Today I'm excited to share with you the cover for The Frenchman by Lesley Young, the first book in her Crime Royalty Romance series. Given this is an adult romance, there was a certain sense of expectation (not from Lesley, but from designing for this genre in general) to go the more conventional route and feature a sexy shot of a half naked man, but I really wanted to see if we could do something a little different. Luckily for me, Lesley was really open to the idea and we both fell in love with a set of blurred images of the Parisian cityscape, something which tied in beautifully with the title and provided the perfect design groundwork for the series as a whole (stay tuned for The Australian and The American!).
We played around quite a bit with color and texture, adding a little darkness and grit to suit the story, and I hope you all love the result as much as we do!
Crime Royalty Romance #1
Fleur Smithers rarely veers off the straight and (excruciatingly) narrow. So moving to the seaport town of Toulon to live with her newfound biological mother—an inspector with the French National Police—for one year is a pretty major detour.
Son of France’s crime royalty family and international rugby star, Louis Messette, is devoted to his sport, famille and nothing else. But the saucy American he meets one night changes everything. She sparks a desire in him like no other. Possession takes root. She will do as he commands.
Bit by bit Fleur slips into the Frenchman’s realm of wanton pleasure agreeing to his one condition: that she keep their affair secret. She serves up her heart without reservation in the hub of the glittering Côte d’Azur, and the along the soulful Seine in Paris, unaware of the danger she is in. For her new lover’s “family business” will pit her against her mother, the police woman sworn to bring down the Messettes. And by then, far more than Fleur’s heart will be on the line.
If The Frenchman has your curiosity piqued, be sure and sign up for the official blog tour running January 12th to the 30th!
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LESLEY YOUNG
Lesley Young is an award-winning Canadian journalist by day, and obsessive novelist by night. Her debut novel, Sky’s End (Soulmate Publishing, 2013) hit #9 on Amazon’s sci-fi romance paid best-seller list in its first three months of release.
Not too long after that, she started dreaming up quirky heroines who lose their hearts to extremely powerful, flawed heroes, only to find out what love really is while on a dangerous adventure abroad. She called it the Crime Royalty Romance series, and landed herself a pretty big agent at Spencerhill Associates. Never one to take the obvious path, Lesley ultimately decided to self-publish. She’s never sure who or what will pop up in her imagination next. The Irishman? The Spaniard? The Hawaiian? Anything’s possible, and she loves suggestions (or recommendations of really hot, er, talented, actors to work as a muses).
Stay in touch with her and feel free to forward on decent options at Facebook.com/LesleyYoungBooks and @LesleyYoungBks (note: Charlie Hunnam’s already taken the lead role of The American—#3 Crime Royalty Romance...coming soon!).
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GIVEAWAY
Lesley is generously offering up a $25 gift card (Amazon, B&N or iTunes) to one lucky winner! To enter, please fill out the Rafflecopter form.
a Rafflecopter giveaway
