The 2025 Louisiana Book Festival will be held on Saturday, November 1.
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Ashley Winstead

Home Featured Authors & Panelists Featured Participant Lineup Ashley Winstead
© Luis Noble

© Luis Noble

Ashley Winstead is an academic-turned-novelist with a PhD in contemporary American literature. She lives in Houston with her husband, two cats, and beloved wine fridge. She is the author of In My Dreams I Hold a Knife and The Last Housewife. 

 

Schedule

10:00 am to 11:00 am

State Capitol, Senate Committee Room E

Past and Present: Romance Fiction

with Marguerite Martin Gray, Farrah Rochon, Ashley Winstead, and moderator Serena Puang

 

11:15 am to Noon

Cavalier House Books Tent

Book Signing

 

2:00 pm to 3:00 pm 

State Capitol, Senate Committee Room F

Deadlier than the Male: Women Solving Mysteries

with Jess Armstrong, Katharine Schellman, Emma C. Wells, Ashley Winstead, and moderator Robert Gwaltney

 

3:15 pm to 4:00 pm

Cavalier House Books Tent

Book Signing

Midnight is the Darkest Hour: A Novel

From the critically acclaimed author of In My Dreams I Hold A Knife and The Last Housewife comes Midnight is the Darkest Hour, a gothic Southern thriller about a killer haunting a small Louisiana town, where two outcasts―the preacher's daughter and the boy from the wrong side of the tracks―hold the key to uncovering the truth.

For fans of Verity and A Flicker in the Dark, Midnight is the Darkest Hour is a twisted tale of murder, obsessive love, and the beastly urges that lie dormant within us all...even the God-fearing folk of Bottom Springs, Louisiana. In her small hometown, librarian Ruth Cornier has always felt like an outsider, even as her beloved father rains fire-and-brimstone warnings from the pulpit at Holy Fire Baptist. Unfortunately for Ruth, the only things the townspeople fear more than the God and the Devil are the myths that haunt the area, like the story of the Low Man, a vampiric figure said to steal into sinners' bedrooms and kill them on moonless nights. When a skull is found deep in the swamp next to mysterious carved symbols, Bottom Springs is thrown into uproar―and Ruth realizes only she and Everett, an old friend with a dark past, have the power to comb the town's secret underbelly in search of true evil.

A dark and powerful novel like fans have come to expect from Ashley Winstead, Midnight is the Darkest Hour is an examination of the ways we've come to expect love, religion, and stories to save us, the lengths we have to go to in order to take back power, and the monstrous work of being a girl in this world.

"Where The Crawdads Sing meets Twilight meets Thelma and Louise in this brilliantly realized, totally original thriller. Absolutely sensational―I couldn't put it down." ― Clare Mackintosh, New York Times bestselling author

The Boyfriend Candidate: A Novel

“The Boyfriend Candidate is a total freaking delight. It’s smart, sexy, funny and so sharply written.” — Carley Fortune, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Meet Me at the Lake

A laugh-out-loud rom-com about learning to embrace living outside your comfort zone.

As a shy school librarian, Alexis Stone is comfortable keeping out of the spotlight. But when she’s dumped for being too meek—in bed!—she decides she needs to change. And what better way to kick-start her new more adventurous life than with her first one-night stand?

Enter Logan, the gorgeous, foul-mouthed stranger she meets at a hotel bar. Audacious and filterless, Logan is Alexis’s opposite—and boy, do opposites attract! Just as she’s about to fulfill her hookup wish, the hotel catches fire in a freak lightning storm. In their rush to escape, Logan is discovered carrying her into the street, where people are waiting with cameras. Cameras Logan promptly—and shockingly—flees.

Alexis is bewildered until suddenly pictures of her and Logan escaping the fire are all over the internet. Turns out Logan is none other than Logan Arthur, the hotshot candidate challenging the Texas governor’s seat. The salacious scandal is poised to sink his career—and jeopardize Alexis’s job—until a solution is proposed: he and Alexis could pretend to be in a relationship until election day…in two months. What could possibly go wrong?

“Charming, swoony, and utterly unputdownable. I LOVE this book!” — Lynn Painter, New York Times bestselling author of Better Than the Movies