Today I am so pleased to welcome Liv Rancourt to Joyfully Jay. Liv has come to share an exclusive cover reveal and talk to us about her latest release, The Icon Thief. Please join me in giving her a big welcome!
Thanks so much, Jay, for working with me and the other authors of The Pharaoh’s Promise. I’m excited to be showing off our cover art, and I appreciate the boost you’re giving us!
This project took a while to come together, and tbh, I sometimes need to pinch myself to prove that it’s really happening. This is how it all went down…
Author Lucy Lennox runs a page for m/m authors, and once a year—or thereabouts—she’ll make a post, soliciting ideas for shared world or anthology projects. I commented on her Jan ’23 post, saying I wanted to take part in a shared world, paranormal/historical series. You know how they say that if you want something to happen, you might have to do it yourself? Welp, that’s how it went. A bunch of authors liked my idea, and over time, The Pharaoh’s Promise took shape.
I’m the ringleader, more or less because I kept bugging people to make this happen (lol). There were times when I worried the other authors would see my name in their email inbox and groan, but as we got closer to the finish line, everyone has really stepped up. Every author in this group has contributed, and they’ve been really cool to work with!
Each story is set in a different time period. Rebecca has the Regency Era covered (with a few time jumps to spice things up), while my book The Icon Thief is set in 1855. Irene Preston’s book is set in Ancient Egypt (BCE), TJ Nichols’ book has a time travel element and jumps between the current day, post WW2, and Ancient Egypt, and Connor Peterson’s story happens in the 1950s.
I promise you, there’s something for everyone.
The thing that ties the books together is an ancient love spell left in a pharaoh’s tomb. That spell influenced the objects around it, and over time, those artifacts have been spread around the world, causing all kinds of shenanigans. Shenanigans of the loving kind, of course.
Rebecca Cohen’s book, The Eternal Spell, will be the first in the series to publish on Oct 7—you can check out her cover reveal on Jay’s site from last week—with the rest of the books to follow. We do have a sixth book that won’t come out till spring, for reasons outside the author’s control. You’ve got so much to look forward to!
Thanks again, Jay! I hope your readers will find something they like in this series!
Blurb
An ancient Egyptian priest created a love spell, one that would keep his lover close for all eternity. The sands of time have spread that spell far and wide, bringing love to some unexpected places….
Hugh’s cousin is in trouble, and he’s asked Hugh for a favor: retrieve a stolen icon and return it to Alexandria. Except the icon is in the possession of a priest who might not be wholly human, and that priest is on a steamship headed to England. And the icon is being guarded by a vampire.
Hugh hates vampires.
But Aharon hasn’t been a vampire for long, and he doesn’t have a lot of love for the priest. Hugh, however, is just his type….despite the man’s apparent aversion to his nature.
It doesn’t take much to convince Aharon to help retrieve the icon, thought fighting the demon priest is a much bigger challenge. That’s nothing compared with convincing Hugh to return Aharon’s affection, even with the help of a figurine from an ancient tomb.
Bio
Liv Rancourt is a multi-published author of m/m romance. Because love is love, even with fangs.
Liv likes to write stories about vampires, either contemporary or historical. Sometimes she branches out, but there’s always magic, and there’s always romance. She also co-authors two m/m paranormal romance series with Irene Preston. Their partnership works because Liv is good at blowing things up and Irene is good at explaining why.
