Not only is the brand new Dark-Hunter® novel The Guardian out in all UK book shops today (run, don’t walk, to your nearest book shop or buy it here now!), we are also pleased to be able to let you know that Sherrilyn Kenyon, international megaseller (and the only author we know of to have an entire convention completely dedicated to her), will be coming to the UK in 2012!!!

About the book:

The Guardian is the 5th Dark-Hunter® title to feature a Dream-Hunter®, and follows Dream-Hunter®, Lydia who is sent to the Nether Realm to find the missing god of dreams before he betrays secrets that could threaten the future of earth itself. If she fails, an ancient evil will roam the earth once more and no one will be safe. But as Lydia soon finds out, evil is always seductive . . .

About the tour:

Sherrilyn Kenyon’s UK author tour will coincide with publication of 2012 Dark-Hunter® novel, Time Untime (publishing in autumn 2012). The tour will be Kenyon’s first UK event since her sell-out impromptu book signing at Murder One in 2007.

Whether you are one of the wonderful fans who queued the length of Charing Cross Road that winter day in 2007, or a newcomer ready to meet one of the founders of the now iconic paranormal romance genre, stay tuned to SherrilynKenyon.co.uk for updates including confirmed tour dates, and information about how you can buy tickets to what will be the UKs biggest paranormal romance author tour of 2012!

The Guardian is available from all good book shops now! Read the first chapter and check out the AMAZING US book trailer now!

If like us you have already devoured Retribution and can’t wait for your next Dark-Hunter® fix why not check out this first chapter excerpt from Sherrilyn’s brand new novel, The Guardian?

About the book:

As a Dream-Hunter, Lydia has been charged with the most sacred and dangerous of missions. She’s to descend into the Nether Realm and find the missing god of dreams before he betrays secrets that could kill all of them. What she never expects is to be taken prisoner by the Realm’s most vicious guardian. Seth’s time is running out. If he can’t hand over the entrance to Olympus, then his own life and those of his people will be forfeit. No matter the torture, he hasn’t been able to break the god in his custody. But when a rescuer appears, he decides to try a new tactic. If he can win her to their cause, then he can save all their lives. When these two lock wills, one of them must give. Lydia isn’t just guarding the gates of Olympus, she’s holding back the darkest of powers from the earth itself. If she fails, an ancient evil will roam the earth once more and no one will be safe. But evil is always seductive …

The Guardian  is available from UK bookshops on November 3rd 2011.

This competition is now closed. Winners will be notified in due course at the email addresses provided to enter the competition.

Back in the spring we announced the launch of our mammoth re-jacketing programme for books in Sherrilyn Kenyon’s Dark-Hunter® series.

Starting with the paperback edition of No Mercy (and a special re-issued version of Fantasy Lover) our design department has been hard at work creating iconic new covers for all 20 books in the Dark-Hunter ® series so far.

This month to celebrate the global release of Retribution, book 20 in the series, and in anticipation of the beautifully re-jacketed books 2-5 in the series (published this September) we are giving you the chance to design your own Dark-Hunter® cover for your chance to win fantastic prizes!

Simply download one of the cover templates included below and fill it in with your unique interpretation of your favourite Dark-Hunter® series title and you could be in with a chance of winning an entire set of re-issued Dark-Hunter® series books as and when they are released. Draw, paint, collage, stencil, take photographs or use any creative medium you’d like to create your cover, ensuring you include the title of the book your jacket is supposed to represent. Then email your image to us at designyourowndark-hunter@littlebrown.co.uk .

Not only will the winning design appear in a future news post here on www.sherrilynkenyon.co.uk, the creator of our favourite design will also win a new look copy of books 1-20 in the Dark-Hunter® series as and when they are released. Three runners up will also receive a copy of a new look Dark-Hunter ® series book of their choice.

So what are you waiting for? Download the template (right click, save target as) and get designing now!

JPEG Template | PNG Jpeg

N.B. this competition is open to residents of the UK and Ireland aged 18 or over at the time of entering only. For full terms and conditions click here. Our privacy policy can be found here.

p.s. click here for one we made earlier!

Less than 24 hours to go until the global release of Retribution – the brand new Dark-Hunter® novel, and the first ever Sherrilyn Kenyon UK hardback!

If you can’t wait that long and have already devoured the first chapter extract we published back in June, mosey on over to US blog Heroes and Heartbreakers to read the prologue now.

And don’t forget to be here tomorrow, when we will be offering you chances to win copies of Retribution and every other Dark-Hunter® novel published in the UK so far!

Oh our goodness – it’s arrived! Click here to read an extract from the first chapter of Retribution – the brand new title in the Dark-Hunter® series – now!  Retribution will be Sherrilyn Kenyon’s first ever UK hardback and is published by Piatkus on the 2nd of August. Stay tuned for chances to win.

For more info on Retribution including links to pre-order your copy visit the title page here.

Set in Kenyon’s richly imagined world full of hunky heroes, skulking vampires and fearless females, and perfect read in sequence or as standalones, these books are the ultimate sexy spring reads for existing Kenyon fans and newcomers alike. They look pretty fantastic too (cue book envy on the beach, bus, park bench, tube …)

To celebrate publication we have 10 copies of each book to give away. All you have to do to be in with a chance of winning a copy is answer the question below.

N.B. Winners will be contacted by email and asked which of the two titles on offer they’d like to receive. Either way we promise you are in for a treat. Click here for full Terms and Conditions.

Stay tuned to the website for more news on our mammoth Dark-Hunter® series re-jacketing programme and more chances to win some fantastic looking, unputdownable Dark-Hunter® series books.

Q: How many books are there in the Dark-Hunter ® series?

a) 9
b) 19
c) 119

Complete the form below to enter!

Invincible, the electrifying second novel in the Chronicles of Nick series, is published in the UK today and to celebrate this awesome fact we have 12 copies of the book to give away!

Invincible, picks up where Infinity (book one in the series) left off. Teenager Nick Gautier has swapped fighting with his teachers for fighting the undead and he is fast learning to rely on his new found powers to protect the world from a kind of evil he could never before have imagined.

Then, just when he thinks things can’t get any worse, he wakes up to find himself enslaved in a world of shapeshifters and demons out to claim his mortal soul.

Nick is being groomed by the darkest of powers and if he doesn’t learn how to raise the dead by the end of the week, he will become one of them . . .

Exciting stuff! A scintillating extract can be found here.  (Important to note for any Kenyon newcomers, as with all of Sherrilyn’s titles Invincible is also great read as a standalone!)

To be in with a chance of winning a copy simply answer the question below.

Please note:

This prize draw is only open to residents of the UK and Ireland aged 12+ at the time of entering. If you are younger than 16 years of age, you must get the permission of a parent or guardian to enter the draw. Click here for full Terms and Conditions.

Q: What was the name of book one in the Chronicles of Nick series?

a) Insanity
b) Impunity
c) Infinity

Complete the form below to enter!

Your answer will be entered into a prize draw and 12 winners will be randomly selected from all the correct entries received.

N.B. Entries from outside the UK and Ireland or from entrants who do not otherwise meet the full entry criteria will not be processed so please make sure you have read and understood the Terms and Conditions BEFORE entering this prize draw.

If you can’t wait that long why not check out this ah-mazing book trailer put together by Sherrilyn’s US publishers?

Sensational New Cover Style!

Those of you who already have your Kenyon titles on pre-order (or who keep an avid eye on the ever changing face of our UK Books page) will know that April 2011 sees the launch of a mammoth re-jacketing programme for Sherrilyn Kenyon’s Dark-Hunter® titles here in the UK.

Starting with the paperback edition of No Mercy (and a special re-issued version of Fantasy Lover, the book that launched the global Dark-Hunter® phenomenon) all 19 books in the series so far are set to take on an iconic new look.

This is of course, hugely exciting news! So we’ve asked the two lovely ladies behind it all to tell us more about the inspiration behind the new look. . .

Donna Condon, Editor

At Piatkus we adore Sherrilyn Kenyon and her amazing imagination continues to astound us. I mean, she was writing Paranormal Romance before there was even a genre called Paranormal Romance!

Her Dark-Hunter® series is a fascinating mix of supernatural and ancient mythology, powerful characters and sizzling relationships. So much more than ‘just another genre read’, these books are as much about the relationships of the characters that populate them as the supernatural elements within in them, giving them a really broad appeal. You don’t have to be a dedicated genre fan to love them and I decided that it was time to broadcast that message!

When I briefed our designer, I asked for a striking new cover style that emphasised the fact that Kenyon is a unique brand author with mass appeal. The design needed to hint at genre fiction, because of the supernatural strand running throughout the books, but we didn’t want the books to look exclusively supernatural, as we wanted to appeal to that untapped market of 20+ women who love series fiction, mythology, vampires, strong but flawed heroes, romantic storylines and lots of action, but might not necessarily gravitate to ‘genre-looking’ books.

So what we needed was a sophisticated, subtly supernatural and intriguing style which appealed to existing fans of Kenyon’s novels, but also enticed newcomers. I hope you’ll agree that this is something we have achieved!

Hannah Clark, Designer

The greatest challenge as the designer, when creating this new style for Sherrilyn Kenyon’s Dark-Hunter® books, was to devise a look that had the flexibility and the longevity to stay fresh across the huge series of 20 books (and counting!). The new style had to be appealing to both existing Kenyon fans as well as new readers that might not naturally gravitate towards genre books. They needed a look that you would want to be seen reading!

In order to meet Donna’s brief, to create a sophisticated look that would have a broad appeal, it was important to be quite subtle. I have chosen strong, contemporary typefaces that hint at the genre, but still feel quite cool. The challenge was to create a formula that could be followed for all the books, but that wouldn’t appear repetitive 20 books down the line. So, the type and new strong author branding will stay consistent across the series, but we can then experiment with the characters and textures/backgrounds and colours with each one.

My inspiration behind the new look, very much started with looking at film posters. I wanted to find a way of presenting/framing the cover images that would give them a very distinct look. The sense of place wasn’t so important to me, so much as the atmosphere, so we stuck to simple textures and landscapes that hopefully subtly emphasise the supernatural element to the books. The textured edges that frame the background images are moveable, but their main function is to emphasise the heroic characters. The central focus of each book should be these powerful characters (who seem to be what existing fans relate to, and what have made the books a global phenomenon), so for each in the series we have worked with a great photographer to find models with intense and unusual looks and shot them using high contrast lighting to create a dramatic and atmospheric feel.

I look forward to seeing (and being seen with) these fantastic new look Sherrilyn Kenyon covers and hope you will too!

Publication of the new look Dark-Hunter® titles will be supported by book giveaways and online promotions so stay tuned to www.sherrilynkenyon.co.uk for your chance to win fantastic Sherrilyn Kenyon prizes!

This just in: No Mercy has been voted no 16 in the Hyper Hundred best sci fi novels of 2010 .  Well done Sherrilyn!

The paperback edition of No Mercy (published in a stunning new Kenyon cover style) is out on the 7th April in the UK.

For a sneak peek inside click here, and don’t forget to stay tuned to www.sherrilynkenyon.co.uk for insider news about our new look UK cover style, Invincible: Chronicles of Nick Book 2 (out next month), competitions, giveaways and more.