Merry Mary
A young woman longing for a child
stumbles upon a Christmas miracle.
Ashley Farley writes books about women for women.
Her characters are mothers, daughters, sisters, and wives facing real-life issues.
Merry Mary
A young woman longing for a child stumbles upon a Christmas miracle.
Investigative journalist Scottie Darden is photographing the homeless for her Lost Souls series when she makes a discovery that could change her life forever. Under a makeshift tent in subzero temperatures in a downtown city park, she finds a woman’s dead body with her infant child. Without her cell phone to call for help, Scottie makes the split-second decision to take the baby home.
Her initial instinct is to provide the baby with food and shelter until her family can be located. But as her fondness for the baby grows, she finds herself facing a life on the run or worse—prison time for abduction. Curl up with Merry Mary this holiday season. A heartwarming story of the powerful connection between a caring soul and an innocent child in need.
Monroe Park,
Richmond Virginia
I recently spent the afternoon at Monroe Park in Richmond, Virginia, the setting for my opening scene in Merry Mary. My protagonist, investigative journalist Scottie Darden spends her spare time bringing food and supplies to the homeless people who live in Monroe Park. In exchange for her generosity, these five unusual friends permit her to take pictures of them for her Lost Souls series. I encountered a number of homeless people on my outing, normal people down on their luck. The experience reminded me of how easy things can go wrong in our lives.
I thought I’d share some of those images with you. While definitely not a snowy day, I hope the photographs will create a vision of the setting in your mind when you read the first chapter of Merry Mary.
Read an Excerpt


February’s Reading Challenge
Is anyone surprised that I've chosen romance novels for February's reading challenge? After all, it's Valentine's Month! For me, reading romances is a step outside the box. Most of my novels have an element of romance, some more than others. One of the plot lines in...
read more
Step Outside the Box Reading Challenge
Greetings, readers, and welcome to my 2019 reading challenge. Most of you are avid readers who already challenge yourselves to read more books every year. My program is designed to challenge you to step outside of the box by reading books in genres you don't normally...
read more
My TBR 2019
I've been on a reading streak lately, and I've read some truly amazing books. If you haven't already, you'll definitely want to add Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens to your TBR list. It's the book everyone's talking about, and with good reason. Where the...
read more
Celebrating Mrs. Claus
As a child, I aspired to be just like my mother when I grew up. Especially at Christmas time. She made everything look fun—the cooking and shopping and decorating. She never complained nor acted tired, although I’m sure she was exhausted. I followed her around the...
read more
The Truth About the Biscuit
A reader recently asked me if I would be willing to share my cheese biscuit recipe from Nell and Lady. If you read the novel, you know the one I’m talking about. When I was growing up, every year at Christmastime, I’d wait with great anticipation for my grandmother’s...
read moreI love hearing from readers
Consistently at the top of Kindle and Audible bestseller lists for four years, Ashley Farley has built an impressive following in women's fiction for someone who was a “closet writer” until the moment she clicked publish on Amazon. Her self-published books are written about women and for women, with many of her fans being just like her—mothers with grown children who rarely find heroines of the same age depicted in women's fiction. Readers will discover something of themselves through her characters. Her novels promise a dash of romance and a heaping of Southern-style family drama.