Look what my editor sent me — the preliminary cover art for Tangled Threads, the fourth Elemental Assassin book. So pretty! So shiny! ;-)

Seriously, I think this is another kick-ass cover. There are so many little details that I love about it — the use of the spider rune in the title, the rune showing on Gin’s hand again, how tough and cool bad-ass she looks. And the background is just perfect, since a lot of the action in the book takes place at a train yard.

For those of you who missed it, here’s the back cover copy for Tangled Threads:

I’d rather face a dozen lethal assas­sins any night than deal with some­thing as tricky, con­vo­luted, and frag­ile as my feelings. But here I am. Gin Blanco, the semi-retired assas­sin known as the Spi­der. Hov­er­ing out­side sexy busi­ness­man Owen Grayson’s front door like a ner­vous teenage girl. One thing I like about Owen: he doesn’t shy away from my past—or my present. And right now I have a bull’s-eye on my fore­head. Cold-blooded Fire ele­men­tal Mab Mon­roe has hired one of the smartest assas­sins in the busi­ness to trap me. Elek­tra LaFleur is skilled and effi­cient, with deadly elec­tri­cal ele­men­tal magic as potent as my own Ice and Stone pow­ers. Which means there’s a fifty-fifty chance one of us won’t sur­vive this bat­tle. I intend to kill LaFleur—or die trying—because Mab wants the assas­sin to take out my baby sis­ter, Detec­tive Bria Coolidge, too. The only prob­lem is, Bria has no idea I’m her long-lost sib­ling … or that I’m the mur­derer she’s been chas­ing through Ash­land for weeks. And what Bria doesn’t know just might get us both dead …

In other news, Scott on my Facebook fan page alerted me to the fact that Tangled Threads is now up for pre-order at Amazon. So go forth and buy, if you wish. It looks like the book will be out in May 2011 (April 26 to be exact), unless something drastic changes. I’m pretty sure that book #5 will be out on October 2011, but I’m still waiting on confirmation on that one too.

Anyway, I’m doing the happy dance about how cool the cover is. I hope you guys like it too! ;-)

12 comments so far

Add Your Comment
  1. It’s beautiful. I want to read it NOW! Well, after Venom, but RIGHT AFTER. :pant pant: Okay, I’m calm now.

    • I think it’s pretty cool too. ;-)

      I hope you enjoy VENOM. Sept. 28 will be here before you know it …

  2. It’s gorgeous! :D

  3. Great cover, I really like it! I was reading on Karen Chance’s website (I think) that she doesn’t have a say in the titles of the books. Is that true for you as well? If not, is that common in publishing, that they choose the titles, not the authors?

    • Thanks! I like it a lot too. ;-)

      I have a little bit of say when it comes to titles. When I write a book, I suggest a title for it and submit it to my editor and agent. Sometimes, they like my title and will use it. Sometimes, they don’t, and we end up going with a different title.

      Usually, there is a lot of discussion and e-mails back and forth between me, my editor, and my agent talking about potential titles. My editor also talks to the marketing folks to see which titles they like. So it’s really a group effort. The publisher does have the final say though about which title we use. But I’ve been happy with all my titles so far.

  4. [...] cover introduced this week:  “Tangled Threads”.  Jennifer Estep’s fourth installment in her ‘Elemental Assassins’ series is due in stores at the end of [...]

  5. Ohh more Owen and Gin together? ;)

  6. Here’s hoping! Donovan did not deserve her :-)

  7. amazing book! i cant wait for this to release. Ms. Estep, I am a great admirer of your works (well the spider series, i haven’t tried your others). Abit frustrated that Gin still haven’t told Bria but happy with the relationship between Gin and Owen- they make a good match. I don’t think anybody likes Donovan Caine much. Sometimes i feel like slapping his head and tell him that nobody is an angel in this world so stop being a hypocrite ><

    • Aimi — Cool. I’m glad you enjoyed VENOM, and thanks for the nice words about my books. I appreciate them.

      Yeah, everyone seems to be on board with Team Owen, which is good, since you’ll see more of him in TANGLED THREADS. ;-)

  8. [...] scooper in Cover Art, Magic, promoting Tags: Covers, Magic, Promoting I found this goody at Jennifer Estep’s website. She posted that the cover is preliminary, so don’t shoot me if it changes before the book is [...]