Conflict of Hearts

Occasionally, one of my early books is reissued in a Large Print library edition. This time, it's Conflict of Hearts, one of those ingenue/sophisticated hero books so much loved when I first started writing.

Noah Jordan was the most sophisticated hero I'd ever written and, since the story centred around a marriage of convenience, I was hoping for a "wedding cover". I had written the prettiest outfit for Lizzie French, my heroine, but when my author copies arrived I was horrified to see that my bride looked as if she'd been dragged through a hedge backwards, and my hero looked as if he hadn't bothered to shave, despite having laid on a lavish reception, determined that the world should think this was the real deal.

Clearly, the artist was trying to get over the fact that this was not a "happy" wedding and decided that scruffy was the way to go and the whoever chose the cover art for the Linford cover seems to have chosen the same route.

Here's the way I saw it:

Lizzie didn't see Noah again before the wedding.  Olivia bore her away to her apartment, fussed over her, took her shopping to all her favourite boutiques and clutching James French's credit cards swept aside Lizzie's desperate protestation that she really didn't need a dream outfit for a quiet wedding with just a few witnesses present.
    'The wedding dress isn't for the guests, my sweet, it's for Noah.  It should be special.  He deserves it.'
    And what on earth could she say to that?  So she submitted to gentle bullying and even she had to admit that the pencil slim skirt and tiny jacket of the suit that Olivia finally declared 'exquisite', was just that, the old ivory of the silk perfect against her peachy complexion.  The matching hat, a delicate confection of silk leaves, completed the outfit to Olivia's total satisfaction.

I am, however, feeling rather more sympathetic on the subject of cover art these days. Having spent days looking at images for the new covers for three books I'm in the process of re-issuing as eBooks, I begin to understand the desperation of those who have to provide 50+ covers every month. It's a bit like an assembly line car - you don't want to be the last book of the day.

It really is incredibly hard to find an image that pleases me, will - hopefully - engage the reader, and deliver what is between the covers. It's a work in progress.

Meanwhile, the LP edition is in a library near you. All you have to do is ask and your librarian will reserve it for you. Or, if you're in the US, you can download Conflict of Hearts to your Kindle, or other reading device.