Weekend Reads: A DOUBLE Cover Reveal!

Are you a fan of Cinderella retellings? If the answer is yes (which, in my humble opinion, it should be!), then read on! Today we're excited to help Uncommon Universes Press reveal the covers of their TWO upcoming Cinderella retellings: Ashen by H.L. Burke and Met by Midnight by Janeen Ippolito! Both stories will release on September 22nd and are currently available for $.99, so you definitely want to pre-order now!

First, here's the back cover blurb for Ashen by H.L. Burke:

Stealer of warmth, bringer of death. What if Cinderella had a secret that kept her locked away?
Unable to make her own body heat, foundling Lizbete survives in the tavern kitchen, drawing warmth from the fires, the sun—and sometimes, other living beings. Her days are spent cooking alongside the tavern owner and avoiding the suspicious gazes of the villagers in her small northern town. While she quietly longs for the handsome Brynar, she knows she has no chance with the mayor’s son, even if he invites her to the First Frost festival.

When sudden earthquakes strike Brumehome, blame falls upon Lizbete, and not even her friendship with Brynar can protect her. She finds shelter in the dangerous caverns of nearby Ash Mountain. There she discovers mysterious people with her same ability to draw heat—and a fiery doom in the mountain that slowly awakens with every quake.

Now the festival Lizbete thought to avoid is her only chance to warn the villagers. Yet even with Brynar at her side, can the strange girl dubbed the Ash Lizard hope to save the town that fears her?

A rugged YA Cinderella retelling set in a fantasy world with light steampunk elements.

I actually got a sneak peek at this one, and it's every bit as intriguing as it sounds! Here's the gorgeous cover:

You can pre-order Ashen on Amazon or the Uncommon Universes website for a signed paperback, and don't forget to add it on Goodreads! And now, here's the back cover blurb for Met by Midnight by Janeen Ippolito:

An outcast prince. A captive healer. A single night that changes their destinies.
She lives a nightmare. 

As a Mender, Renna is held captive to an endless cycle of receiving and recovering from the physical ailments of others—a cycle that led her mother to an early grave. When her father becomes deathly ill, Renna is desperate to save her only remaining family. Even if it means allying with criminals and taking an illegal mission into the royal palace on the night of their greatest ball. 

He’s haunted by dreams. 

Unable to be Mended, Prince Jaric’s existence is a curse to his family’s façade of health and security. Marrying him off at the ball and sending him to a distant dukedom is the royal solution—but Jaric has his own plans. For years he’s dreamed of a young woman, a strong-hearted Mender he would give everything for. When she arrives the night of his betrothal, he’s determined to discover her true identity. 

Met by midnight, their fates are entwined. 

While escape seems the only answer, powerful forces conspire to keep Renna and Jaric within their cages. Forces that undermine the foundations of the kingdom itself—and threaten any hope of a future together.

This YA romance features Cinderella in an original fantasy world with a dystopian twist. 

Eeeep, I can't wait! Here's the stunning cover:

You can find Met by Midnight on Goodreads, Amazon, or the Uncommon Universes website for a signed paperback. Remember to pre-order for $.99!

Congratulations on your upcoming new releases, ladies!!

Writer's Life: A Cover Reveal! (Katie)

Cover Reveal for The Rebel Princess

Happy July everyone! The summer is in full swing for most of the country, and along with the sunny weather I'm enjoying having just received the cover files for my latest novel, The Rebel Princess! I thought I'd give you all one of the first peeks--which is also a peek into the life of this writer.

The Rebel Princess is book 2 in the series (the first book is The Rejected Princess, which you can learn more about at Goodreads). There might be a book 3. I'm playing around with that one still!

So, are you ready to see the cover?
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Ta Da!

Merry Stern has never been a spy, but when she’s offered asylum in exchange for her
help uncovering remaining rebel bands, she accepts in hopes of freeing her father.

Working with the royals is no easy feat, as Prince Gregory Hamilton considers her untrustworthy and duplicitous. As she and the prince navigate their uncomfortable relationship, Merry is introduced to questions she did not know she possessed; questions of light and darkness, good and evil.

Princess Roanna is finally engaged to Prince Benjamin of Lox, only the marriage seems stalled and she cannot determine at whose hand. The Dawsons won’t let her out of their sight, Chester’s Wake is focusing all efforts on finding their lost princess, and Lox refuses to acknowledge her position entirely.

Truth and lies are brought to light as those who seek to control and destroy are finally
uncovered in The Rebel Princess

I have to be honest, as soon as I saw this cover I was in love. I squealed and showed my husband, who smiled at me like I was an amusing child. Haha! 

So, what about you? What do you think? How's your summer rolling along? I'd love to know!

Top 3 Visually Appealing Covers (Julie)

As J.K. Rowling said, "A good first impression can work wonders." And the first impression we, as readers, get of a book is the cover. I tend to judge a book by its cover (literally). If it's visually appealing, there's a much higher chance I'll read it, or I'll at least flip to the back blurb.

For this post, I went to my nearest bookstore (aka Amazon on my computer) and searched through my favorite genre to see what lovely book covers gained my attention. After a very fun search, I came up with three book series. I know I missed lots of amazing covers, so I can't wait to hear about your personal favorites:)

3) The Menagerie series by Tui T. Sutherland and Kari Sutherland. 

In fantasy stories, I'm not always the biggest fan of having a character(s) as the main draw on the cover. I want to know what types of creatures and magic are waiting for me within the pages. For this series, the cover gives enough hints of things to expect but still leaving some mystery. I also like the colors:)

Story: 5 stars. Loved them all. 

2) Five Kingdoms series by Brandon Mull. Some books, even middle grade/YA book covers can have somewhat childish graphics. These visual ones have a more realistic feel to them. The MC is on the cover, but he isn't the main attraction. We immediately know these stories are full of adventure and monsters. 

Story: 4.5 stars. Great series of which I am going to be reading the last one during my spring break.

1) The Grisha trilogy by Leigh Bardugo. I haven't actually read these but just stumbled across them in my search on Amazon. Though simpler in appearance than the others, I am intrigued by the animal outlines and especially the colors. I have no idea if I'd like the books or not, but I would certainly flip over to the blurb to see what they were about. 

Your turn! Is there a book or a series that has an awesome cover that you love?

Cover Reveal: Common by Laurie Lucking (THAT'S ME!!!)

Guess what?? It's cover reveal day for my YA fantasy novel, Common, which is scheduled to release from Love2ReadLove2Write Publishing in February, 2018! Only a few months away!!! I can't wait to show the you cover, but first, a little back story...

(I had to make you wait at least a little bit, right?)

After I signed the contract with my publisher, they asked me to fill out a book intake form, which included questions about what I had in mind for my cover. When asked to list some of my favorite covers, among my top choices were books by Lea Doue:

 And books by Melanie Dickerson:

I'm guessing you can see the kind of vibe I was going for :) My biggest worry when approaching my cover was that a book with the simple title Common, featuring a servant girl, would need to look like something special to make it stand out to potential readers. And my cover designer was absolutely up to the task! I fell in love the moment I saw the first draft, and it's only become more lovely with each revision.

So now, without further ado... 

(Drum roll, please!)

Here it is!!

Isn't it gorgeous?? Even more beautiful than anything I could've imagined for my book. I've had it for weeks, and I still can't stop staring :) Many, many thanks to my publisher and cover designer for doing such a spectacular job! They absolutely nailed the YA-historical-fairy-tale-with-a-bit-of-magic feel I was hoping for, with a girl that totally captures the essence of my main character. I can't wait to hold it in my hands, and for it to be available for all of you! If you can tear your eyes away from the stunning cover long enough, here's the back cover blurb:

One person knows of the plot against the royal family and cares enough to try to stop it—the servant girl they banished. 

Leah spends her days scrubbing floors, polishing silver, and meekly curtsying to nobility. Nothing distinguishes her from the other commoners serving at the palace, except her red hair. 

And her secret friendship with Rafe, the Crown Prince of Imperia. 

But Leah’s safe, ordinary world begins to splinter. Unexpected feelings for Rafe surface just as his parents announce his betrothal to a foreign princess. Then she unearths a plot to overthrow the royal family. Her life shatters completely when the queen banishes her for treason. 

Harbored by a mysterious group of nuns, Leah must secure Rafe’s safety before it’s too late. But her quest reveals a villain far more sinister than an ambitious nobleman with his eye on the throne.

Can a common maidservant summon the courage to fight for her dearest friend?

So, what do you think? What are some of your favorite covers? Thanks for stopping by to share in my excitement!!

See you next time!

Laurie

All About: Cover Reveals (Laurie)

For my On Writing posts for the rest of the year (possibly beyond!), I've decided to do an "All About" series. All about...what? I'm glad you asked! :) As I've become more involved in the writing world, I've noticed that authors have a lot of catchwords and phrases they use frequently without explanation. It's not a problem when they're addressing fellow authors or readers who have become super-fans, but for most readers and even newer writers they're not familiar concepts. So these posts are for anyone who's seen authors issue invitations to participate in a cover reveal, Facebook party, or street team, but didn't quite know what they meant. Anyone who would possibly be interested in signing up for a newsletter or ARC if they had a better sense of what was involved. I hope these posts can bring clarity to these amorphous ideas, both from an interest / information standpoint but also to encourage you to get more involved with your favorite authors - since you'll finally know what on earth they're talking about :)


First up: Cover Reveals! Cover reveals have become very popular, especially among authors who self-publish or work with smaller publishers, because they're a great way to generate interest in an upcoming book. A cover gives potential readers something to latch onto and can disclose so much more about the genre, story, and / or characters than a simple title. To maximize the excitement around a cover reveal, an author usually schedules it for a certain day and tries to build anticipation in the days or weeks leading up to the event. Many authors also want to get others involved in spreading the word.

...Which leads to my reason for posting on cover reveals. While the concept is easy to understand, I'd wager a lot of people still scroll past links to cover reveal sign up forms because they don't understand what's involved or whether they could really be of any help. So I'll speak a bit about my own experience with cover reveals, though every author or publisher will likely approach it a little differently.

Sign up forms for cover reveals are pretty straightforward. Mostly they just need your name and e-mail address; some will also ask you to check boxes for which social media platforms you plan to share the cover on (don't worry, I've never been scolded for failing to share on a certain social media site if I forgot which ones I checked!) and possibly request that you agree not to share the cover before the official reveal. Once you're signed up, a day or two before the reveal date you'll receive an e-mail with the cover, back-cover blurb, and likely some additional information about the author and book (this collection of info is sometimes referred to as a media kit). Then on the day of the official cover reveal, you share the cover and any other information that makes sense based on the social media platform you're working with. So, for example, if you have a blog, you could share everything they included in the media kit, but on Twitter you'd only have space for a quick line about the book or the cover.

And that's it! It's really that simple :)

So who should sign up for cover reveals? Only people with a successful blog and thousands of Facebook friends? While such credentials certainly don't hurt, they're definitely not necessary. Blogs are great, but a cover is easy to share anywhere no matter how much space you have to post. If you have friends / followers that don't overlap with the author's and some of them may be readers of that genre, then you could be helping that author reach a new audience, even if it's not a giant one. And even if you didn't sign up for the cover reveal but you see others posting the cover on the reveal date, feel free to pass it along! Cover reveals are definitely a the-more-the-merrier kind of event :)

Of course there's no pressure if this is something completely out of your comfort zone, but it does mean a lot to authors (especially smaller-scale authors) to have friends and fans share their excitement about a fabulous new cover and an upcoming book. Plus you get to see the cover ahead of time and feel like you're part of the author's in-crowd :)


Have you ever participated in a cover reveal? How do / would you like to get involved with your favorite authors? What topics would you like to see me cover in future All About posts?


Thanks for reading!
Laurie


P.S. In case you missed it, our own Jill had her cover reveal for her upcoming new release, Spark, back in March. Isn't it gorgeous??

What We're Reading: The Crown's Fate (Erin)

After featuring this book on our Top Covers of 2016 post and reading Laura's review of it, I finally had a chance to read it. Laura's review has all the detail you need, but I will say, for me, this magical, amazing book definitely lives up to its cover. I may be biased since I love all things Russian, but Evelyn Skye does a fantastic job capturing Imperial Russia, and cloaking it in magic and mystery. Having actually been to St. Petersburg, the Winter Palace and the Summer Palace, I enjoyed Skye's descriptions and the way the magic in the books was a clear extension of these beautiful settings.

I also enjoyed Skye's characters. They were sympathetic, easy to relate to, and I was cheering for happy endings for all of them. Vika, the trusting, kindhearted sorceress who has grown up in the love of her father, and Nikolai, a talented orphan who has never known love, are inextricably drawn together, but fate has pitted them against each other. Pasha, Nikolai's best friend, is a good-natured, golden boy who means well, but complicates everything.


I have to confess, the last twenty pages filled me with dread and I read faster and faster, hoping the happy endings I wished for would come true. Laura's "Oh no" sentiment kept echoing in my mind as I read. However, I am happy to report, on May 16th, a sequel, called The Crown's Fate releases! Reading the description gives me hope. Perhaps the dire turn events at the end of The Crown's Game can be reversed, or the situation can be redeemed in some way.  The Crown's Fate is available for pre-order at Amazon and is already scheduled to be delivered to my house! 

What are your favorite types of book endings?
Have you read The Crown's Game or any of the other 2016 Top Book Cover books? 
Do you ever pre-order books?
Leave a comment and let us know! 

Attributions:
https://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss_2?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=the+crowns+game

What We're Reading: The Failstate Series (Erin)

I've had the pleasure of delving into the world of teen hero wannabes and their increasingly chaotic and dangerous world lately. In case you haven't read John Otte's Failstate series, I highly recommend it!

Purchase at Amazon

Failstate opens with a superhero reality show, in which contestants are competing in order to gain a superhero license from the city. Rob Laughlin, aka Failstate, is competing, but he isn't flashy, like most of the other superheros. Instead, he wears an old sweatshirt and always hides his face. However, he is motivated to win because he wants to keep his city safe.

Rob is easy to relate to. He goes to church and youth group, but still struggles with self-doubt, complicated family relationships, and typical high school crushes. However, life as a potential superhero makes him anything but ordinary. Otte writes with a blend of action and humor that will keep teens (like the ones in my house, anyhow) reading to all hours of the night. He weaves in Christian themes in such a natural way, you could give these books to any high schoolers, whether or not they attend church.

Purchase at Amazon

In Failstate: Legends Rob's city is threatened by zombies, but no one seems to be taking the threat seriously. Can Rob convince people the threat is real in time to save those he cares about?

Since the only other zombie book I've read is Pride and Prejudice and Zombies,  I was interested to see how Otte's zombies functioned and were created.

Purchase at Amazon

Failstate: Nemesis is easily my favorite of the three books. Rob is always likable, but by this point, I am attached to him and the people he cares about. The themes get more intense, and Otte's vocation as a pastor show through. However, Otte doesn't shy away from tough questions or real struggles. He offers hope, but in the context of real life and real people. Otte avoids the simplicity a lot of books written for the Christian market tend to fall into.

Check in tomorrow for my interview with John Otte, to learn more about his life and writing! I am looking forward to reading his Ministrix series soon! Have you read any of his books? Which series would you read first? Leave a comment and let us know!

How do you find books? (Laurie)

I had the opportunity to pick out some books with a Barnes & Noble gift card last week, and a few days ago I saw a lively discussion on Facebook between authors trying to brainstorm about helping readers find their books.

So now I'm wondering...how do YOU find the next book you're planning to read? Do you:

a) Browse in a certain section of a bookstore or library?

b) Take recommendations from friends?

c) Search online? (And if so, do you check out recommendations from sites like Amazon or Goodreads and read through reviews before making a selection?)

d) Stick with certain go-to authors or publishers?

e) Check out the bestsellers in your favorite genres?

f) Use a different method entirely?


Note that I'm intending this to be a multiple choice question where you can choose as many answers as you want :)  I can't wait to hear what you think!

Thanks for reading!
Laurie


Attribution:
https://pixabay.com/en/book-books-bookshelf-read-67049/

Poll: Favorite Fantasy Book Covers for 2016 (Erin)

Greetings, Fantasy Lovers! 

Last time, on "Your Turn," Laurie asked you to vote on your favorite movie for 2015. This week, I would like you to vote on your favorite up and coming book cover! These books are all scheduled to be released this year--which one would you pick up first?

Please vote, and we'll post results later this week. 

Thanks!

Erin 

P.S. I haven't read any of these books yet, so I am not explicitly endorsing them (or not).

P.P.S. If you have time, when you vote, you could also leave a comment, telling us what you look for in a book cover. For example, do you like books with people on the front, or just symbols? Do you like colorful covers, or are you more drawn to black and grey? Let us know!

 To read more about these, and other YA Fantasy books scheduled for this year, check out this article at Barnes and Noble: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/blog/teen/26-of-our-most-anticipated-fantasy-novels-of-2016/

Attributions: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/blog/teen/26-of-our-most-anticipated-fantasy-novels-of-2016/