romance

TEMPORARY ENGAGEMENT

September 22, 2014 By Starla Huchton Leave a Comment

Temporary Engagement, by Cairenn Lawless

“Something’s rotten at the chic Devlin Stone Public Relations Agency… and you don’t need Shakespeare or Sherlock Holmes to figure that out. When aspiring actress Lyssa Kendall shows up to replace the boss’s AWOL executive assistant, she sniffs the drama in the air right away. (She also likes the aftershave worn by sexy-but-skittish Devlin Stone.) But is Mr. Perfect paranoid… or is someone (besides Lyssa) really out to get him? Too bad this office stint is only a ‘temporary engagement’ between theater gigs… for the first time ever, Lyssa wants to ‘keep the day-job’.” (via the description on Amazon)

[Read more…] about TEMPORARY ENGAGEMENT

EDGELANDERS

July 17, 2014 By Starla Huchton Leave a Comment

Edgelanders, by Jennifer Melzer

“When Princess Lorelei of Leithe overhears her fiancé’s plot to murder her on the way to their wedding, she does the only smart thing: she runs.

Into the Edgelands, the savage, woodland home of the legendary U’lfer, a race of fierce wolves who walk as men, she knows she is as good as dead, but she would rather be torn apart by werewolves than die by Trystay’s hand.

A young U’lfer warrior named Finn catches her scent on the wind and finds himself possessed by an unnatural desire to shield and protect her from that which hunts her. From the moment he first sees her, Finn knows she is his. He feels her heartbeat, knows her soul, and he will do anything, even suffer exile from the Edgelands to be with her.

But there is more to Lorelei than meets the eye. She is like Finn; there is U’lfer blood in her veins, a beast beneath her skin she never knew was there. The answers she seeks lie south, in the frozen tundra of Rimian, where a village of people just like her have been waiting for Lorelei to come and save them since before she was even born.” via Amazon. [Read more…] about EDGELANDERS

OCEANS DEEP

May 8, 2014 By Starla Huchton Leave a Comment

Oceans Deep boxed set

“Twelve Young Adult romance novels that celebrate sun, sea and love to support World Oceans Day 2014.

As authors, we know while the facts can change people’s minds, fiction can change their hearts. The proceeds from this box set will benefit World Oceans Day, an organization dedicated to celebrating the ocean and encouraging people to really think about what the oceans mean to them.

Comprised of young adult romances in a variety of genres including science fiction, fantasy, contemporary and mythology, the books all have one thing in common: they leave readers more in love with the ocean than they were before.

Together we can help ocean conservation efforts, one word, one page, one story at a time.” (via the press release)

I’ve been known, from time to time, to donate my design work to people and causes I can get behind. In this case, I saw an opportunity to help out an entire group of writers while helping to raise money for charity. Ten authors came together for this project, a 10 ebook boxed set, on sale June 8th through July 8th, and all proceeds from sales will go to support The Ocean Project. It’s an ambitious and incredible project, and I hope their efforts are extremely successful.

The group already had a solid idea of what they’d like to see for the cover, so the challenge for me was matching their vision to a design. Every element of this image is a separate object (background, girl, dolphins, jellyfish), and there was plenty of isolating and color tweaking going on to fit them all into one visual. The most difficult part was the typography, as fitting ten separate names on the cover, plus the tag line, could have easily overwhelmed the design. To keep the title from getting lost in the fray, I needed a brighter color to make it pop out from the background, and the green I settled on is certainly eye-catching. It’s not a color I would normally go for, but, in this case, it works.

One last element was needed for this amazing project, and that’s the graphic depicting a boxed set of books. Admittedly, I’d never done one before, so there was a bit of learning as I go involved there. I spent some time looking for Photoshop actions and tutorials, but, ultimately, I ended up building it all by hand and basing it off of what I was seeing in other digital boxed set graphics. You can see the results of that, as well as the individual covers for each included book, here:

Box Set Square

Authors included in this collection:

You can add the box set to your TBR list on Goodreads now. To learn more about each of the authors, please click on their name on Goodreads, or above. Keep track of the project on their tumblr: ocean-books.tumblr.com

HEART OF WAR

May 6, 2014 By Starla Huchton Leave a Comment

Heart of War, by CL Foster & ER Rada

“The Hundred Years War rages around Adalira Mortimer’s life and country, but she is not what is expected of a Lady; instead of dresses and tea, she dreams about weapons and war.

Bastian Kyros is not typical royalty. Being a warrior is in his blood, not paperwork and peace-keeping.

Tradition drives their families. She is expected to don her manners and win a worthy husband, and he is expected to drop his sword and do what’s right for the sake of his family’s name, land, and future.

Their chance meeting at the party of the season may offer them both the chance to find what they desire. Brought together by their longing for battle, their greatest fight may be in winning over their families and conquering their own pride.

A lull in battle does not mean there is peace. The greatest of wars are fought in the heart.” (via Goodreads)

[Read more…] about HEART OF WAR

Evolution: SAGE

April 6, 2014 By Starla Huchton Leave a Comment

Evolution: SAGE (the Evolution series, book 2), by S. A. Huchton

“Devastated by her choices, Candace Bristol is on the brink of losing it all: her mind, her hope, everything she thought she was.

But from the ruins rises new purpose. An enemy has emerged and it will take everything to combat this new threat. Broken as she is, picking up the pieces and carrying on might be the hardest battle to win, but it’s either fight, or lose what little she has left.

Amongst the wreckage, hope still burns. The flicker of a flame kindles something within her she thought was dead.

Love can break you.

So, too, can it bring you back to life.” (via Goodreads)

I’ve already posted about book 1 in this series, Evolution: ANGEL, and now it’s time to show you the second in the series!

I established the series look with the first book, and, where that one is water (to speak to Candace’s hydrokinesis ability), this one had to be equally representative. It wasn’t hard for me to pin down what element to feature on this cover, and folks who have read book 1 will know exactly who the cover speaks to.

A hand is featured on all three of these covers (spoilers, lol), and that’s for a very good reason. The superheroes in these books all have enough power in one hand to destroy everything. Their actions and decisions are magnified beyond what most normal human beings experience, but these characters are just as flawed as any normal person, so mistakes happen. What makes them heroes is what they choose to do after their worlds crumble to the ground.

This book is about picking up those pieces and finding a way to keep going.

Releases May 6th, 2014. For more information, as well as an excerpt, see this post.

Evolution: ANGEL

February 6, 2014 By Starla Huchton 1 Comment

Evolution: ANGEL by S. A. Huchton

“Candace Bristol has always been obsessed with comic books, but in a world where the nightly news often mirrors these inked stories, her dreams of becoming a real superhero could actually come true. After being rescued by members of the government’s AdvaNced Genetic EvoLution (ANGEL) Project four years ago, getting recruited for this elite team is all she’s wanted.

Now 18, she’s finally reached her goal after years of study and physical training, but little could have prepared her for life as a genetic experiment. As though coming to terms with her new ability to manipulate water isn’t tough enough, she never expected to be swept off her feet by one of her fellow recruits.

With genetic alteration, the threat of physical and mental instability hangs over every superhero like a shadow. When one of their own tumbles over the edge of madness, Candace will have to choose between protecting the world, and saving the one who holds her heart.” (via Goodreads)

I am really excited about this one. This is the cover for the first in the new series of Superhero Romance novels I’ll be releasing this year! March 6th is the release date for this one, and books 2 and 3 will follow on its heels at two-month intervals!

I sometimes struggle with concept ideas for my covers, and this was one of those times. While it is a Romance, the story has a much wider appeal than that audience only. I wanted to come up with a design that reflected that, something that gave it the softness of an emotional story without plastering it with half-naked people almost kissing. That’s not what kind of book this is. A design like that would do the story a disservice.

What I came to was what you see above. It’s a hint at the other-worldly nature of what the characters become, with a specific focus on the main character. This concept also easily carried over to a series concept, which was pretty crucial as I knew going in that there were three books to this.

The execution was much higher on the difficulty scale for me, so I went in search of tutorials and tips on how to get the watery look for this hand. If you’re curious, this is the photo that I altered for the Evolution: ANGEL cover:

female hand, stock via despositphotos.com

So how does the above hand turn into the one on this cover? Well, if you’re up for a challenge, and want to learn some new Photoshop skills, you can find a tutorial for this effect right here. Be warned, however, this one is time consuming and not for a first-time PS user. I did tweak that tutorial for my own purposes, so keep that in mind as well. Your results may vary.

I will say this about the other two books: they did not require nearly the work that book 1 did. But I think that’s generally the case with series books. Sometimes the hardest part is coming up with the idea. Once you’ve got that, the rest will usually fall into place.

You can read the prologue and view teasers and other extras for this book at starlahuchton.com.