Ashley Elston Books In Order

Publication Order of The Rules Books

Publication Order of Standalone Novels

Ashley Elston is an American bestselling author of literary fiction that includes the “Rules” series and several single standing novels such as “This is Our Story” and “10 Blind Dates.” Her debut novel “The Rules for Disappearing” made the shortlist for the International Thriller Writer Awards for Best Young Adult Novel. Elston went to Louisiana State University where she graduated with a liberal arts degree. After graduation, she worked as a wedding photographer for several years in Shreveport before she decided to become a professional author. She currently lives with her husband and sons in Shreveport, from where she writes her novels.

She had always loved reading novels as a child and asserts that she read through all of Sidney Sheldon’s works while she was a high schooler. Elston believes no one could beat Sheldon in writing in some of the best twists in a story. She still asks herself what would Sheldon do? when crafting her own novels. Before she wrote her debut novel “The Rules for Disappearing” she had been writing for several years and had what she loves to call a practice book. She still has it tucked into a drawer since it was fun to write it and it taught her a lot about pacing and plot. She was inspired to write the novel when the imagery of the opening scene stuck in her head for weeks that she just knew she had to put it down on paper. It was like she could see Meg standing before the mirror and having to cut her hair as she went into witness protection. At first, she never knew what direction the novel would take but once she put down that scene, everything else flowed.

Ashley Elston did not move around much as a child and hence her experience could not have been more different from that of her lead character Meg. In fact, her father still owns and resides in the same house that Elston was born and grew up in. However, the Rules series draws its setting from Ashley’s childhood as she grew up in small town in Louisiana not far from where the story is set in Natchitoches. It was a small town where everyone knew everyone and if she did anything wrong, her mother would know even before they finished doing it. She attended school right from kindergarten to high with practically the same people and hence she drew a lot from her upbringing in writing the Rules novels. She thought it would make a lot of sense for Meg to live in a town where she had formed a lot of close relationships. Her love interest Ethan is your hot next-door boy that is very much like the many Louisianans. He is southern to the core, as he likes to get his hands dirty, is strong and smart. Elston also incorporates some southern aspects of culture such as riding four-wheelers and working on the farm to add flavor to her story. In her single standing novel “This Is Our Story” Ashley tells a captivating story of five teens who go hunting in the woods but only four emerge. What follows is an intriguing story as a photographer is determined to get justice for the murdered teen while the four friends bound by a terrible secret refuse to talk. When the boys and clues start to unravel, things start to get really interesting.

Ashley Elston’s “The Rules for Disappearing” is the story of Meg, a woman who has to go into witness protection. She has been all over the place and has been three different people including Olivia in Kentucky, Isabelle in Missouri, and Madeline in Ohio. But now she has been told to move to rural Louisiana but she is tired of it and has vowed that this is the last identity she will ever take. She had everything taken from her by Witness Protection but she now has to become Megan Rose Jones, a woman that has the worst hair color anyone was ever asked to wear. For the past eight months, she has been asking her father just what he did to deserve to be uprooted and moved all over the place. She is tired of being told what to do and what not to do and her father’s silence is not helping. She has decided that if he is not going to give her some answers he is going to get them herself. Meg gets the help of a Louisiana farm boy named Ethan Landry, who is quite the smart lad. He knows that Meg has a huge secret that could get them killed if it got out. But Meg is not going to turn back though she soon learns that survival is very important in their quest for discovery.

“Rules for Breaking” is the story of Anna Boyd a woman whose quest for freedom had almost cost her life. But just when she thinks she has gotten away from the clutches of the Witness Protection program, she is brought back down to earth and reality. The evil man named Thomas has never been apprehended and she is now his pawn in a game he is playing with the cartel that wants to shut her up forever. When Anna, her younger sister, and her boyfriend are taken captive by Thomas and a mysterious man with a balaclava, Anna knows it is time to take things into her own hands. She is willing to break the rules even if she has to team up with the lesser of two evils to get her way. She is determined to protect her loved ones and get back the freedom she craves once and for all. But what she does not know is that her enemies are hiding in plain sight. She will soon discover that putting her trust in people may just cost her life and freedom.

Ashley Elston’s “This is Our Story” is set in the small town of River Point, where five teenagers had gone into the forest to hunt and only four came out. None of the boys will say who killed Grant their friend though the evidence suggests it could have been any of them. Kate Marino is an intern working at the DA’s office since she was looking for something that would look good when she started making her applications for college. She is working under Mr. Stone that the DA has assigned the most mysterious case ever seen in the small town. Everyone in town has been talking about the case of the five boys of River Point. The toxicology report damns the four but the DA wants the case dismissed. The boys are from powerful families in town that had been instrumental in getting him elected into office. Kate is not going to let the injustice stand and starts digging up secrets. But in doing so is dangerous for her to as some of her own secrets may also be unearthed. But then she gets the shock of her life when she learns that the case is not what she thought it was, and the victim is not who she thought he was and neither is the prime suspect.