Update May 22

I’ve started to post weekly updates on my Cooke site, so I thought it would make sense to do them here as well. 🙂

Five star review for One Knight's Bride, book four of the Rogues & Angels series of medieval romances by Claire Delacroix

As you know, One Knight’s Bride is now out in the world. The print edition is available as well, both at the portals and in my online store. There are a lot of wonderful reviews for this book already which is exciting.

I’ve ordered the next two covers in the Rogues & Angels series from the designer – I’m not sure whether Luc or Thierry will end up being next, twins being as they are, so I want to have both covers ready to go. As with Amaury’s book, I’ll put up the pre-order when the book goes to editing so it’s pretty much ready to go.

We’re also repackaging the books set in the Ravensmuir world right now. The Rogues of Ravensmuir are done. These new editions are available in trade paperback or jacketed hardcover – there’s a new illustration of each couple by Dar Albert, which goes on the case laminate of the hard cover or on the inside of the duplexed trade paperback cover. As always, Dar is doing a gorgeous job – you can see the illustrations for the first three books in this blog post.

new Ravensmuir editions coming summer 2026

I was going to take this launch to Kickstarter, but instead it will be in my online store first, then at retailers. You can order the new print editions of the Rogues of Ravensmuir in my online store right here for delivery in July or look for them at retail portals next February. The ebooks will get the new covers at retailers in February, as well, or you can order them for earlier delivery in my online store.

This week, we started working on the illustrations for the Jewels of Kinfairlie series. Here’s the first pass of the outside covers, though they may change slightly before we’re done:

2026 new covers for the Jewels of Kinfairlie series of medieval romances by Claire Delacroix

Ah, there already have been changes! The pendant shown here on The Snow White Bride has moved to the cover for The Beauty Bride, because Madeline has that necklace, the Virgin’s Tear, which has a clear stone. There are always tweaks and changes before we finish up. As with the Rogues of Ravensmuir, I’ll make the new editions available early in my online store – The Ballad of Rosamunde will be included in the print edition of The Snow White Bride, so its cover here is just for the ebook.

I’ve also signed a new deal this week for The Christmas Conquest to be translated into German, with the plan of continuing through the rest of the series with the same translator. I’ll be pleased to see that series available in German as I think it will do well in that market.

That’s this week’s news!

The Tarot Deck with the New Editions of my Time Travel Romances

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.

Tarot de Marseilles digital reward for backers of Deborah Cooke's Kickstarter campaign

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.

Tarot de Marseilles digital reward for backers of Deborah Cooke's Kickstarter campaign

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.

Click through to follow the campaign and follow it to be notified at launch.

Kickstarter campaign for the 25th anniversary of Love Potion #9 by Claire Delacroix writing as Claire Cross

New Covers for my Time Travels – and a Kickstarter

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:

Once Upon a Kiss, a time travel romance by Claire Delacroix writing as Claire Cross, new cover
The Moonstone, a time travel romance by Claire Delacroix writing as Claire Cross, new cover
Love Potion #9, a time travel romance by Claire Delacroix writing as Claire Cross, new cover
The Last Highlander, a time travel romance by Claire Delacroix writing as Claire Cross, 2022 edition

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:

Tipsheet and signed bookplate for the limited edition of Love Potion #9, coming to Kickstarter in January 2025

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:

tipsheet and bookplate for new edition of Once Upon a Kiss, coming to Kickstarter
tipsheet and bookplate for new edition of The Moonstone, coming to Kickstarter
tipsheet and bookplate for new edition of The Last Highlander, coming to Kickstarter

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.

Tarot de Marseilles deck available through the Kickstarter campaign for Love Potion #9's new edition, coming in January 2025

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. 🙂

We launch on January 28. Click through to follow the campaign and follow it to be notified at launch.

Kickstarter campaign for the 25th anniversary of Love Potion #9 by Claire Delacroix writing as Claire Cross

New Covers for my Time Travels – and a Kickstarter

Just over two years ago, I decided that my time travels needed new covers. We did the new cover for The Last Highlander, then life happened and the rest of the project was put aside.

This fall, I returned to those details, got in touch with my designer, Elizabeth Mackey, and we finished the project. I’m really excited about these covers and that I can finally show them to you.

The new print editions will be on pre-order for October and the new ebooks will be published in October, too.

Here are the four covers together:

Once Upon a Kiss, a time travel romance by Claire Delacroix writing as Claire Cross, new cover
The Moonstone, a time travel romance by Claire Delacroix writing as Claire Cross, new cover
Love Potion #9, a time travel romance by Claire Delacroix writing as Claire Cross, new cover
The Last Highlander, a time travel romance by Claire Delacroix writing as Claire Cross, 2022 edition

I’ll be running a Kickstarter in January to launch these new editions. You can get your copies early, with a signed bookplate and tipsheet, and with other rewards, too. The Moonstone, Once Upon a Kiss and Love Potion #9 have new interiors, as well. The Kickstarter is for trade paperbacks and ebooks.

We launch on January 28. Click through to follow the campaign and be notified at launch.

Kickstarter campaign for the 25th anniversary of Love Potion #9 by Claire Delacroix writing as Claire Cross

New Covers for Blood Brothers Trilogy

I decided to try something different for my upcoming medieval romance trilogy – or to return to something I did in the past. 🙂 Instead of having couples on the covers, I’ve had the covers for these three books redone with the hero alone. This often works well for my books because I write hero-focused stories and we’ll see how it works this time.

Here are the new covers for Blood Brothers:

The Wolf & the Witch is the first book, coming next April. It’s up for pre-order at a number of portals now. I’ve already contracted with Tim Campbell for the audiobook, which will be available shortly after the ebook and print edition.

What do you think?