Favourite Covers 2 - my choices

So  now it's my turn. Andrea asked me to share my choice of favourite covers  and as she promised to make that lovely donation to the Tickled Pink collection for research into help for breast cancer, I want to thank her by doing just that.

There's a slight complication in that she had the UK covers to choose from - while I have the same books as her but often the UK and USA covers are rather different -  but I'll post  images of the covers anyway so you can see them - whichever version I use.

I mentioned in yesterday's post that like Andrea, I liked the cover for Man of Shadows (see above).  This was very like the image I had in my mind of my hero and heroine and although it's a long-ago title, I still like it.


One of my favourite covers - and a favourite book with literally thousands
of readers judging by sales  - is     Constantine's Revenge.  I have a thing about strong male arms  - and  hands - and this get the intensity of the story too.

There's a book called The Sicilian's Red-Hot Revenge  where, like  Constantine's Revenge, the cover is the same on both the USA and UK editions.   This cover is affectionately known as 'The Back' among fans - I 'm sure you can see why!   There is also, as one reader said - 'all that sexy non-touching' .
  Often when there is a sheikh in the title, and when it works for the art department , then it seems works I get  great cover art -  like  At The Sheikh's Command

In fact a 'Sheikh' title often works really well - like Destined for The Desert King where I  was delighted to see that my 'desert king' had the beard that is so much a part of his  appearance  at first.  There's a reason why he has that beard!

One of the few times when I've liked the UK cover better than the USA one has been  A Question of Honour - it's rare that I like a photo image better than a painted  cover.

But this one works for me:


These are some of my favourite covers, where the artwork comes close to the mood of the story and the hero and heroine I had in my imagination while writing the book.

It doesn't always work out that way though - sometimes I find I'm left wondering 'why?'  when I see a cover.

As an example - how about the one known in my family as 'The Headless Manicure'!

Hmmm!

Favourite covers - For Andrea

I must apologise to one of my readers and students on my writing courses - I have been so so busy that I've only just caught up on this,. 

So -  For Andrea

When I was helping with the Tickled Pink Collection for Breast Cancer Research,   Andrea wrote and offered a generous donation   to the collection if I would let her know which of my covers are some of my personal favorites.

To start this off, she listed these  covers as her personal choices  - and I have to agree with her on them really!

So -   Andrea said -
I loved the ones with the painted covers. Some of my faves are:

'Hers for a Night' (can't beat the James Bond dinner shirt and untied bow tie look),

 'Man of Shadows' (man in a jumper and old jeans ... enough said)



'The Konstantos Marriage Demand' - incredible story and incredible cover - the way the hero is kissing the heroine


 ... and 'Kept for Her Baby' ditto



  So now I need to go and check through my covers . . . only 60+ of them  - and see which ones I'd label as my  'favourites' . 

I have to admit that, long ago title though it was, that  Man of Shadows cover was one I always loved.

Anyone else want to join in?

New Covers Reveal . . .

At last I can show you all the new covers for my January book - A Proposal to Secure His Vengeance. 

As you know, Harlequin Mills and Boon  are revamping the whole look of their  books  and  the covers have been radically redesigned - the same with Australia -   so I've been waiting until I could show you all three covers for my next title.

Here goes: 

The USA  cover stays the same - designers think that the long established white cover, red band and hero and heroine in a circle is iconic and will stay the same.



The new UK design - out January - is very different. What do you think?
BTW - my hero doesn't have  a beard - and he has jet black hair (see the USA cover!)






Finally - the new-design Australian cover



I think I like this one the best - what do you think?


 And the back cover 'blurb' is this:
Raoul Cardini will have his revenge! His preferred method? Ruthless, irresistible seduction!
Imogen O’Sullivan is horrified when charismatic tycoon Raoul breaks up her engagement and makes her his own convenient bride! She once surrendered everything to Raoul — body, heart and soul. But as he stalks back into her life it’s clear he has punishment in mind — not just passion. Can Imogen resist Raoul’s potent brand of delicious vengeance?


PS Don't forget that you can still enter the Christmas book giveaway - just leave a comment, telling me the most unusual Christmas gift you've given - or received.

Big News from MIlls and Boon UK

There's an interesting article in The Bookseller  this week - revealing the big news about the complete revamp of the covers and the whole look of Mills and Boon Romances which is coming in January.

Mills & Boon (M&B) has revealed a “huge” relaunch lined up for January, the first face-lift for the brand in a decade. The rebrand features a sleeker logo and revamped covers, refreshed point-of-sale material, a beefed-up book club and the brand’s first engagement with the blogging community. 

There will also be a raft of commercial partnerships and retail promotions for the romance imprint which will go live on 1st January.

If you want to read the article about the relaunch and  get a sneak peek at some of the newly designed covers then you'll find the details here.

And look out for the new covers designs appearing on Amazon/ the Mills and Boon Web Site and in the shops for the new year.

At last!

At last I've managed to find a copy of the cover of the UK edition of Indebted to Moreno so I can  show it to you here.

I love the sexy Spaniard's  dark and dangerous stare - and the heroine's hair is just the right colour  - important when the hero's nickname for her is Red!!

What do you think?

What a difference a cover makes!

You might remember my last book - Destined for The Desert King. I loved the UK and USA cover of that . it was very suitable for the book, gorgeous colours  and had so many touches of luxury and  portrayed the characters so well.

But then yesterday I got a package of new foreign translations, and there was a Dutch translation of Destined for the Desert King  - same book, same characters - but - what a different mood, style and image for the cover.  Same characters but at a different point in the story  and . . . well, see for yourself. . .

They're both fine for the story, and my hero and heroine. The hero has lost his beard in the Dutch one - but then he does shave that off in the middle of the story.  It's such a different mood though  - but it's the same book.

Personally I'm all for  different types  of images on the covers . I don't mind a sexy passionate bedroom scene, or a more subtle, perhaps more tender scene. I think that the Harlequin  Presents  line indicates a mixture of both.  And, let's face it, 8 books with 8 covers of 8 heroes and 8 heroines in bed together - er - 4 couples separately, not all 8 in one bed!!) will inevitably  look rather 'samey' and uninteresting. And while that image might be suitable for one scene in a book - or perhaps a lot of another! - it doesn't actually represent the whole development of the story.  But then what cover can.

Which one do you like best?   What sort of cover art would make you want to pick up  a romance novel?

New cover reveal.

So after 48 hours of antibiotics, regular bathing of his neck good food, and a l-o-n-g sleep Charlie Rumpusscat (his full name!) is feeling so much better. He's celebrated getting rid of the cone of shame by running out of the house and up a crab apple tree. singing a song of joy as he goes. :-)



Or perhaps he's celebrating the fact that I've just been sent the image of the cover of my new book - Indebted to Moreno - which is coming at the end of September. Would you like to see it? It seems to have pleased Charlie.

More covers - but not mine this time!

It seems to be the month for new books/cover designs arriving here. As  you know, the Babe Magnet is a writer too. His books are mostly non-fiction.  Past titles have been about local history/ true crime  that sort of thing, but recently he's written  some biography  - and a new venture into fiction.

So the books that have been delivered have some very different sort of covers to the romance novels I've had.  It's always fascinating to see what other publishers' designers come up with.  The newest ones are these:

A Victorian Somebody - 
This is a new biography of the star of Gilbert and Sullivan's Savoy Operas when they first took the Victorian theatrical world by storm.
He was also perhaps more famous generally for his writing the classic work of English humour, The Diary of a Nobody.



And that fiction  book is Uncle Albert -

Everyone has an Uncle Albert somewhere in their family tree and he's usually the one having a quick smoke around the back while trying to think up a new get-rich-quick scheme that doesn't actually involve work. The sort of uncle who is wonderful to talk about unless he actually turns up on your doorstep carrying a still-moving sack and wearing a furtive look.

Uncle Albert is a nostalgic look at life in a small Yorkshire village when Tetley's Yorkshire Bitter was still made in Yorkshire and a pie and a pint with ketchup was at least two of your five-a-day.


As  the Babe Magnet says:    These tales are light and entertaining, going back to my Yorkshire roots. 

One thing about Uncle Albert that made me smile is that because  some of the language is is broad Yorkshire dialect,  there had  to be a glossary to make sure that everyone understands some of Albert's  sayings!

It's certainly been a month for special book deliveries  at this house - and I still haven't received the UK copies of  Olivero's Outrageus Proposal so I'll be looking out for them.

But I'm finding it fascinating how different covers can be.

UK Cover

At last I've found a copy of the UK cover for my April book - Olivero's Outrageous Proposal.

 It was up on Amazon today - so I thought I'd share with you -  and here it is:

What do you think? I'm sort of Hmmmm   about this one. 

Tall dark handsome hero - check

Villa in Italy - check  

Not at all sure  that Dario is the type to furnish his home with a  grandfather clock . . . But maybe it's the heroine's parents' house  where it would be more appropriate!

Heroine . .  .  err - "So this was Alyse Gregory. . . .She was tall, blonde, beautiful'"

Oh well!

At least the USA cover gets the colouring right!

So which do you prefer?

Cover changes

I'm always intrigued by new covers.   I always look forward to seeing the brand new  coves for each new book. (I don;t have any cover yet for Olivero's Outrageous Proposal but I'll share just as soon as I do)  But perhaps the most interesting  look at covers is when an older book is reprinted and reissued  - perhaps in  a 3 in 1 collection and then it gets a brand new cover which is totally unlike the previous one.

I have two reissues at the moment - one out now and one coming up and so I thought I'd share the covers with you - and the original covers these books had.

So the first one is out now  The book of mine that is in this reprint  is Kept For Her Baby  which was originally published in   2009.

Then the cover looked like this  -


So now it's reprinted in a  3 in 1  - Secret Love-Child  (with other books by Catherine Spencer and Tina Duncan)   It's  on  the shelves now.  And  this new edition looks like this.

Incidentally, Kept For Her Baby isn't really a 'secret love-child' story - both the hero and the heroine know exactly who the baby is  - but that's the name of the collection.

 The second reprint coming up is a republication of The Konstantos  Marriage Demand That's a book from  2010 - and it won the Romantic Times Best Presents Extra in that year.

When this book was originally published it had a cover that looked like this:
And now that it's reprinted it has a brand new cover that you can see at the top of this post - for the 3 in 1  Collection His Revenge Seduction  (with other titles by Melanie Milburne and Elizabeth Power.)

The two covers (for each book) are very different - just shows how things have changed in  a round  4 or 5 five years.

What do you think? Do you prefer the original covers ?  (You can see the Mills & Boon editions on the books' pages on my web site if you want to.)

Do you like the 3 in 1 collections that come out regularly\- the ones that are  called 'By Request' ?
Do you find it a good way to catch up on books you've missed - or get a copy of an old favorite?

Cover reveal

I've been waiting for ages to see what the cover of my  June book A Question of Honour  would be like. Over the years I've had some  great covers - and some not so great!   I was sent the cover of the USA Presents cover a month or so again    and I liked that  - it  has the atmosphere of the story - and the characters  (Karim and Clementina)  have the right colouring (not always the case!)

But I was waiting to see what the UK/M&B Modern cover was like. I found it last night on Amazon - and I have to say that I'm thrilled - I love it.  Again  Karim and Clementina look just right - but  this one has  more impact I think. More of the  right atmosphere - more  emotion.

It would make me want to pick this book off the shelves  anyway. I think it's a winner.

What do you think?  So- do you prefer  A Question of Honor (USA)? Or A Question of Honour (UK) ?

My lovely web designer Heather has been busy updating my web site  - so you can find more details about A Question of Honour/Honor - and read an excerpt on its  special page here 

Oh , and while I'm talking about covers, I also just got the cover for the 3 in 1 collection  Eligible Greeks: Sizzling Affairs  - which contains  a reprint of my  2010 book The Good Greek Wife. 

This one is out  on May 1st 2014.

A box full of heroes

The Babe Magnet and I have been away, visiting York. The sun actually shone, afternoon tea at Bettys was wonderful as always, and I managed a little shopping while he browsed the second hand bookshops.  His carrier bags were much heavier than mine - but my  contents were much  prettier!

Came home to find there had been a delivery - a box full of  heroes!  The UK editions  of A Throne For the Taking - library editions and paperback ones -

had arrived.  This is always a fantastic moment - to hold the copies of my latest in my hands. It's something ebooks will never replace.

But I'm still not sure about that waistcoat!

Incidentally, coming in August, there will be some changes to the Presents covers in America - about time I think - they needed a refresh. Some of the new covers are already appearing on Amazon so look out for those and see what you think.

Well - what do you think?

Last week,  I shared the USA Presents cover of my new book - A Throne for The Taking - with you.  (You can see it below if you missed it) 

I quite like it  - and the people who commented were pretty positive too. 

Now I have the UK cover  and  - er  - well I'm having a hard time trying to imagine my rebellious, emotionally scarred 'black sheep'  prince Alexei  in the cover image I've been given. So I'm posting it here for you to see this one too.

What do you think?

That Book - for Fiona

Over on my post on The Pink Heart Society, Fiona spotted an old M&B book on my desk  and wanted to know what it was. After a bit of hunting, I find that it's this book -  Call Up the Storn by Jane Donnelly - and I once mentioned it in  a discussion of covers. I thought then - and still do that the  alpha hero on this book looked more like Julian Clary than a modern day alpha!

Anyway, Fiona - this is the book you spotted.

New Cover

I'm leaving the last Countdown giveaway open for one more day - so if you want to be included in the draw for that please check out the previous post  and post a comment to enter.

In the meantime, I thought I'd share with you my recent discovery - my  latest cover - for The Devil and Miss Jones  which of course is coming out in March (March 2nd to be precise)

So now you can compare it with the USA Presents Extra version -

Which do you prefer? 

New Cover

Look what I found while browsing Amazon at the weekend - it's the Presents Extra cover of my next book - The Devil and Miss Jones.

It's a good cover - and it shows the Argentinian estancia setting of the second half of the book - but I was hoping for a cover with the evocative scene at the opening of the story  - the one that gave me my title for this novel.
But maybe the UK cover will come closer. I don't have any copy of that cover yet to show you - but I'll post it here as soon as I do.

You may have seen all the fuss and excitement about Sweetie and Sunshine, the two giant pandas and their arrival at Edingburgh Zoo. The TV coverage has been extensive - and Charlie the Maine Coon has loved every minute of it! He sits up and takes notice when ever the panadas appear on the television, watches intently while they are on - and goes back to sleep when the next item appears.

I wonder if Sweetie and Sunshine know that they have such a great feline fan. We'll have to hope that they do mate so that he can have some baby pandas to watch in the future

Return of The Stranger

A quick look at Amazon.com this morning brought me the discovery of my latest Presents cover  - the one for The Return of The Stranger - out in October  (October 4th according to Amazon - though I think that's a little early.)

It's interesting that when I know my editor had suggested a scene in the middle of the night - in a thunderstorm where my hero arrives at the heroine's house after he has been attacked, his shirt ripped, his face bruised, this is the result.,  She also did mention the emerald stud in one ear.  Which doesn't show on this or the UK M&B Modern cover.  Personally I'd rather have seen him look a bit more - ruffled,  a little less as if he's just come home from a business dinner.

So now I'm wondering - do you prefer the more rugged hero of the UK edition?   Just to remind you - that looks like this:

Which cover would grab you more?

The USA one seems to have a good setting - though we can't quite see it. It may show up well on the Australian cover and there is a look of passion about it -

But  would you rather a cover showed a more rough and ready hero image if that was his character in the book? Or if it suited the scene better?  And what abot the emerald stud?   A yes or a no?

I know which one make me think more of my hero - but which would make you take the book off the shelves?

New Year New Cover

I promised that I'd share the new cover of my next book just as soon as I saw a copy of it - well, here it is, from Amazon.

It's . . .different. I'm not sure about the books with just the heroine on the cover. And to be honest, I'm not at all sure what this elegant lady has to do with my fiery, red-headed Marina. Very differetn too from the Presents Extra cover - which does at least have the red hair my hero should have.

What do you think?

How are you liking the new UK covers?

Today is the first Sunday of the month so I'm blogging over at Tote Bags 'n' Blogs - with some thoughts sparked off by this new cover. Maybe I'll see you over there?

While I'm away . . .

I doubt very much that I'll find a moment to post while I'm at the RNA Conference - it's always pretty hectic - and fun! So here's one I prepared earlier to keep you occupied while I'm away.

In all the chaos of sick computers and workshop worries, I haven't mentioned the good news I had at the begining of the week. The latest book, with the Sicilian hero (remember him? Yes, I know, it was a l-o-ng time ago that I tweaked him and sent him off. ) - anyway - Pietro D'Inzeo (or rather his story) has been bought, scheduled and titled. Which means that I can tell you that his story will be published March 2011 under the title The Proud Wife.


You'll note the new type of title. Yes, the Greek Billionaire has claimed his last virgin and those 'how many buzzwords can you get into a single phrase' titles are being phased out. (Pause for a moment for loud cheering! ) and the new-style titles are coming in. The ones that, as editorial say, reflect the fact that Modern/Presents Romances are "big reads in little books .'



So you'll be seeing books with titles like these: The Bride Thief, The Society Wife, Reckless in Paradise, Giselle’s Choice, The Undoing of de Luca, The Man Behind the Mask, The Disgraced Princess, The Master of Bella Terra








And - the official announcement is still counting down on the M&B Makeover site so you'll need to watch there for all the details, but they are starting to appear on Amazon so I can let you have a little sneak peak at some of the new covers that are coming. There's only a few of the posted on the site yet - but the best way to illustrate them is to say that the final book in the mini-series of The Greek Tycoons Greek Myth series - Robyn Donald's book Powerful Greek, Housekeeper Wife will look like this - instead of the old-style cover for mine (which I've posted above for close comparison).

What do you think?

Where did the week go?

Is it just me or do you find that if you go away it takes longer to catch up than you were actually away for?

We had a wonderful weekend with Michelle Reid and her husband - the sun shone, we walked by the sea, ate wonderful meals, talked, laughed, talked some more. Michelle gave me an advance copy of her upcoming book - Mia's Scandal. This is the launch book for a new continuity The Balfour Legacy that starts in July. I'll have more info on that in a while and Michelle and I will be running a joint contest to mark the publication of our next books.

Mine of course will be The Good Greek Wife? and that's part of the mini-series The Greek Tycoons which has the shout line - Legends are Made of Men Like These! Some of the other books in the series are already out now and they are:

The Greek Tycoon's Achilles Heel by Lucy Gordon

The Power of the Legendary Greek by Catherine George

A Good Greek Wife? will be out in July

and the fourth book in the series will be

Powerful Greek, Housekeeper Wife by Robyn Donald (coming in September)

These dates are the UK ones. The first two books are out in Presents EXTRA in June and my book and Robyn's will also be Presents EXTRA in October.

Of course if you can't wait till then and you haven't already ready it, there's my other Greek book The Konstantos Marriage Demand still available on eHarlequin or Amazon. And as a sneak preview of good news, if you're buying from eHarlequin, from May 26th - May 31st they're running a BOGOF (buy one get one free) sale - so you could get twice the number of books for your money!

If you're in America, have you noticed the changes that have happened in the Presents line-up lately? This is how it was announced over on I Heart Presents:

On another note I wanted to talk to you, our most avid fans, about a recent change that you may have noticed within the Harlequin Presents line. In the month of May there are a few less Presents stories available than you may be used to, instead of 8 titles per month we will now be publishing 6 titles each month. We decided on this change for a few different reasons as we felt very strongly that we weren’t being fair to our authors or readers; with so many titles out there we noticed it was becoming difficult for our readers to keep up and we didn’t want anyone to miss out on any of the fantastic stories that were being offered.

The other change in the line-up is that the Presents titles that were originally Modern Heat/Harlequin Sexy in the UK and Australia will now be brought out in special collections in Presents Extra in America.

There will still be 4 Harlequin Presents Extras on-sale mid-month. Two of these will be regular Presents titles and two of them will be books that have been published in Modern Heat in the UK - these will now appear in their separate 'collection' in the Presents Extra instead of being in the first strand of publication when it wasn't easy to tell which ones had this rather different editorial content.

You should be able to tell them more simply now with the titles to the collections - Modern Heats will be in the ones with titles like Sex in The City/P.S. I'm Pregnant/Conveniently Wedded . . .And Bedded

And the traditional Presents authors' books will be in collections like: The Greek Tycoons/Her Irresistible Boss/British Bachelors. So there will still be 8 great 'traditional' Presents books each month - just split over the two lines.

Will this help you find the type of books you're looking for? And American readers - are you finding it easy to get hold of copies of the Presents Extras you want? OR even to get the info on which books are out in that line-up each month?

Oh yes - and talking about changes - there are some coming up in the UK lines as well. The number of books in the Modern line will be reduced to 8 - 4 in each two-weekly line-up and there are some BIG changes coming in the way the books will look.

I can't tell you more just yet but watch this space and you'll find out . . . (but looking at Michelle's book cover up above should give you a clue)