This past week, I discovered a chapter on my hard drive, as I was digging into The Duke’s Desire. I was thinking that Esmeralda and the duke’s story would be the culmination of the series, then I read this bit from Theodora – who is Ophelia Pearl, the aspiring actress, and has a number of secrets.
The next medieval romance in my Rogues & Angels series is now available for pre-order. One Knight’s Bride will be published in December. This is Amaury’s arranged marriage, which proves to be a lot more passionate than this knight expects. I’m going to have fun with this one. 🙂
Amaury de Montvieux returns home from crusade expecting change—but not that his legacy has been claimed by a neighbor, much less that the only way to regain his inheritance is to marry the intruder’s daughter. The maiden is known to be both plain and a shrew, but Amaury does not care: he must hold Montvieux, regardless of the price. He’s never believed that love should stand in the way of questions of importance. Marriage it will be.
Isabella de Marnis secretly admired the handsome knight Amaury, heir of her father’s enemy, long before he rode to crusade, and welcomes this arranged marriage. But no sooner is their betrothal announced than Isabella’s older brother dies in a mysterious hunting accident. When her father succumbs to his grief, Isabella is left alone and Marnis undefended. Fearing that Amaury is responsible, Isabella takes refuge in her ancestral home.
Not to be denied, Amaury storms the gates to claim his bride and secure his legacy. Once victorious, he hears whispers of a plot against him. Has the old enmity between their families undermined their vows? Has his clever wife been scheming to hold Marnis in her own right? Or is she a pawn, trapped in a web of another’s making, in need of Amaury’s protection? Choosing to trust his new bride is the boldest choice he has ever made, but Amaury knows that they can only triumph together. His sole hope is that their alliance is not made too late – but he has not guessed how much Isabella will surrender out of her newfound love for him.
Coming December 2025 Pre-order available at some portals:
You know about the new covers for my time travel and magical romances, and also about my upcoming Kickstarter campaign to launch them. The books ordered through the campaign will have a special tipsheet inserted in the front and each backer will get a signed bookplate for each book to put on that page.
There’s also a digital reward of a downloadable copy of the Tarot de Marseilles deck, for backers to print and colour. This past weekend, I printed my deck from the PDF file, and thought I’d show you.
I printed my cards on 65lb parchment stock and trimmed them up on a paper cutter. There are six cards on each 8.5 x 11″ page. There’s also a page with images for the backs of the cards.
My inkjet printer wasn’t so very happy with the parchment paper, probably because of its weight. When I printed a test page on regular paper, it came out perfectly. The printer seemed to have some difficulty picking up the parchment, so a couple of pages printed slightly off-square. The image on the back isn’t perfectly centered on each page either, but I’m happy with it. You could probably take the PDF file to a copy shop to have it printed on heavier paper, or printed out on regular paper and copied onto heavier paper.
As you can see, there’s also a box to print, cut out and assemble. This is the final page in the PDF file, and you might want to print it on different paper stock. I used the same parchment. This one has just one tuck-flap on the front of the box lid, but I’ve added two side flaps to the lid for the final version to make it a little sturdier.
I also noticed that some of the pip cards don’t have a clear up side. Since the meaning of the cards varies – the interpretation is reversed when the card is upside down – you might want to create a convention when you colour them. I’m going to colour something red at the top of each card.
The other change is to the dates of the campaign. I was going to launch on January 28th and run through February 14, but as the campaign is part of Kickstarter’s Make-100 feature for January, it makes sense to launch sooner and take advantage of any additional visibility from that. We launch on January 15 and the campaign will run through February 7.
I talked about these new covers a few weeks ago, but have more to show you now. 🙂 The pre-order links are starting to populate at the portals for October delivery, but I have more to share with you about the Kickstarter campaign.
Here are the four new covers together:
For the Kickstarter campaign, each book has a tipsheet that will be added into the front of the book when it’s printed. There’s a matching sticker for each book, which I’ll sign and mail to each backer. You order the book through Kickstarter, the book ships to you directly from the printer, then I mail you the signed bookplate and you place it in your book. This saves a lot of postage cost and also gives you a signature in your book.
Here’s what the page and bookplate for Love Potion #9 looks like:
This tipsheet is added to the front of the book at the printer and will not appear in the retail edition. Here’s what the other three look like:
Because January is Make-100 month at Kickstarter, I’m limiting these new editions to 100 copies of each title. The bookplates and tipsheets won’t be available for the retail editions coming in October.
There’s also a digital bonus for backers of the print editions – a downloadable 78-card Tarot de Marseilles deck to print and color. Here’s the higher arcana of that deck.
Why tarot cards? Lilith, the heroine of Love Potion #9 is a tarot card reader and matchmaker. She’s tired of waiting for her own true love and casts a spell to hurry things along – and there are unexpected consequences, one of which is her tarot card deck developing a mind of its own. Each chapter in the book is governed by one of the cards in the higher arcana.
The Tarot de Marseille is an older tarot deck, one that originated in what is now northern Italy. The images on the cards were woodcuts, which would then be hand-colored. I thought the deck would be familiar to Lilith, who lost her true love in the 15th century in Italy, around the same date of these cards, and that it would be fun to create your own deck.
There is also a limited tier with a vellum overlay of the original cover art for Love Potion #9 by Judy York, so you can have both the old and the new covers. There are only ten of those available, so be quick if you’d like one!
I’ve updated the interiors of the books, too, but we’ll talk about that next week. I’ve ordered proof copies of the new editions and hope I’ll be able to share them with you by then in a video. 🙂
First, I (finally) wrote and published The Stolen Bride, Evangeline and Duncan’s story and book #3 of the Brides of Inverfyre series. That wrapped up my To Write list for Ravensmuir, Inverfyre and Kinfairlie. Will there be more stories set in that world? Probably, but I wanted to get to a good resting point and we’re there now.
I also wrote and published the next two stories in my Regency romance series, The Ladies’ Essential Guide to the Art of Seduction. Both The Hellion’s Heart and The Bluestocking’s Bargain are now available in ebook and print.
The Rogue, The Scoundrel, The Hunter & the Heiress, The Stolen Bride and The Hellion’s Heart are available in Italian. I’ve just received the Italian translation for The Dragon & the Damsel and have that to format and publish, too.
I’ve also had the rights to some translations revert to me, so have been making them available in new editions. The Beauty Bride in German was one of those books, and it’s now a free series starter at the portals. The Rose Red Bride in Italian is now available in my edition, as is The Beauty Bride in Portuguese. There are a lot more of these reversions coming in 2025 – once I have all four titles in the Jewels of Kinfairlie series available in any language, I’ll make The Beauty Bride a free read in that language.
I have a Kickstarter campaign planned for January to launch the new editions of my time travel romances. The featured title in the campaign is Love Potion #9, but all four of those books (originally published under the pseudonym Claire Cross) will be available in special paperback editions in that campaign.
The new versions with these covers will be available from retailers in October. You can get your copy signed at Kickstarter, as well as early, with some fun swag. Follow the campaign here to be notified at launch.
I also have a Kickstarter campaign in preview for hardcover editions of The Champions of St. Euphemia, which I hope to launch later in 2025. You can follow the campaign here to be notified at launch.
And now, let’s talk about new stories. First up in 2025 will be The Duke’s Desire, the sixth book in my Regency romance series. The pre-order is up at the portals now.
Claire Delacroix 