Loan Stars is the readers’ advisory tool that allows library staff across Canada to collaboratively select their favourite forthcoming titles. Using CataList, the online catalogue service and order management tool available for free to libraries, library staff can endorse the Fiction, Non-Fiction, Juvenile, and Young Adult titles they want to recommend to their patrons. The titles with the most recommendations become Loan Stars picks!

But who are the authors and illustrators behind these great Loan Stars reads?

We find out in our series, Meet the Loan Stars.

Meet Ashley Winstead

Ashley Winstead is the author of Publishers Weekly’s Most Anticipated Romance Novels of Spring 2022 for her debut romance novel, Fool Me Once. She currently lives in Houston, Texas. Ashley’s latest novel, The Last Housewife, is on the August 2022 Adult Loan Stars List!

Meet Ashley and learn all about her love for libraries, book recommendations, and more in the interview below.

If you could visit any library in the world, where would you go?

Back to the Point Mugu library that was my second home growing up. Or the Bodleian in Oxford!

Do you have a favourite librarian, real or fictional?

In real life, every librarian is my favourite. (I've truly been nurtured by so many!) In fiction, both my 2023 releases star librarian protagonists — one is a romance and one is a thriller. So they're my current favourites!

Which book would you choose to recommend to library patrons?

Crush by Richard Siken for poetry. The Last Mrs. Parrish by Liv Constantine to get them hooked on thrillers. Love and Other Words by Christina Lauren to make them cry.

Cover of The Last Housewife by Ashely Winstead

What does being a Loan Stars pick mean to you?

I'm instantly emotional thinking about growing up so in love with and hungry for books, and the idea that librarians might now recommend my stories to people with that same love and hunger feels like the perfect 'coming home' kind of moment you rarely get outside fiction. It's an honour.

Thank you for answering our questionnaire, Ashley!

Are you a Loan Stars-recommended author or illustrator who wants to be featured on our blog? Get in touch with us to get started.

Until next time!