Marnie Ashcroft

Cozy science-fiction/fantasy stories about found family, strange worlds, and quiet adventures at the edge of space and reality.Books by Marnie Ashcroft blend warmth, humor, and discovery with journeys between planets, stations, and unexpected communities.

Books by Marnie Ashcroft

Thieves and Liars

Xoikco Corporation calls itself a community partner. The people who live in its shadow call it something else.
When Joro Ander is handed a parcel of specially treated paper and told to go plant some flowers, he doesn’t ask too many questions. Hors and Dramma have been doing this a long time. They know how resistance works — not with confrontation, but with persistence. Small, quiet, impossible-to-ignore actions that use the corporation’s own weight against it.
The way of the insect.
What starts with posters that etch themselves permanently into Xoikco’s own windows grows into something neither Joro nor anyone else entirely planned. Indelible chalk in children’s hands. Invisible spray that blooms into truth when it rains. Reply-paid envelopes, a chemist with a grudge, and messages that appear on rooftops visible from space.
Xoikco promised jobs. Xoikco promised fair wages. Xoikco promised community investment. Where are they?
The promises, and the question, are etched into every surface now.
And they will not wash away.Find it here:
https://books2read.com/u/31zdyn

Reginald's Refuge

When Jimbo inherits an exotic animal shop from a cousin he's never met, his wealthy Mars family expects him to sell immediately - and return to 'real' life.Instead, he meets a telepathic toad, a gravity-manipulating Cloudbear, and a coffee-addicted monkey with well-practiced prison escape skills.Running Reginald's Refuge should be simple: feed the creatures, find them homes, don't let the Hoppers stage sand-based revolutions.But between pregnancy surprises, an emergency evacuations and a family member challenging his right to inherit, Jimbo discovers that managing fifty-plus exotic creatures is the easy part.The hard part? Proving to everyone - including himself - that he's exactly where he belongs.A cozy sci-fi about found family, and learning that success isn't measured by credits in the bank but in creatures who trust you to get their lives - and their care - exactly right.Find it here:
https://books2read.com/u/3kReMG

The Grower

Ruby never asked to become a forest’s last hope. She’s always talked to the trees. Not unusual. But now, the trees are talking back.And what’s more… she woke up one morning and realized her fingers felt like leaves, her feet needed bare earth, and she could hear trees talking through their roots.The villagers call her strange. The forest calls her home. And when the king’s men arrive with axes and orders to harvest the ancient oaks, Ruby has to choose: stay silent and watch everything she loves fall, or stand up and risk being called something worse than strange.But Ruby isn’t alone. Hidden across the kingdom are others like her—growers, part human and part forest, driven underground by persecution and fear. Together, they might be able to save not just one forest, but change how an entire kingdom sees the green world growing all around them.One young woman. Thousands of acres of threatened woodland. And a network of protectors who’ve been waiting generations for someone brave enough to step into the light.The Grower is a cozy fantasy about found family, nature magic, ecological hope, and discovering that the thing that makes you different might be exactly what the world needs.Perfect for readers who love gentle magic, nature-based fantasy, and stories where kindness wins without a single sword being drawn.Find it here:
https://books2read.com/u/3kReMG

Suerte

Thirteen-year-old Resh has one job: keep six street kids alive.When their gang leader turns slaver, her desperate telepathic scream brings rescue—and joining the Suerte, a family trading ship where, suspiciously, everything comes free.Safety. Education. Hot chocolate before bed. The chance to carve wood and sell it for real money. A family who asks nothing in return.Resh doesn't trust it. She's survived by calculating costs, and her experience has shown that there's always a cost. Always.But nine-year-old Rikosh's cat paintings are attracting professional dealers. The kids are building an actual business at station markets. And the family keeps not demanding payment.Maybe, for once, belonging doesn't require survival skills.A cozy science fiction novel about found family, art, and learning that friendship and safety can be wonderfully free.