Hey Harlequin readers! I have a special surprise for you: a sneak peek at some of the covers we’re really looking forward to in the next few months. Have a look and let us know which ones you like!

The Bikini Car Wash by Pamela Morsi, MIRA, July 2010

Burning Up by Susan Andersen, HQN Books, September 2010

Carrie Pilby by Caren Lissner, Harlequin Teen, July 2010

The Dog Who Healed a Family edited by Jo Coudert, Harlequin Nonfiction, August 2010

The Iron Daughter by Julie Kagawa, Harlequin Teen, August 2010

Gorgeous, am I right? I’ll be back in a few weeks with some more covers that we’re really looking forward to. See anything you like? (We hope so!)

by Amy Wilkins, Assistant Manager, Digital Content and Social Media

They say don’t judge a book by it’s cover, but sometimes it’s very hard not to…especially when a cover doesn’t quite turn out quite like you imagined. And some covers can become notorious–even non-romance fans know about the infamous three-armed woman! (In fact, my college publishing instructor brought in a copy of the original Castles in the Air to class one day. Though I think she might sell it on eBay if she knew how in demand it is now!)

The original release of Get Lucky by Suzanne Brockmann was one such cover. The hero, Luke “Lucky” O’Donlon, is supposed to be the hottest member of the Navy SEAL team that stars in her Tall, Dark and Dangerous miniseries — along the lines of Brad Pitt. The cover? Well, not so much Brad Pitt… Luckily, author Suzanne had a good sense of humour about it!

So when it came time to release more titles from the Tall, Dark, and Dangerous series as part of our eBook program, we thought it was time to give Lucky a cover he deserves. Armed with a budget of next to nothing (so sadly Brad Pitt was out), the Harlequin digital team picked out some potential Luckys from stock photos and sent them to Suzanne to make the final selection.  She ended up choosing an image of a smiling (and most attractive ) man since she describes Lucky as a “happy-go-lucky” kind of guy.

And here is the final cover!

We hope you like Lucky’s makeover as much as we do! And for fans of the Tall, Dark and Dangerous series, we’re thrilled to announce that all 11 books in the series are now available in eBook format individually, as well as the whole collection in bundle format. Click here to see all the available titles.

So now that you’ve seen our pick for Lucky O’Donlon, I’d like to know who you would have cast as the sexiest SEAL of them all?

by Jayne Hoogenberk, eHarlequin Community Manager

The All Things Urban Fantasy website has assembled a team of experts and, from the numbers of urban fantasy books released this past year, selected what they consider to be the 5 best covers in 15 categories. And the exciting news is that a number of our Harlequin book covers have been nominated!

Harlequin TEEN’s My Soul to Take by Rachel Vincent is up for Best YA Cover, Best Debut Cover, and Most Unique Cover, the Silhouette Nocturne volume, Midnight Cravings has been nominated for Best Anthology Cover, and Rachel Vincent is up for even more cover kudos for her Werecat series as Best Overall Covers in a Series. Her cover for SHIFT is even up for Most Anticipated Cover for 2010!

Here are the covers in the order they were mentioned:

Now, we’ve all been admiring the covers here at Harlequin for some time now and in fact several of our boardrooms display blown up copies of the covers for us to freely ogle. So if you like them too, you can help pick the winners in the first Annual Urban Fantasy Awards! The nice thing about this contest is that everyone who votes will be entered to win some wonderful prizes AND international voters are eligible to win the Grand Prize*, however other voter prizes will be limited to US/Canada or UK as noted on the website.

Here are the prizes listed below:

* Grand Prize: $25 Amazon Gift Certificate plus your choice of any one book that wins its category (if you choose the foreign cover you will not necessarily receive the foreign version). Open internationally!

Additional winners will receive either:

* A signed copy of DEADTOWN by Nancy Holzner (nominee for Best Debut Cover)
* A signed copy of HEX IN HIGH HEELS by Linda Wisdom (nominee for Best Floating Head Cover) along with a couple hex-y goodies.
* A copy of DESTINY OF THE WOLF by Terry Spear (nominee for Best Male with Animal Cover)
* A personalized copy of THE COLD KISS OF DEATH by Suzanne McLeod (nominee for Best Floating Head Cover) *UK only
* Two copies of MY SOUL TO TAKE from Harlequin

Click HERE to vote and enter to win in the 1st Annual Urban Fantasy Cover Art Awards and cheer for your favorite covers…

Good Luck!

What other covers did you love this year and would nominate?