He Looks Like Trouble. Good.

I believe romance covers are very honest.

Not always accurate.

But honest.

A cover will look you straight in the eye and say, Here is the sort of trouble you are about to enjoy.

This is why blood dripping from a gun does not usually say Regency romance.

It says murder.

Possibly revenge.

Possibly a man named something very futuristic who has unfinished business in an alley.

But a Regency romance? We need different signals.

A cravat doing its best.
A waistcoat under emotional strain.
A garden arch.
A ballroom.
A man staring as though love has inconvenienced him terribly.

The cover is the first promise.

Sweet romance whispers. Steamy romance leans closer. Victorian covers often feel a little heavier, darker, more velvet and consequence. Regency has light, polish, gloves, scandal, and the delicious sense that someone’s reputation may be ruined before supper.

And then there is the Lyon’s Den (published by Dragonblade).

The Lyon’s Den is its own little best and I’m fortunate enough to have contributed a few books to this amazing series.

It is not merely “a handsome man in historical clothing.”

It is a wager.

A bargain.

A locked room where everyone is pretending to be civilized.

So my Lyon’s Den covers need to say: yes, he is handsome, but please do not mistake that for harmless.

Because my heroes do have things in common.

Good looks, obviously. We are not here to be noble.

But also integrity.

Intelligence.

A private code.

A dangerous ability to think quickly.

And, hidden under the tailoring and tension, a soft heart for exactly one woman.

Do the men on the covers look exactly like the men in my head?

Absolutely not.

The heroes in my head are impossible. They move differently. They speak differently. They have one very specific expression when the heroine sees through them, and no cover model has yet volunteered to be emotionally destroyed in precisely the correct way.

But that is the fun of it.

The cover gives us the doorway.

The book gives us the room.

The hero?

The hero becomes yours.

Maybe you keep the cover version. Maybe you change his eyes. Maybe you make him more dangerous, more tender, more tired, more amused. Maybe you ignore the cover completely and build him from one line of dialogue.

I love that.

And because these Lyon’s Den covers are such a delicious little gallery of masculine problems, I thought we should peek at them properly.

PAID SUBSCRIBERS — let’s look at these men one by one.

Who looks dangerous? Who looks sweet? Who looks like he would absolutely ruin your life but only after asking whether you had eaten? And which cover hero is secretly holding the softest heart?