Recently, one of my besties gave me a cool gift. Author Marilyn Baxter showed up to breakfast with this book:

She’d found it at a thrift store, and thought I would enjoy it since I write for the same line. This is from the Desire line when it was Silhouette Desire, a brand new venture, as this is #50. I absolutely love the cover! The ultra alpha male with a bushy mustache. Those high heels in the middle of the woods. And the (now) vintage car in the background. Dated as it is now, it’s a true representation of the books I read that got me hooked on romance. The emotional draw of being swept off your feet by someone able to take car of everything (even if its not PC, I still dream of that some days). 🙂

Some of the first Desires I read  were some older ones. A kind lady who lived across the street gave me a box of books when I was recovering from a very bad illness and it included this book and several others:

I still have this book and still read it too! It’s Desire #712. A little closer to the traditional clinch cover, this one still represents the glamour of the Desire line. I’ll be forever grateful to that kind lady! She reintroduced me to the joy of reading romance, and eventually writing it. Something I wouldn’t even think about until over 3 years after reading it.

Though vintage covers are cool, I have to admit I’m in love with my Desire covers. Now the line is Harlequin Desire, and my release for last month, A Bride’s Tangled Vows, was Desire #2322.

I think the full cover pic truly pops and draws the eye of the reader more. And I have a brand new cover coming soon. The Blackstone Heir, my Mill Town Millionaire book coming in February 2015, will be my first ever baby cover! It’s so cute! (The cover & the baby.)

So let’s talk about covers! What are your favorite old school and modern cover designs?

Dani

If you’ve ever wondered about the process for Indie authors creating their own covers, check out this really cool Inside Scoop post from yesterday on Nice Girls Writing Naughty by Ella Sheridan, who shares the awesomely hot hunk who will be on her upcoming cover with us!!!!

Nestled in the hills of South Carolina is the one town Aiden Blackstone has refused to acknowledge since he was eighteen years old. The town he grew up in. The town of his birthright. Lured home by his grandfather’s pretense of death, Aiden finds himself snared in a well-laid trap made of coercion, obligation, and duty. There’s no easy way out of his grandfather’s demands that he marry and take over the family business that supports the entire town, not if he wants to keep his invalid mother safe.

 Saddled with a wife he shouldn’t want, and the town he never wanted to save, Aiden finds himself swimming through a mire of anger, responsibility, and lust, counting down the days until he can walk away, return to the life he built for himself in NYC, filled with socialites and high dollar art deals, not a town counting on their mill to stay open…and a woman whose soulful gaze gives him a redeeming purpose for every day.

 Christina Reece spent her entire childhood wishing Aiden’s family was her own. When a tragic car accident left Aiden’s mother an invalid, Christina got her nursing degree and moved to Blackstone Manor to care for her. Over time, she ended up creating the family she’d always dreamed of…almost. Now she’ll do whatever she must to keep them safe and preserve their future.

 When Aiden’s grandfather threatens all she holds dear, Christina volunteers to become Aiden’s wife—not realizing the tormentor from her childhood had transformed into a man she could truly love. A man eager to leave the minute his obligations are fulfilled. As they join forces to uncover a saboteur in their midst, outwit Aiden’s grandfather’s manipulations, and care for Lily, Christina sees the man Aiden truly is—and helps him to see it too. But how can she trust her heart to a man intent on walking away from everything they are building together?

 Then their enemy strikes out, threatening everything they hold dear, Aiden and Christina must choose which is stronger—obligation or love?