The cover for Michele Hauf‘s latest book from Silhouette Nocturne, THE HIGHWAYMAN, puts her hot, sexy hero front and center! Michele returns to Harlequin’s Paranormal Romance blog to talk about The Highwayman and wants to know what YOU think about the state of paranormal romance covers today…
by Michele Hauf, author of THE HIGHWAYMAN
Hey all! My latest, THE HIGHWAYMAN is in bookstores right now. Don’t you love the cover? It’s my first ‘guy only’ cover. The art department really nailed this one. He is exactly as I imagined Max Fitzroy, the hero, to look like. (Although, they could have left his coat off, but heck, I can’t complain, at least we get to see some of that sexy chest.)
I think paranormal romance covers are some of the hottest, sexiest, most gorgeous covers on bookstore shelves right now. They really focus on that irresistible connection between a hero and heroine, or the darkness that lives inside the tortured hero. But do you ever pick up a cover and think to yourself “I’ve seen this before”?
Sure paranormal is hot and sexy, but there’s only so many times I can see a tattooed shoulder or backside on a cover before I say the same thing “I’ve seen this before”. Don’t get me wrong, I love tattoos (got a couple myself). But have tattoos become synonymous with the paranormal genre? You see a tat, you know there will be demons or vamps or slayers inside. And what about moons? How often do you see a full moon on a cover lately? A lot, trust me. Again, another sign that this story will have vampires or werewolves inside. Any deadly weapon held behind the back or down along the thigh (dressed in thigh-high leather boots) is also another dead giveaway.
But is that so wrong? It’s not a bad thing, when you are going into the bookstore, to be able to recognize the genre you love to read. And until they divide the romance section out into something like ‘historical’, ‘contemporary’, and ‘paranormal’, sometimes we have to rely on those cover clues to find what we like.
So what have I missed? What are some other common cover clues that the dark, sexy and slightly-not-normal live inside? Which cover cliches can you do without? Which ones do you want to see more of?
And yep, the heroine of THE HIGHWAYMAN has a tattoo. This one’s a little different than the common tribal designs, though. As a familiar, my heroine has nine lives. She doesn’t remember one life to the next, so she needs a permanent record of the most important things, like who she can trust, bank account numbers, and most important-who she can’t trust, namely, The Highwayman. Here’s a picture of that tattoo. It was supposed to be inserted at the end of the book, but got missed, so I thought it would be fun to show you what it looked like.
Michele
I have this one, am reading it now. The only thing I’d add is a cat.
Just blogged about it, in fact.
The clues that tell me it’s a paranormal book from the cover include weird glowing eyes, a thin line of blood trickling from the corner of the mouth, really pale white skin, long painted red fingernails, and the guy nibbling on a throat instead of going for a kiss.
Hi Michele – I’ve said it before – I adore this cover. I think that Nocturne/Bites covers are some of the best out there for PR stuff.
I love a nice chunk o’ man (I don’t have to see a heroine, personally, though I don’t mind), and a hint as to what powers we’re dealing with.
If I see a set of fangs, though, I’m less likely to pick the book up. I prefer some things left to the imagination…
I think the tatt concept in this book is rockin’, too. Very cool.
Looking forward to reading THE HIGHWAYMAN ~ Emily