Shannon Simpson’s debut novel, won a writing contest resulting in a contract with Words Matter Publishing.
I always knew I’d die on my 500th birthday. Alone. Then Aidan Crane turned my world upside down. Being a witch I could kill him with an errant thought. Being a vampire, he could lose control and drain me. Can our love overcome any obstacle?
Ashlie, a very powerful slow-aging witch, prefers to keep to herself. Save for her dog, Netter and her mind-reading ghost BFF, Stephenie, she lives a lonely existence. Ashlie longs for love, but fears it at the same time. Her ever-growing powers are controlled by her emotions. What if she were kissing an unsuspecting boy and set him on fire? What if she froze him as they walked across the street and he was hit by a car? Thoughts like these plague her. She has resigned herself to a lonely life.
Aidan Crane has no memory of his life before he became a vampire. He goes through life existing with no hope to find love. The moment he sees Ashlie he knows there is something different about her. She glows.
Try as they might they can’t ignore their attraction. Again and again, obstacles are thrown in their path are the Fates trying to show them they don’t belong together?
Between resurrected loved ones, danger lurking around the bed, and unexpected side effects will Ashlie make the ultimate sacrifice for love?
Have you ever met someone and known immediately your life would never be the same? That’s how it was when I met Brian. One smile and my world was rocked to its core.
Everyone has that one love they can’t forget. The one that spoke to your soul, not just your heart. At twenty-six, I had never been in love. I thought I was broken. Then I met Brian. There was something about him that spoke to my soul. He was everything I dreamed the man for me would be, with one major flaw. He was married. Even if he wasn’t, I knew he wouldn’t want me. Overweight for most of my life, I was shy around men. I preferred to remain in the background never calling attention to myself. After being teased in my formative years, I had scars on my soul.
Brian offered me his friendship. I was happy to accept. I was careful not to talk much about myself. I thought if I hid my heart behind a stone wall, I’d be able to protect myself. I tried to be friends, truly I did, but sometimes friends sneak into your heart with no warning. I don’t remember when it happened. One day we were friends, the next I was in love with him. I tried to hide it, but I think Brian knew. There was something about him that my starving heart couldn’t resist.
When Brian finally said the three words I had longed to hear, I let fear keep me from saying the words I should have. In an attempt to protect what was left of my heart, I stopped seeing him. We stayed in touch at first, but as the years went by our communications were few and far between.
How can our friendship survive when loving him is forbidden? I won’t cross that line. I won’t be that woman. I love Brian enough to let him go. Will I ever get my happily ever after?
I didn’t want this life. I was content being a witch.
When I fell in love with Aidan I told him I didn’t want to be like him; a vampire. I was dying. To save me he did what he had to do. Life as a vampire has to be better than no life at all. Right?
For nearly 120 years Ashlie Belle lived as a witch. She planned to do the same for the next 380. Then she fell in love with vampire, Aidan Crane. As she took her last breath, he bit her. Will she be able to forgive him for betraying her?
Stephenie, Ashlie’s ghost best friend, has been stuck in their home, Mystic Manor for nearly twenty years. She watches the world change from the widows peak longing to explore the way she did when she was alive. Seconds before Ashlie died, she transferred her powers to Stephenie with an unexpected result.
How can Ashlie fulfil the prophecy her resurrected mother entrusted Alexander the Great with and protect her new found family from the danger in the woods while spending her days in a coffin? Can Ashlie adapt to her new life before it’s too late?
The Curse
You know how high school is supposed to be fun? Okay, so freshman year isn’t really fun. That is the year the seniors haze you by selling tickets to the elevator, so you don’t have to take the stairs. Or my personal favorite- access to the swimming pool on the roof that doesn’t exist.
It’s really when you hit the junior and senior years the fun is supposed to begin. At least that is what I’d seen in all the movies. I believed it would be the same for me. After all, I was going to be with my best friend, Everleigh. We could face anything as long as we were together; even buying tickets to a pool that doesn’t exist and a pass to take the elevator to get there.
No one told me about curses and what would happen if I kissed my longtime crush. Such things didn’t exist in the movies I watched.
But I’m getting ahead of myself. Let’s go back, back to when I believed anything was possible as long as I had Everleigh at my side. Back to when I was alive.
