Beauty for Ashes

Beauty for Ashes is a romance novel by the American writer Becky Melby, published in 1994 by Barbour Publishing as part of its Heartsong Presents line. The series was published in short monthly instalments for readers of Christian romance.

Karlee Merrick is a widow with two children, and the novel follows her through the period after her husband's death, when she is trying to be both parents to her children and to stand on her own feet. Randy is the boy she loved in high school and he wants to take up where they left off, while David is a committed Christian whose approach to her and to the children is entirely different. The choice between them is also a question about what Karlee believes and what she wants her household to be built on. Melby wrote for the Heartsong line, which published books of this length on a monthly schedule, and the form keeps the story close to the heroine's domestic life, her church and her children.

The Heartsong Presents series ran for many years and produced hundreds of titles, of which this is one of the earlier ones.