Exclusive cover reveal: 'Mission to Mahjundar' by Veronica Scott

It's a good day on HEA! Well, every day is a good day, but today is extraspecial because we have another exclusive, this one for the very first look at the cover of Veronica Scott's Mission to Mahjundar, a science-fiction romance coming Aug. 18. Veronica, who is also an HEA contributor, shares her process for developing her covers.

Veronica: I love the process of developing the cover. I like to do that fairly early on for a new book, once I've started writing and I feel the prose flowing well on the first draft. Having a cover to look at inspires me and makes the book seem "real." All I have to do is finish telling the story!

Beginning with my first science-fiction romance, I've worked with the wonderful Fiona Jayde, who helped me establish the mood and branding for my SFR covers. We've kept the elements of a strong couple against an extraterrestrial background, further emphasized by the color palette and font Fiona applies in each case. I go surfing through stock photos to find some suggestions to give her an idea of what I'm going for and then she does her magic.

Here's the blurb for Mission to Mahjundar:

An attempted assassination left Princess Shalira blind as a child and, now that she's of marriageable age, her prospects are not good because of her disability. She's resigned herself to an arranged marriage rather than face life under the thumb of her cold stepmother. But then she meets Mike Varone, a Sectors Special Forces officer sent to Mahjundar by the intergalactic government to retrieve a ship lost in her planet's mountains. After Mike saves Shalira from another assassination attempt, she arranges for him to escort her across the planet to her future husband. She's already falling hard for the deadly offworlder and knows she should deny herself the temptation he represents, but taking Mike along to protect her is the only way she'll live long enough to escape her ruthless stepmother.

Mike, for his part, resists his growing attraction to the princess; he has a mission on this planet and rescuing the vulnerable but brave princess isn't it. No matter how much he wishes it could be.

But what should have been an easy trek through Mahjundar's peaceful lands swiftly turns into an ambush with danger around every turn. Shalira's marriage begins to seem less like an arranged union and more like yet another planned assassination. The more they work together to survive, the harder it becomes to stop themselves from falling in love. Caught in a race against time, can they escape the hostile forces hunting them and make it off the planet?

Can there be a future for a simple soldier and an intergalactic princess?