A surprise but a nice one – Anya Bast and I wrote connected stories for the Torrid Tarot series in 2007 at EC. Her heroine and mine are sisters. Anyway, we’d always hoped the novellas would come out in a print combo and we found out via google alert that is is finally available as Crown and Blade

I do like the cover (minus the banner at the top which takes away from the cover art I think). It’s very sexy and I like that blue/silver hue (and he’s no chore to look at either)

Blurbage: Sword and Crown by Lauren Dane

For most of Rhea’s life, she used her Talent as a Practitioner of sex magic to keep her world safe from a powerful dark menace. But tragedy struck and she found herself exiled to Earth.

Fifteen years later, out of the blue, a face from her past appears on her doorstep. The Nameless is back and stronger than before. Her people need her and they’ve sent her first love, Jax, to petition for her help.

As the stakes get higher, with the balance of the very existence of her universe in her hands, she’s also fighting the loss of her heart to a man who walked away from her once before. She knows her past has changed her in elemental ways but while she knows she can trust Jax at her back, she has to figure out if she can trust him with her heart.

Whisper of the Blade by Anya Bast

Emmia feels the emotion of all who surround her. Her Talent is empathy and it’s more curse than blessing. She employs her skill as a justice mercenary, discovering criminals and meting out punishment.

Magnus didn’t kill his lover, Caith, the way everyone suspects. Now he is lord to a keep filled with suspicious, angry people.

Quinn, part three of the ménage à trois that ended in Caith’s death, wants only to set things right and resume the loving relationship he once had with Magnus. He seeks out Emmia and employs her.

In a sexual tangle…
But both Magnus and Quinn are drawn to Emmia, just as they are drawn to each other. All three of them become lost in a weave of scorching and erotic desire coupled with emotional need.