The Duke’s Desire in Print

Posted on June 2, 2025 by Deborah Cooke

The romance between the Duke of Haynesdale and Esmeralda Ballantyne was planned to be a sub-plot that carried through the entire series. By book four, it became clear to me that these two needed their own book as they were not inclined to stay in the background. The Duke’s Desire begins at roughly the same time as The Hellion’s Heart.

FIVE star review for The Duke's Desire, book 6 of The Ladies' Essential Guide to the Art of Seduction series of Regency romances by Claire Delacroix

This book stands alone, and includes references to earlier scenes between these two. If you would like to read all the detail, please start at the beginning of the series. The duke meets Mrs. Oliver at Rockmorton in The Christmas Conquest, and spars with Miss Ballantyne at the soirée in The Masquerade of the Marchioness. In The Widow’s Wager, Esmeralda is charged with Jacques’ crime and Damien decides to make matters right – and also when he visits her in prison to present his plan. (I love that scene!) In The Hellion’s Heart, Damien retrieves Sylvie from France. The Bluestocking’s Bargain has few scenes with this pair, but it does follow Patience and Arthur’s quest to publish Esmeralda’s book.

Tropes for The Duke's Desire, book 6 of The Ladies' Essential Guide to the Art of Seduction series of Regency romances by Claire Delacroix

The Duke's Desire, book six in The Ladies' Essential Guide to the Art of Seduction Regency romance series by Claire Delacroix

Esmeralda Ballantyne is the most successful courtesan in London, a woman envied by many and a mystery to all. When her past threatens the future of her younger sister, she finds an unexpected champion in the Duke of Haynesdale, a gentleman driven by his honor to intervene on her behalf, despite his disapproval of her trade. Does she dare to trust her newfound protector with her truth, or is the duke – like so many men of her acquaintance – interested in only one kind of compensation from her? As much as she refuses to surrender to any man, Esmeralda fears her impulse will lead her astray…will the price of capitulation be her fiercely defended independence or her heart?

Damien DeVries, the Duke of Haynesdale, abandoned his rakehell ways when his father bought his commission. The youngest of three sons, he never expected to inherit the duchy, and finds himself discontent, burdened by responsibilities and – according to his mother – past due to wed and provide an heir. The difficulty is that the only woman of interest is the forbidden beauty, Miss Ballantyne. There could not be a less appropriate choice for his duchess, but no other woman tempts him…

Drawn together by an irresistible desire, duke and courtesan agree to a short affair. But their mutual need proves insatiable, growing stronger with each night together. The duke becomes convinced that they must marry – but can Esmeralda ever trust a man fully? Her one last secret will either draw them together or drive them apart forever – when she finally shares it, can they put the betrayals of the past behind and forge a future on their own terms?

Buy the ebook:

Buy directly from the author at Hazel & Honeysuckle Press and have your ebook delivered via BookFunnel

Buy The Duke’s Desire in paperback:

Kickstarter Plans

Posted on May 8, 2025 by Deborah Cooke

I’ve been thinking about Kickstarter and new editions of my books, and am revising my plans for campaigns to run this year. The current economic situation made me reconsider my plans, but now I have a new strategy.

As much as I love the shiny books with foil, they end up being pretty expensive to produce – and they have to cross borders, which means they’ll likely incur tariffs now. I know I wouldn’t be in a hurry to buy pretty books without being sure whether there would be tariffs or how much they might be. Also, since my books are in series, to collect the whole series in the pretty format, you need to buy multiple books. I don’t think in this economy there will be as many people fired up about spending $80 per book, no matter how pretty they are. Production costs drop with a print run of several hundred books, but hmm, I could end up with 1000 hardcovers in my garage pretty easily. The mister likes to park the car there. And such editions often are printed in Asia, which might mean more tariffs.

On the other hand, I really enjoy the Kickstarter campaigns. I like creating the new editions and though the campaigns are challenging for me to set up, I think they’re a good exercise for me in improving my marketing skills. Plus I love the interactions with readers and backers.

In my January campaign, the new editions of my time travel romances were in trade paperback, and those books were drop-shipped from the printer to backers. Since this printer has facilities in the US, UK, AU and EU, that meant that fewer books had to cross borders to be delivered. It also kept down the shipping costs since the books shipped once (instead of twice, as they must when I sign them). Each book had a page in the front for a bookplate, and I sent signed bookplates to backers to place in their books. So, the books ended up with a signature and for a fraction of the cost of shipping entire books to me and then to backers. So, this will be my model going forward, at least for the short term.

Learn more about the Kickstarter campaigns for special editions of my historical romances, coming in 2025

I have two historical romance campaigns in the works at Kickstarter. First up, there will be new print editions of The Champions of St. Euphemia. For the hardcovers, the dust jackets will be new images, type and object based, and there will also be new images on the case laminates. The trade paperbacks will be similar to the new editions for Blood Brothers: the outside of the cover will have the new type and object based image, while the illustration of the couple will be duplexed, i.e. printed on the inside of the trade paperback cover. The books will have new interiors and chapter headers. There will be bookplates that will be signed and mailed separately to backers, and a special page in the book for that bookplate. These books won’t ever be available at retailers, just directly from me.

There will also be new maps for the series included in the print books and available as digital downloads. Backers who buy all five books in either print format will also get a luxe foiled bookmark and a set of stickers featuring the couples from the illustrations. There are more details to work out, but I’m planning to run this campaign in July – the designer is working on the covers now and I’ll show you them as they’re finished up. I should have actual books before the campaign so you can see them.

The second campaign will run closer to the end of the year, though deliveries won’t happen before Christmas. It will be for my Regency romance series, the Ladies’ Essential Guide to the Art of Seduction. Right now, these books are available in mass market paperback, which has become markedly less cost effective now in print-on-demand. (That’s due to increased paper costs that came into effect on April 1.) We’ll do them in trade and hardcover in the campaign with new covers (no people) and some additional character art. There will be signed bookplates and a bookmark for this campaign, too. I may try a different printer for those: I’m liking the idea of a slipcase for the series, so need to learn more about sources for that.

The new book in this campaign will be The Daughter’s Disguise, Ophelia Pearl’s story and book #7 in the series. It will be available first from Kickstarter, in both ebook and print. I’ll put it up for pre-order at the portals after the campaign, and it will ship from there in summer 2026.

These campaigns also give you the opportunity to buy previous Kickstarter editions, so if you’ve missed a campaign, you can still add those books to your keeper shelf. They probably won’t have all the add-ons, though.

Right now, you can follow the campaign for the new editions of The Champions of St Euphemia, right here, and KS will notify you when it launches.

Bye Bye Store

Posted on November 5, 2024 by Deborah Cooke

I’ve spent much of this year creating an online store with Shopify called Deborah Cooke’s Books, but this month, I’m shutting it down.

I had an online store years ago with Selz and found that readers preferred to buy ebooks at their portal of choice. Print books didn’t sell that well because of the high cost of postage from Canada. I had thought that things might have changed in the intervening years, but not so much. Not enough to keep mucking with the store. As with my previous store, the developers roll out new features and themes and updates all the time, and maintaining the store has been more time-consuming than I’d like.

I’m trying to clear my desk so I spend less time on admin and have more time to write.

So, the store is going away this month.

You will still be able to buy ebooks directly from me, using buy links here on the website. These will be PayPal buy links, and once you pay, you’ll get an email from BookFunnel to download your book. I have to rebuild these, so will start with the digital boxed sets.

Print books will be available directly from me at in-person events and booksignings. You’ll find a schedule of those on the Booksignings page on my Deborah Cooke website. There will be a pre-order form 60 days before each event, so you can be sure to get whatever books you want.

Also, the exclusive editions created at Kickstarter will be available in future Kickstarter campaigns for that subgenre. You can follow me at Kickstarter here to see what’s in the works.

You can also, of course, send me an email anytime you’d like to buy a signed book. We’ll work out the postage, I’ll send you a Paypal invoice, and your books will be sent on their merry way to you.

Coming Up Next

Posted on July 31, 2024 by Deborah Cooke

As you probably have guessed, I’ve been working on a new medieval romance series and now I have a tentative schedule and release plan. It’ll be a trilogy of medieval Scottish fantasy romances, which will launch next year.

Each book will be available first via a Kickstarter campaign, in ebook and trade paperback. I plan for the KS campaign for book one to be next winter, maybe March or April, because I want to have the book written first. There will also be some campaign goodies, and you’ll be able to order the print editions from previous KS campaigns (for Blood Brothers and the Bride Quest), as well. The first book will be on pre-order at the retailers at that time, to deliver at least six months after the KS campaign ends. I’m thinking it will be a December release.

So, at KS, you’ll be able to get the book early, get your print copy signed and get campaign goodies exclusive to the campaign.

I’ll plan for the second book’s Kickstarter campaign to be later next year, possibly not with delivery of print books available for the holidays. (Things get very slow at the printers due to volume from October onward.) In that campaign, you’ll be able to get an early copy of book two in ebook or trade paperback, and also add book one if you missed it, and snag some campaign goodies for your hoard.

The Kickstarter campaign for the third book will be in 2026. I haven’t decided yet whether the hardcover editions of all three books will be part of that campaign or a separate campaign. I always want to read and love a book before I commit to having it in a collectible hardcover on my shelf, but your view may be different. We have time to work that out!

The Crusader's Bride, book one of the Champions of St. Euphemia series of medieval romances by Claire Delacroix — The Crusader’s Bride

In between, there may be a Kickstarter campaign for new print editions of The Champions of St. Euphemia series in trade paperback with duplex covers and in hard cover with a dust jacket. Like the Blood Brothers‘ Kickstarter editions, these will have the illustration of the couple on the inside of the trade paperback cover and on the case laminate of the hardcover. The outside of the trade paperback and the dust jacket on the hardcover will have the type.

These illustrations are already done as they’re on the current editions. I love them to pieces and want to celebrate them with the new editions. I’m also still on the hunt for someone to draw a map. The timing of that campaign depends upon my workload and how things go.

So, my tentative 2024 schedule looks like this:

The Bluestocking's Bargain, book five in The Ladies' Essential Guide to the Art of Seduction Regency romance series by Claire Delacroix

October – The Bluestocking’s Bargain (Pre-order available now)
March – Kickstarter for book one of the new series
April – The Duke’s Desire
June – Kickstarter for The Champions of St. Euphemia
October – Kickstarter for book two of the new series
December – publication date at the portals for book one of the new series

In 2026, book two of the new series will release at the portals, and there will be a Kickstarter for book three of the new series.

Clearly, there should be some additional hist-rom releases next summer and fall, but we’ll keep things a little loose as yet. Those Kickstarters can chew up a lot of time, but I’m hoping they get easier. I worked out my writing schedule and things were tight at the end of 2024. To keep The Duke’s Desire from sliding to May, I made it book #6 of that series and put the planned book 6 (which had been slated for January) on the back burner. I think we’re all more interested in the duke and Esmeralda’s story, so that one has to be finished up.

On the other side of my office, I have a new contemporary romance series launching in February. My current plan is for The Carpe Diem Café to have three releases next year: Just Trouble in February, book two probably in June and book three probably in October. I have a lot of writing on my schedule and I’m excited about all of these stories.

I’ll tell you more about the new medieval fantasy romance trilogy when the Kickstarter campaign is in preview and can be followed.

Blood Brothers Hard Cover Special Editions

Posted on May 3, 2024 by Deborah Cooke

A bit belatedly, I realized that I hadn’t shown you the hard cover special editions of the Blood Brothers books. We’ll fix that today. 🙂

New hardcover edition of The Wolf & the Witch by Claire Delacroix, with dust jacket and illustration on case laminate

These editions have the new illustrations by Dar Albert. I showed off the trade paperbacks with their duplex covers (which have the illustrations on the inside of the cover) in this post. For the hard cover, there’s a dust jacket with the type and the illustration appears on the case laminate, like this digital mock-up to the right. Both have a matte finish that feels really luxe to me.

Let’s look at the actual books now that I have a few on my shelf. Here are the four books with their dust jackets:

Blood Brothers series of medieval romances by Claire Delacroix - special hardcover editions

Here are the fronts of the case laminates:

And the backs of the case laminates:

These special edition interiors include some different typographic elements, but also include the Blood Brothers map and family trees. The family tree for Jean Le Beau is in all four books, then each book has a family tree for the hero and for the heroine. Those elements are included in all of the special editions – ebook, trade paperback and hardcover.

Blood Brothers series of medieval romances by Claire Delacroix - special hardcover editions with family trees

The Blood Brothers map is included in these editions, too, and we split it so details wouldn’t vanish into the gutter.

Blood Brothers series of medieval romances by Claire Delacroix - special hardcover editions with map

Finally, there’s a list of acknowledgements in these editions to thank all the Kickstarter backers who helped bring these editions to life. There are more on the other side of the page.

Blood Brothers series of medieval romances by Claire Delacroix - special hardcover editions with acknowledgements

You can pre-order signed copies of the print books in my online store – that will be for the first fulfillment after the Kickstarter campaign, and I’ll place that order in June. I’ll include the Blood Brothers bookmarks with these orders, too.

The spiral notebooks that are left are also available in the store now. They won’t be restocked, so once they’re gone, that’s that. You’ll find them in New Arrivals there, as well as the discounted sample copies of The Hunter & the Heiress that I ordered in advance of the campaign. Those two sample books have the illustration on the cover, but don’t have the map or family trees inside.

Claire Delacroix

Bestselling Author of Medieval Romance and Fantasy Romance

Category Archives: Print Editions