enters has ever lived to escape. He offers to guide and protect Elin, but only if she helps him break his curse. A bargain he refuses to explain.As they face monsters of exposed bone and rotting flesh, their tense truce deepens into an undeniable attraction. But as the spirit's poison takes root, Elin prefers the cold shadows of the forest. Worse, Dalrik’s curse is tied to Mörker, and freeing him may unleash a power capable of destroying her homeland. Elin must choose to risk her people by saving the man she’s falling in love with, or sacrifice herself and become the monster she fears.

tropes

STATUS: querying

YA Dark Fantasy Romance

Where thieves bleed

Dex will do whatever it takes to free her sister from a brothel—even if it means stealing from the wrong people. When a job turns out to be a test from a deadly group of assassins, she’s forced into their ranks and tasked with stealing a forbidden artifact said to awaken the god of shadows. But the artifact holds a dangerous secret: it grants the power to control a god, and if Dex hands it over, the assassins will use it to control the city. With her sister’s life on the line, a people’s fate at stake, and her growing feelings for an infuriatingly charming assassin complicating everything, Dex must choose who she’s willing to betray before she loses everything.

tropes

STATUS: Editing

YA Fantasy Romance

Dreams of Dark Sands

Cursed and hunted, seventeen-year-old Harlow is running out of time before the darkness under her skin consumes her. When a mysterious nomad named Velho rescues her from execution, he reveals her curse is the key to finding relics that could heal—or destroy—the world.Forced to work together, their uneasy alliance burns into something deeper. But every secret Velho keeps could cost Harlow her brother’s life. With enemies closing in and her curse spreading, she must choose between saving the people she loves or surrendering to the power that’s slowly killing her.

tropes

STATUS: Ready for Querying