The Art of Book Cover Design for Historical Fiction

*This is an older post, but it remains so popular that I keep it pinned here on the main page.*

I had the pleasure of speaking on The Art of Book Cover Design panel at the Historical Novel Society conference last June with Emily Victorson from Allium Press, Sarah Johnson from Reading the Past, Anna Michels from Sourcebooks, and Kris Waldherr from Art and Words. We each presented on different aspects of designing historical fiction covers, and my task was to discuss my approach and trends in the genre. In case you missed it, or if you attended and would like to have a copy of your own, here is my portion of the presentation!

L to R: Anna, Kris, myself, and Sarah

The first thing I do when working on a cover is determine the genre or subgenre and the target audience, and then I spend some time browsing through the bestsellers to see which covers are selling books and what they look like. It’s important that you pay attention to cover trends when creating yours. You may think your cover is going to stand out because it’s so different from others in the genre, but that approach can often backfire. Cover trends exist in the first place because they sell books. Readers of a genre are used to seeing a certain style of cover, and if your cover doesn’t even come close, they may very well skip over it, thinking it’s not the type of book they like to read. So the trick is crafting a cover that falls within the trends in the genre while standing out and catching the eye of your target reader. 

So with that being said, I want to briefly touch on some popular trends in today’s historical fiction covers. A significant portion of the historical fiction market is targeted toward women, so that’s where we’ll begin.

So let’s start with the trend readers either seem to love or hate: The Headless Woman. This trend is popular because the heroine in a reader’s imagination rarely matches a real-life depiction on the cover. So it gives us a chance to envision what her face looks like and also adds an air of mystery. (Check out Sarah's portion of the presentation for the original headless woman cover that started the trend!)

No Touch Zone

Please join me in congratulating G.K. Brady on the publication of No Touch Zone, sixth book in the Playmaker Series! I had the pleasure of working with G.K. on a developmental edit and a copyedit, and I designed the cover. Here's the book description:

Dana “Mac” McPherson is a goaltender without a job, a team, or a city. Until he lands in Denver as a backup goalie. He should be happy, but he’s not. Not only is his new job a step down from the starting goaltender position he’s used to, even worse, he’s uprooting his family from the only home they’ve ever known—and he’s doing it as a widowed single dad of two young children.

Mac decides the move to a new city is the perfect chance to hit the reset button and recapture a slice of his younger self when he was a ladies’ man. But he’s a little out of practice. So when he meets Mia Morales, the dark-eyed beauty helping him and his family find their Denver house, he decides she’s the perfect woman to help him sharpen his skills.

Burned out on her job, her family in turmoil, Mia doesn’t need to add another twist in her already complicated life—like her hunky new client. Mac isn’t just a twist: he’s a huge wrinkle she needs to keep in the client zone because his halting boyish charm threatens to expose her carefully cloistered heart.

Fate has a way of scrambling plans, and as Mac and Mia are continually thrown together, their attraction becomes bigger than both of them. When Mac decides Mia’s more than a candidate to practice his imagined playboy moves on, his determined mother-in-law steps in with an agenda of her own. Meanwhile, Mia struggles to balance the weight of family and job. Her heart’s not all she has to lose if she gives in to her desire to be with Mac.

The path to Mac and Mia’s happily-ever-after is littered with hip-checking hurdles. Some are of their own making, but others are barriers put up by those with a desire to keep them apart. Will they be able to skate around the barricades blocking their way and make it to the goal line, or will they veer so far off the path that they lose out on their happy ending?

No Touch Zone is available now in ebook and print editions on Amazon. Add it to your shelves on Goodreads, and visit G.K.'s website for the scoop on her upcoming projects!

Need an editor or cover designer?
Email me anytime to chat about your project!
jennyq@historicaleditorial.com

Wilde Wagers

Please join me in congratulating Elizabeth Caulfield Felt on the publication of Wilde Wagers! I had the pleasure of designing the cover. Here's the book description:

Wagering is all the rage in late Victorian England. Oscar Wilde bets that actress Olivia Snow can fool a group of country bumpkins into believing she is Genevieve Lamb, the wealthy beauty of the recent Season. The weekend will prove a challenge for the old-fashioned actress and Genevieve's handsome and old-fashioned brother, Philip, because the manor is filled with all sorts of ridiculous and eccentric characters, as well as one murderous criminal. While Olivia pretends to be Genevieve, Genevieve wagers on her own performance--as Olivia Snow. She and Oscar Wilde go out on the town, a decision that will have both wishing they'd stayed at home and played cribbage.

These two charades take unexpected turns during a wild weekend of kidnapping, cucumber sandwiches, bee stings, and love. This Oscar Wilde-esque romance-mystery-comedy will keep you guessing--and craving teacake.

Wilde Wagers is available in ebook and print editions on Amazon, Smashwords, Barnes & Noble, and Kobo. Add it to your shelves on Goodreads, and visit Elizabeth's website for more information on her books and reading recommendations.

Need a cover designer?

Email me anytime to chat about your project!

jennyq@historicaleditorial.com

The Magician

Please join me in congratulating Kathleen Shoop on the publication of her newest historical novel, The Magician, Book Three in the Donora Story Collection, based on the true story of baseball legend Stan Musial! I had the pleasure of providing Kathie with some copyediting assistance, and I designed the cover. Here's the book description:

Donora 2019

Ninety-two year old Patryk Rusek is on the run, bath-towel flying off, with nothing but his new Nikes to carry him to freedom. His plan to escape from Blue Horizon Retirement Community is in motion. Except his great-grandson Owen isn’t at the pickup point. Resigned to his fate, Patryk returns to his room and reads from his incredible hand-drawn chronicle of Donora, luring half the nursing home’s employees and residents into the room, mesmerizing them with childhood tales of Stan F. Musial, beloved baseball hall of famer.

Donora 1920

Mary Musial is expecting again. After four daughters, her husband Lukasz is losing hope for a son. But Jupiter is rising when Stanisław Franciszek Musiał is born on November 21, 1920, and the midwife predicts he will live an extraordinary life. Young Stanley’s physical talents show themselves at the Polish Falcons and on the baseball field. But rather than pride, Lukasz’s spirits plummet after mill injuries turn his American dream into a living nightmare.

When the Depression hits and the mills close, tension grips every Donora household. Meanwhile as Stan matures, he draws attention from the press, college coaches, and professional baseball scouts. Suddenly his singular dream is set against options he’d never imagined. Every choice threatens to disappoint coaches, teachers, his girlfriend, and most of all his parents. Even with the talent to achieve his goals, doubt creeps in. Can he find the courage to leave everything he knows and all the people he loves to fulfill his destiny? Or will he wait too long and risk it all?

The Magician is available now in ebook and print editions on Amazon. Add it to your shelves on Goodreads, and visit Kathleen's website for more information on all of her books, including more in the Donora Story Collection.

Need an editor or cover designer?
Email us anytime to chat about your project!
info@historicaleditorial.com

Promise Dream

Please join me in congratulating Lee Evie on the publication of Promise Dream, book three in the Promise Series! I had the pleasure of helping Lee design the cover. Here's the book description:

In old Korea, a gisaeng slave girl is sold to a nobleman against her will. Left with no choice, she must trust a vicious bodyguard with a dangerous secret.

JOSEON KOREA

Rain hisses across the rooftops of the Pavilion, Hanyang’s greatest entertainment house. Within its stifling walls, a lonely gisaeng slave girl strives to hold together the scattering pieces of her life and protect a dangerous secret.

When a mysterious lord buys her as his unwilling concubine, Jan-sil must decide if she has the courage to deceive him. Her very survival hangs in the balance.

Yet as they journey together through a perilous world of rain and mist, Jan-sil’s loyalties begin to waver. To protect her secret, she turns to a vicious bodyguard, who might be her last chance at freedom.

A dark, romantic story of old Korea.

Promise Dream is available now in ebook and print editions on Amazon. Add it to your shelves on Goodreads, visit Lee's website for her blog posts and podcasts about Korean history.

Need a cover designer?
Email me anytime to chat about your project!
jennyq@historicaleditorial.com

Paris in Ruins

Please join me in congratulating M.K. Tod on the publication of her newest historical novel, Paris in Ruins! I had the pleasure of offering some early developmental assistance, Jessica Cale provided some copyediting assistance, and I designed the cover. Here's the book description:

Paris 1870. Raised for a life of parties and servants, Camille and Mariele have much in common, but it takes the horrors of war to bring them together to fight for the city and people they love.

A few weeks after the abdication of Napoleon III, the Prussian army lays siege to Paris. Camille Noisette, the daughter of a wealthy family, volunteers to nurse wounded soldiers and agrees to spy on a group of radicals plotting to overthrow the French government. Her future sister-in-law, Mariele de Crécy, is appalled by the gaps between rich and poor. She volunteers to look after destitute children whose families can barely afford to eat.

Somehow, Camille and Mariele must find the courage and strength to endure months of devastating siege, bloody civil war, and great personal risk. Through it all, an unexpected friendship grows between the two women as they face the destruction of Paris and discover that in war women have as much to fight for as men.

War has a way of teaching lessons—if only Camille and Mariele can survive long enough to learn them.

Paris in Ruins is available in ebook and print editions on Amazon. Add it to your shelves on Goodreads, and visit M.K.'s website for more information on all of her books and posts on writing historical fiction.

Need a cover designer?

Email me anytime to chat about your project!

jennyq@historicaleditorial.com

Cadence to Glory

Please join me in congratulating Mary Beth Dearmon on the re-release of Cadence to Glory with a brand new cover! I had the pleasure of helping Mary Beth with the redesign. Here's the book description:

The year is 1773, and rumors of revolution abound. The return of the wealthy Eton family to Williamsburg, Virginia, however, briefly distracts the town's elite.

The youngest Eton son, Thomas, thus reunites with Priscilla Parr, his childhood friend and the now-cynical daughter of a proud Loyalist family. Thomas learns to admire her scathing wit while Priscilla finds herself drawn to his ambitious idealism. He soon introduces her to the radical principles of liberty, the fuel of the colonial rebellion.

On the eve of Revolution, however, fate turns against the young lovers, whose families are politically opposed. As the ideological forces within her own home begin to parallel the clash between Britain and the Colonies, Priscilla is unexpectedly faced with a dangerous decision between two rivaling ideals—and destinies.

Set against a backdrop of intrigue, espionage, treachery, and romance, Cadence to Glory thus chronicles the deepening schism within the Parr family. By exploring the ancient conflicts between youth and age, conviction and neutrality, self-interest and principle, the novel speculates that liberty itself is as natural and inevitable as the coming of age.

Cadence to Glory is available in ebook and print editions on Amazon, and you can add it to your shelves on Goodreads.

Need a cover designer?
Email me anytime to chat about your project!
jennyq@historicaleditorial.com

The Apple King

Please join me in congratulating Barbara Anne King on the publication of her newest historical novel, The Apple King! I had the pleasure of helping Barbara design the cover. Here's the book description:

A successful immigrant keeps a shameful secret. Will his past stop him from aiding his birth-country’s freedom?

In 1881, Nikola Markovich’s ambitions took him from poverty in Croatia to pursuing his dreams in America. And despite a rocky start, the determined foreigner finds his fortune in the booming apple business. But years later, his sinful burden resurfaces when he hears word of his homeland’s fight for independence.

As conflict brews in Europe, Markovich can no longer stand by and watch Croatia’s desperate struggle. But when a Slavic diplomat comes to town to lobby for assistance, Markovich is shocked to discover a connection to his hidden disgrace that tears his loyalty in two.

Can the remorseful man put aside his checkered past and help his people rise from the ashes of war?

The Apple King is a riveting standalone historical novel. If you like morally driven characters, multi-generational stories, and epic struggles for justice, then you’ll love Barbara Anne King’s inspiring saga. 

The Apple King is available in ebook and print editions on Amazon, and you can add it to your shelves on Goodreads.

Need a cover designer?
Email me anytime to chat about your project!
jennyq@historicaleditorial.com

The Importance of Pawns

Please join me in congratulating Keira Morgan on the publication of her debut historical novel, The Importance of Pawns, Book One in the Chronicles of the House of Valois. I had the pleasure of helping Keira design the cover. Here's the book description:

Based on historical events and characters in sixteenth-century France, this timeless tale pits envy, power and intrigue against loyalty and the strength of women’s friendships.

Although the French court dazzles on the surface, beneath its glitter, danger lurks for the three women trapped in its coils as power shifts from one regime to the next. The story begins as Queen Anne lies dying and King Louis’s health declines. Their two daughters, Claude and young Renée, heiresses to the rich duchy of Brittany, become pawns in the game of control.

Countess Louise d’Angoulême is named guardian to both girls. For years she has envied the dying Queen Anne, the girls’ mother. Because of her family’s dire financial problems, she schemes to marry wealthy Claude to her son. This unexpected guardianship presents a golden opportunity, but only if she can remove their protectress, Baronne Michelle, who loves the princesses and safeguards their interests.

As political tensions rise, the futures of Princess Renée and Baronne hang in the balance, threatened by Countess Louise’s plots.

Will timid Claude untangle the treacherous intrigues Countess Louise is weaving? Will Baronne Michelle and Claude outflank the wily countess to protect young Princess Renée? And can Claude find the courage to defend those she loves?

The Importance of Pawns is available in ebook and print editions on Amazon. Add it to your shelves on Goodreads, and visit Keira's website for more information about this book and her nonfiction, book reviews, author interviews, and blog posts about the French Renaissance.

Need a cover designer?
Email me anytime to chat about your project!
jennyq@historicaleditorial.com

Find the Wind's Eye

Please join me in congratulating Alton Fletcher on the publication of his debut historical novel, Find the Wind's Eye! I had the pleasure of helping Alton design the cover. Here's the book description:

In 1854 Boston, Third Lieutenant Andrew Gunn of the United States Revenue Cutter Service questions the president’s direct order to extradite a fugitive slave, Anthony Burns, back to Virginia aboard his ship—a lawful order that he believes is immoral and unjust. Torn between his own reverence for freedom as an American and his sworn duty, Gunn suffers the hazards of hard choices that threaten his own life, liberty, and happiness. His first real exposure to the scourge of slavery brings chaos to his ordered life, despite his desperate attempts to control it.

Set aboard a small ship in the midst of a gathering political storm, FIND THE WIND'S EYE is a timely, moving story about a man of principle trying to find his way in a fast-changing, increasingly ambivalent world. He strives to do the right thing while struggling with the ugly truth of his own complicity in the national sin of slavery. Based on actual events surrounding the trial of Anthony Burns. A rousing sea story in the tradition of C. S. Forester and Patrick O'Brian.

Find the Wind's Eye is available in ebook and print editions on Amazon. Add it to your shelves on Goodreads, and visit Alton's website for more information about the book and his blog posts, essays, and poetry.

Need a cover designer?

Email me anytime to chat about your project!

jennyq@historicaleditorial.com

The Bareknuckle Groom

Please join me in congratulating Holly Bush on the publication of her newest historical romance, The Bareknuckle Groom, the second book in her Thompsons of Locust Street series! I had the pleasure of providing some copyediting assistance, and I designed the cover. Here's the book description:

Meet the Thompsons of Locust Street, an unconventional family taking Philadelphia high society by storm . . .

1869. Bareknuckle champion James Thompson is confident his future continues with beautiful women and victories in the boxing ring. Men admire his skills, power, and quick fists and are more than willing to bet their hard-earned coins on his name. Women admire his handsome face, his undaunted confidence, and his powerful body. Nothing will change his successfully plotted course, until…

Lucinda Vermeal arrives on the Philadelphia social scene when her father moves them to the city in the hopes that his only daughter will find a suitable partner. After all, her husband will be intimately involved with Vermeal Industries, whose business interests and political connections touch France, England, and all of the United States. Lucinda’s pale statuesque beauty attracts the finest of Philadelphia’s young men, but her cool and reserved attitude keep them at arm’s length. Until she meets a man willing to challenge her at every turn.

Will James Thompson expose Lucinda's passionate nature like no other man ever could?

The Bareknuckle Groom is available in ebook and print editions on Amazon. Add it to your shelves on Goodreads, and visit Holly's website for more information on all of her books.

Need a cover designer?

Email me anytime to chat about your project!

jennyq@historicaleditorial.com

The Steel Beneath the Silk

Please join me in congratulating Patricia Bracewell on the publication of The Steel Beneath the Silk, the highly anticipated third book in the Emma of Normandy Trilogy. I had the pleasure of helping Pat design the cover. Here's the book description:

A breathtaking conclusion to Bracewell’s Emma of Normandy Trilogy, brimming with treachery, heartache, tenderness and passion as the English queen confronts ambitious and traitorous councilors, invading armies and the Danish king’s power-hungry concubine.

In the year 1012 England’s Norman-born Queen Emma has been ten years wed to an aging, ruthless, haunted King Æthelred. The marriage is a bitterly unhappy one, between a queen who seeks to create her own sphere of influence within the court and a suspicious king who eyes her efforts with hostility and resentment. But royal discord shifts to grudging alliance when Cnut of Denmark, with the secret collusion of his English concubine Elgiva, invades England at the head of a massive viking army. Amid the chaos of war, Emma must outwit a fierce enemy whose goal is conquest and outmaneuver the cunning Elgiva, who threatens all those whom Emma loves.

The Steel Beneath the Silk is available in ebook and print editions on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and Apple Books. Add it to your shelves on Goodreads, and visit Pat's website for more information on her books and her blog posts about history.

Need a cover designer?

Email me anytime to chat about your project!

jennyq@historicaleditorial.com

Now and Then Stab

Please join me in congratulating Anna Castle on the publication of her newest historical mystery, Now and Then Stab, Book Seven in the Francis Bacon Mystery series. I had the pleasure of offering Anna some copyediting assistance, and I designed the cover. Here's the book description:

Spring, 1593. A ballad is posted in the heart of London inciting violence. The Lord Mayor offers one hundred crowns for the name of the author. Thomas Clarady wants that money and drags Francis Bacon into the game. At first it’s just a riddle to be solved. Tom talks to poets, while Francis analyzes the verse.

Things take a dangerous turn when the authorities focus on two popular playmakers. One is cruelly tortured. Another is killed in dubious circumstances. Did he start a brawl that ended in tragedy? Or was he murdered by his dinner companions? The official story seems plausible, at first. But Tom doesn’t buy it. Distraught at the death of his friend, he refuses stop digging, uncovering a plot he should have left buried.

Francis Bacon and his team hazard their lives and reputations to determine the truth. Whether justice can ever be obtained is another matter.

Now and Then Stab is available now in print and ebook formats on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and Apple Books. Add it to your shelves on Goodreads, and check out Anna's website, where she blogs about her research and writing historical fiction set in England. Anna is also appearing at the Historical Novel Society North America virtual conference in June!

Need an editor or cover designer?
Email me anytime to chat about your project!
jennyq@historicaleditorial.com

Bold, Bright Spirit

Please join me in congratulating Martin Lake on the publication of his newest historical novel, Bold, Bright Spirit! I had the pleasure of helping Martin design the cover. Here's the book description:

Miriam Rosenfeld is fifteen years old. Almost an adult yet still a child, craving independence while needing support, truculent and loving, exasperating and a joy. Typical in so many ways.

Except the year is 1940; Miriam is a Jew and lives in Nazi Germany. Life is terrifying, especially as her younger brother, Oscar, has Down’s Syndrome and is, therefore, targeted by the Nazis for extermination.

When Oscar is caught by the police, their parents fight to save him, their mother is savagely beaten and their father killed. Their mother's last words to Miriam are to take care of Oscar and flee.

Miriam and Oscar embark on a journey across the continent to an aunt they have never seen. It calls on all of Miriam’s intelligence, resourcefulness and determination, all her boldness and spirit. Every step they take is dogged by the menace of an ever-expanding Nazi empire.

And finally, when she believes that that they are safe, Miriam agrees to return to Germany to discover the secret of the Nazi’s terror weapons. And there she discovers something that will haunt her forever.

Bold, Bright Spirit is available in ebook and print editions on Amazon and Amazon UK. Add it to your shelves on Goodreads, and visit Martin's website for information on all of his books and his interviews with fellow historical fiction writers.

Need a cover designer?

Email me anytime to chat about your project!

jennyq@historicaleditorial.com

Light and Shadow at Pemberley

Please join me in congratulating Lee Elliott on the publication of Light and Shadow at Pemberley: A Sequel to Pride and Prejudice! I had the pleasure of helping Lee design the cover. Here's the book description:

Pride and Prejudice concludes with two weddings and the expectation of perfect felicity, but it’s far from the end of the story…

The following summer is blissfully happy for Darcy and Elizabeth, who have retreated from London society to enjoy time alone at Pemberley during the early months of their marriage. As they are making preparations for an autumn journey to Scotland, word comes that Lady Catherine has fallen ill, and the Darcys hasten to Rosings.  

After Anne de Bourgh’s hopes of marrying Darcy are shattered, her mother, Lady Catherine, is furious, and Anne is set thoroughly on the shelf. But her mother’s illness allows Anne to finally escape her oppressive rule. As her cousin Colonel Fitzwilliam is the first to discover, Anne is a much more interesting and tenacious young lady than her family had ever imagined. When she travels to the Scottish Highlands with Darcy and Elizabeth, Anne’s transformation begins, but does she have the courage to fight for love and freedom?

At Pemberley, Darcy’s friend John Grey is cataloging the library, enjoying a respite from a life of adventure. Grey is a scientist, explorer, and the son of an infamous nobleman. He falls in love with Lady Margaret, a neighbor of the Darcys. The two young people seem perfectly suited to each other, but will a tragic secret keep them apart?

As friends gather at Pemberley, shadows begin to threaten the luminous harmony of the great house. Darcy and Elizabeth’s happiness is compromised by something unspoken, a reticence that could have devastating consequences. Misunderstandings arise between Anne and the man she loves. John Grey and Lady Margaret seem destined to be separated forever. Can the shadows be vanquished and the light of Pemberley restored?

Light and Shadow at Pemberley is available in ebook and print editions on Amazon. Add it to your shelves on Goodreads, and visit Lee's website for more information on her books!

Need a cover designer?

Email me anytime to chat about your project!

jennyq@historicaleditorial.com

Out of the Bower

Please join me in congratulating A.E. Walnofer on the publication of Out of the Bower! I had the pleasure of helping A.E. design the cover. Here's the book description:

London, 1817: Celia Woodlow is trapped in Titania’s Bower, a brothel disguised as a coffee house. She is wretchedly resigned to this fate until high-spirited Honora Goodwin appears. Shared tragedy quickly bonds them in friendship and they determine to flee the Bower together, though they wonder at their survival outside its walls.

Suddenly, Honora vanishes without a word, and Celia is left feeling betrayed and hopeless.

Barclay Durbin, a young street preacher, desires little more than to help London’s destitute masses. After he encounters Honora, injured in her flight from the Bower, he comes to believe she is divinely appointed to become his wife.

Honora knows that encouraging the good-hearted gentleman’s attentions may prove to ensure her future security, but she is intent on liberating Celia. Telling Barclay only parts of her own story, Honora enlists the besotted young man to help her.

When their plan goes awry, Honora realizes that only the truth can deliver them from the emotional and societal maelstrom in which they find themselves. But what will become of Honora and Barclay’s budding attachment? And will Celia ever gain her freedom?

Out of the Bower tells the tale of a forbidden romance, an ardent friendship, and the ever-essential redemption of self.

Out of the Bower is available in ebook and print editions on Amazon. Add it to your shelves on Goodreads, and visit A.E.'s website for more information on all of her books.

Need a cover designer?

Email me anytime to chat about your project!

jennyq@historicaleditorial.com

Defending the Reaper

Please join me in congratulating G.K. Brady on the publication of Defending the Reaper, fifth book in the Playmaker Series! I had the pleasure of working with G.K. on a developmental edit and a copyedit, and I designed the cover. Here's the book description:

Blizzard captain Dave Grimson’s life is as tangled as a wad of skate laces—and it’s a mess of his own making. Used to being in charge, “the Grim Reaper” has become the team leader in name only. Adding insult to injury, he finds himself dumped and single. Though he’s determined to piece his life back together, it’s time to leave his team and his city behind. What he needs is a trade and a fresh start. Dating? He’s leaving that behind too, until he collides with Ellie Hendricks. Literally. 

Ellie is fighting to keep her landscaping company afloat before it gets buried under the mountain of debt her ex left behind. The last thing she needs is Dave Grimson crashing into her life. Besides, Dave is big and growly and so not her type—even if she did have time to give him a second look. Which she doesn’t.

Dave’s determined to make up for the damage his careless behavior has caused Ellie. What begins as a good intention, however, leads somewhere he never expected, and his well-guarded heart starts to show some cracks. Ellie’s unlike any woman he’s ever known. She’s unimpressed by his money, his celebrity, and him. All she wants from Dave is to have her van fixed. But he didn’t get where he is by backing away from challenges, and he’s not backing away from this one either—until he has to face-off against his demons. 

As Dave lowers his defenses, Ellie catches a glimpse of something tender—and very compelling. But Dave has secrets he’s locked away, and she can’t solve them or his mixed signals. To understand Dave’s every unspoken word, she’s going to have to read between the lines.

Keeping it casual is the smart play, but Dave and Ellie’s mutual attraction won’t be denied, and it pulls them into the deep end … until those secrets come home to roost, threatening to crush the shaky trust they’ve built. Can they keep their heads above water, or will they be caught in a surge that drowns them both? 

Defending the Reaper is available now in ebook and print editions on Amazon. Add it to your shelves on Goodreads, and visit G.K.'s website for the scoop on her upcoming projects!

Need an editor or cover designer?
Email me anytime to chat about your project!
jennyq@historicaleditorial.com

The London Monster

Please join me in congratulating Donna Scott on the publication of her second historical novel, The London Monster! I had the pleasure of designing the cover. Here's the book description:

In 1788, exactly one hundred years before Jack the Ripper terrorizes the people of London, a sexual miscreant known as the London Monster roams the streets in search of his next victim…

Thomas Hayes, having lost his mother in a vicious street assault, becomes an underground pugilist on a mission to rid the streets of violent criminals. But his vigilante actions lead to him being mistaken for the most terrifying criminal of all.

Assistance arrives in the form of Sophie Carlisle, a young journalist with dreams of covering a big story, though she is forced to masquerade as a man to do it. Trapped in an engagement to a man she doesn’t love, Sophie yearns to break free to tell stories that matter about London’s darker side—gaming, prostitution, violence—and realizes Tom could be the one to help. Together, they come up with a plan.

Straddling the line between his need for vengeance and the need to hide his true identity as a politician's son becomes increasingly difficult as Tom is pressured to win more fights. The more he wins, the more notoriety he receives, and the greater the chance his identity may be exposed—a revelation that could jeopardize his father’s political aspirations and destroy his family’s reputation.

Sophie is also in danger as hysteria spreads and the attacks increase in severity and frequency. No one knows who to trust, and no one is safe—Tom included, yet he refuses to end the hunt.

Little does he realize, the monster is also hunting him.

The London Monster is available now in ebook and print editions on Amazon. Add it to your shelves on Goodreads, and visit Donna's website for the scoop on her forthcoming novels!

Need a cover designer?
Email me anytime to chat about your project!
jennyq@historicaleditorial.com

Ride with the Moonlight

 Please join me in congratulating Andrea Matthews on the publication of Ride with the Moonlight, book two in the Thunder on the Moor series! I had the pleasure of working with Andrea on a copyedit, and I designed the cover. Here's the book description:

After rescuing sixteenth-century Border reiver Will Foster from certain death at her family’s hands, time traveler Maggie Armstrong finally admits her love for the handsome Englishman, though she can’t rid herself of the sinking suspicion that her Scottish kin are not about to let them live in peace. What she doesn’t expect is the danger that lurks on Will’s own side of the Border.

When news of their plans to marry reaches the warden, he charges Will with March treason for trysting with a Scot. Will and Maggie attempt to escape by fleeing to the hills, but when Will is declared an outlaw and allowed to be killed on sight, they can no longer evade the authorities. Will is sentenced to hang, while Maggie is to be sent back to her family. Heartbroken, she has no choice but to return to Scotland, where her uncle continues to make plans for her to wed Ian Rutherford, the wicked Scotsman who she now realizes murdered her father in cold blood. With Will facing the gallows in England, and herself practically under house arrest in Scotland, she continues to resist her uncle’s plans, but her efforts are thwarted at every turn.

Will’s family, however, is not about to stand by and watch their youngest lad executed simply because he’s lost his heart to a Scottish lass. A daring plan is set into motion, but will it be in time to save Will’s life and reunite the lovers? Or will Ian’s lies prompt Maggie’s family to ensure the bond between them is forever destroyed?

Ride with the Moonlight is available now in ebook and print editions on Amazon. Add it to your shelves on Goodreads, and visit Andrea's website for tons of great historical information and a peek behind the scenes of her books.

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Across the Great Divide: The Search

 Please join me in congratulating Michael L. Ross on the publication of The Search, sequel to Clouds of War in the Across the Great Divide series. I had the privilege of working with Mike on a developmental edit and a copyedit, and I designed the cover. Here's the book description:

Where do you go when home is no longer an option?

The guns of the Civil War have ceased firing, and the shots are but an echo . . . yet the war rages on, deep inside Will Crump's soul. His "soldier's heart" is searching for peace, and in that quest Will joins the westward movement, setting his path on a collision course with adventure, loss, and love.

The Westward Expansion floods the sacred, untouched lands with immigrants, bringing conflict to the Shoshone, Sioux, Cheyenne, and Arapaho. Amidst the chaos Will finds safety in the shadow of the US Army, but the army brings battle-hardened troops into Red Cloud's War, pulling Will into a tornado of conflict. Broken treaties and promises leave both sides searching for answers. Will's search leads him to a battle for survival, and there he finds a love that could change him forever.

Dove, a young Shoshone woman, is a survivor of the Bear Creek Massacre. After being kidnapped and escaping from the Cheyenne, she joins Will's search, seeking where she belongs. Dove longs for more than the restricted role placed on women in her tribe. If she can learn to trust a white man, he just might help her find home... and hope.

Together, Will and Dove must search for understanding, and reach Across the Great Divide.

Across the Great Divide: The Search is available in ebook and print editions on Amazon. Add it to your shelves on Goodreads, and visit Michael's website for his fascinating historical blog posts.

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Pathway to Home

Please join me in congratulating Pat Wahler on the publication of Pathway to Home, book three in the Becker Family series! I had the pleasure of working with Pat in designing the cover. Here's the book description:

An unexpected revelation sends her on a journey…

After her mother’s death, Mira Gordon learns a shocking secret. Could it be true she has a family she never knew existed? She is compelled to put her sorrow and her dream of owning a pastry shop on hold, in a venture that will take her from Key West to Kansas City. What Mira discovers will change her life forever.

Aiden Stewart, a widower and firefighter, struggles to reimagine the future while single parenting his young daughter. When he meets the lovely but determined redhead from the Keys, she catches his eye… and tugs his heart. But Aiden senses there is more to Mira than she’s telling him, and fears the possibility of a new heartbreak.

Can Mira and Aiden move past the pain of grief to claim a new love?

Pathway to Home is available now in ebook and print formats on Amazon! Add it to your shelves on Goodreads, and visit Pat's website for the scoop on all of her books.

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A Hussar's Promise

 Please join me in congratulating Griffin Brady on the publication of A Hussar's Promise, sequel to her debut historical novel, The Heart of a Hussar! I had the pleasure of working with Griffin on a developmental edit and a copyedit, and I designed the cover. Here's the book description:

Betrayed by the lord he has served since boyhood, Jacek Dąbrowski, captain of winged hussars, has just been exiled to a remote fortress along the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth’s southeastern border—a dangerous no man’s land where reviled Tatar raiders constantly hunt for fresh slaves to satisfy the Ottoman Empire’s insatiable appetites.

But Jacek’s lord, Eryk Krezowski of Biaska, has taken far more—he has also taken Jacek’s only love, Oliwia, for himself. Determined to forget Oliwia and Eryk, Jacek grinds out a new life in the war zone that is now his home. When tragedy strikes and he is called back, he cannot refuse and must once again confront those who have betrayed him. 

Once a Russian peasant, Lady Oliwia Krezowska has risen to a lofty perch she never sought. The reluctant lady of a vast estate, Oliwia has everything a woman could want—except Jacek, the only man she’s ever loved. Even if she weren’t bound to Eryk by marriage, she has no hope of recapturing Jacek’s heart—his bitter hatred toward her is an impenetrable wall.

Upon Jacek’s return to Biaska, secrets are revealed and he realizes much of what he once believed is wrong. He embarks upon yet another mission with newfound purpose, only to be confronted by an enemy he never saw coming. Just as one dream is realized, another is shattered. Jacek’s fortitude will be tested again and again as he endures battles no man should in an effort to reclaim his life and his love.

Meanwhile, a different foe, one who was but a shadow of a threat before, continues to grow, becoming more powerful every day. That enemy’s sole quest is to destroy Biaska, including Oliwia and everyone she loves.

Though worlds apart, Jacek and Oliwia are in the battles of their lives—for their lives—from which neither may survive. 

A Hussar's Promise is available in ebook and print editions on Amazon. Add it to your shelves on Goodreads, and visit Griffin's website for more information about the winged hussars and her contemporary romance series!

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Christmas at Hembry Castle

Please join me in congratulating Meredith Allard on the publication of Christmas at Hembry Castle, a companion novella to her popular Hembry Castle series! I had the pleasure of helping Meredith design the cover. Here's the book description:

You are cordially invited to

Christmas at Hembry Castle

An unlikely earl struggles with his new place. A young couple’s love is tested. What is a meddling ghost to do? Travel back to Victorian England and enjoy the joys, the challenges, and the festive holiday celebrations with Edward, Daphne, Frederick, and the other beloved characters at Hembry Castle. 

Christmas at Hembry Castle is available in ebook and print editions on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and Kobo. Add it to your shelves on Goodreads, and visit Meredith's website for more information on all of her books.

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The Six Marriages of Henry VIII Part One: His Wives

Please join me in congratulating Janet Wertman on the publication of her newest book, The Six Marriages of Henry VIII, Part One: His Wives, translated from the original French version first published in 1878. I had the pleasure of designing the cover. Here's the book description:

Originally published in 1878, The Six Marriages of Henry VIII is like the farcical love child of The Spanish Chronicle and Agnes Strickland, uniting Agnes’ pretense at biography with the Spanish Chronicle’s tendency to “bring some scenes to life.” Oh, and it’s all told in the snark of Charles de Marillac, the French ambassador to Henry’s court during some key years.

Jules D’Argis repeats a lot of the over-the-top, no-this-never-happened stories – and invents new ones, many of which are based on the cultural practices he was familiar with and therefore tell us a lot about his own era. In a scene right out of a Bronte novel, D’Argis trots out a fortune teller to warn Anne Boleyn of the dangers that await her; elsewhere he speaks of the court going to Brighton to enjoy the seashore. Unfortunately, D’Argis also shows us what an antisemitic place France was at the time, in a gratuitous scene showing a jeweler who must remake for Jane Seymour a diamond-and-ruby necklace once destined for her predecessor. I eliminated the slurs but left the scene in, knowing that he had already proved his poor judgment by that point (he thought Anne had in fact slept with Norris, for goodness’ sake!).

In all, it’s a wild read. Tudorholics will love to see how England’s historic rival told the stories of the Tudors, especially closer to the actual events.

The Six Marriages of Henry VIII, Part One: His Wives is available in ebook and print editions on Amazon. Add it to your shelves on Goodreads, and visit Janet's website for more information on all of her books and her blog posts on Tudor England.

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A Thimbleful of Honor

 Please join me in congratulating Linda Lee Graham on the publication of her new romantic historical novel, A Thimbleful of Honor! I had the pleasure of working with Linda on a developmental edit and a copyedit, and I designed the cover for this emotional tale of a man's homecoming twenty-five years after the last Jacobite uprising. Here's the book description:

Before his father offered to shelter Wylie's two sons, nothing could lure Wylie Macpherson back to Scotland. But after a bitter twenty-five-year exile, his homecoming proves harder than anticipated. Instead of the scorn he expected, he's faced with the relief of a struggling village long awaiting his return. All Wylie wants is to retreat to his ship, yet the tug of his memories and responsibilities is difficult to ignore.

Having lost one man to the sea, Anna Macrae is cynical of men chasing dreams across oceans when everything one could want—family, community, friends—can be found in the Highlands. Though preoccupied hiding her father's infirmity while managing his business in his stead, she can't help but notice Wylie's sons need a parent, and their father is too absorbed in his own grief and anger to notice. As she grows close to them, her traitorous heart begins to spin fantasies of a life not meant to be.

Blindsided by a barrage of painful memories, Wylie pays little heed to the heat building between himself and Anna until he finds he can think of nothing else. Will he flee once again, or will he fight one more battle to claim the sweetest of prizes?

A poignant story of love, loss, and coming home, A Thimbleful of Honor is set in the heart of Scotland's Highlands, twenty-five years after the 1745 Jacobite rebellion.

A Thimbleful of Honor is available in ebook and print editions on Amazon. Add it to your shelves on Goodreads, and visit Linda's website for more information on all of her book.

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