Cover Story: Aphrodite Unbound
She's like one of those Botticelli chicks.
I was sick last week. Not any big or scary sick, but an unpleasant head cold, of the kind I used to regularly get once a term, and then take a day or two off if it got really bad. Since I started wearing a mask in the classroom (and people are in general less inclined to go to work or school while sick, good job everyone!) colds have become much less common, but I guess my number came up.
This time, I stayed in bed, blew my nose approximately eighty billion times, and ate ice cream for two meals out of three. Nothing was really bad, but someone had still dropped burning coals down my throat and then poured a bunch of gunk into my sinuses, so it’s safe to say I was unhappy with the whole situation.
What I am NOT unhappy about (how’s that for a segue?) is this awesome cover by Alison Cooley for the second book in my Olympus Inc. series:
The very second I saw Alison’s first designs for the Persephone in Bloom cover, I knew I wanted to keep these floral frame elements for the series. Persephone got daffodils, snowdrops and poppies - flowers associated with spring and death.
Aphrodite, of course, gets roses and red anemones; roses for love, and anemones for the tears the mythological Aphrodite shed, which became flowers as they dropped to the earth. There’s a preponderance of pink and red, because those are the colours of love and passion.
In fact, Alison told me, a lot of the colouring was inspired by this old thing which idk might look familiar?
Whereas Persephone and Hades were at a cafe, sharing a private moment, Heph and Aphrodite are in public. They’re walking a red carpet in evening wear, surrounded by cameras. Their relationship is very much one in the spotlight.
(This makes sense because their relationship has been invented for the public eye. That’s right, it’s everybody’s1 favourite trope, the fake romance! Haha, wouldn’t it be sooooo super embarrassing if they fell in love for real??)
And yet, among the flashing lights, despite the fact that Aphrodite is posing for the cameras, her eyes are turned to Heph, and his to her, and they’re smiling. In the middle of this very public event, they have a private connection, and I love it. I love how much life Alison gave these characters, how much everything in this cover works together to tell the story of these two delightful idiots falling for each other despite themselves.
If you would like to read that story, go ahead and pre-order Aphrodite Unbound! It’s coming out in just over two months, as I was reminded when I uploaded the proper cover image today.
Nice.
Free books! (I know!)
However, if you’re stuck for something to read in the meantime, boy, do I have a treat for you! I joined a newsletter building promo at BookFunnel (hi, new readers!) and there are a ton of romances over there, all of them absolutely free, at various levels of sizzle. You can read something cosy, something spicy, or something downright erotic, depending on what takes your fancy.
But what’s there, Karen, apart from your own prequel Penelope Pops the Question? So glad you asked! There are a lot of billionaires and grumpy bosses (billionaires are so in right now) and a gentle sprinkling of other fun romance tropes. You can read stories about a protagonist falling for her best friend’s brother OR for her brother’s best friend! Or possibly both, because there’s also some reverse-harem in there! There’s at least one hockey player, a cowboy or two, some surprise pregnancies, some single dads looking for love, and more.
And whether you go romance hunting or not, I hope you are enjoying this week, and that you are (or shortly become!) cold-free.
my
Haha... my.