Category Archives: Romance Cover Art

REVIEW – Secrets of Autumn – Joan Elliott Pickart

05 Friday Sep 2014

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Secrets of Autumn by Joan Elliott Pickart
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Secrets of Autumn coverThe Secrets of Autumn #162 – Joan Elliott Pickart (Oct 1986)

Meetup: Slapstick. Heroine pretends to be unfashionable and unattractive while she temps for a handsome architect to gather psychological data for her dissertation.

Conflict: Hero falls in love with plain jane heroine because he’s looking to settle down, and feels betrayed when he learns that she is actually fashion-forward.

80s standouts: Were human subjects research protocols not run through an IRB in the 80s?

His fashion: Not terrible. Very little brown, surprisingly.

Her fashion: It wouldn’t be the 80s without a teal blue shirtwaist dress.

The Penetration Station: “He came to her with strength tempered by gentleness, and she received him with love” (p. 87). Meh. Not Joan’s strong suit.

Cover Art: Nick Caruso. They’re both wet.

Survey Says: Joan Elliott Pickart does fun romps better than tragic sap. This one was a romp. Fun and funny. Actually liked secondary character (hero’s male chum) – Bish Terzoni. Bish Terzoni?

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Enjoy old-school historical romance? Me too! Start with Wolfe Island. It’s available in paperback, ebook, and Audible.

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Caught the Bantam Loveswept wave?

03 Wednesday Sep 2014

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I’m afraid I have. I caught it back in 1984, the year of the line’s debut. That’s when my mother first starting receiving the books monthly by the half-dozen, boxed in cardboard, and to the wrath of my father who lamented the subscription fees. (It wasn’t the only box of books she received each month.)

It’s easy to see how a 13-year-old Catholic school girl could have loved these stories, fallen in love with the very idea of being swept off her feet…and (a little too early) into the bedroom.

As a 43-year-old? I’m having fun swimming in the retro. Brown suits and yellow dresses. Phone books and travel agencies. Illustrated front covers. A lost art.

On sale on Etsy by Curiosities39t

On sale on Etsy by Curiosities39t

And the marketing campaigns. My favorite – a 1-800 number to call to assist Bantam with research on its readership. These bits of ephemera are making my re-reading of the Loveswept line more fun than even Joan Elliot Pickart’s opening-scene, open-mouthed, stranger-danger kisses.

Try one for yourself. The entire Bantam line was digitally re-released in 2011.

Enjoy old-school historical romance? Me too! Start with Wolfe Island. It’s available in paperback, ebook, and Audible.

Sign up for more vintage romance reviews. Subscribe to Giulia’s newsletter! I read and write romance and could talk about either, all day long.

Wolfe Island, illustrated

26 Tuesday Aug 2014

Posted by in Romance Cover Art

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by Tracy Hetzel of Long Blue Straw

by Tracy Hetzel of Long Blue Straw

I am taking the leap and have contracted with illustrator Tracy Hetzel of Long Blue Straw to draw for the cover of Wolfe Island. It’s a risk, what with the norm being photographs of women in ball gowns draped over bannisters, or their heroes. Will it be possible to create an original cover and still convey the genre of historical romance? We will see.