Crimson celebrates 3rd year with new look, new logo
HEA welcomes Tara Gelsomino, executive editor at Crimson Romance, who's here to let us know what's coming for the publisher in its third year. Plus, there's a giveaway opportunity!
Tara: We're celebrating the third anniversary of Crimson Romance this week, and with three years' worth of wonderful love stories under our belt, we thought it was a great time to reassess, refresh and redefine ourselves for current and future readers.
For starters, beginning with our June releases, we've updated our cover look with a modern, minimalized logo design and treatment. Look for the Crimson logo in the top left corner on our striking new covers.
This month, we're also unveiling a brand new motto that summarizes exactly what you can expect a Crimson Romance to be: Strong. Smart. Satisfying.
• Strong characters. We believe romance should feature intelligent, diverse, complicated people who have full lives but aren't afraid to follow their hearts. From the female pro football player in Elley Arden's Crossing Lines to the hot-but-shyly-nerdy restaurateur hero of Ruby Lang's Acute Reactions, our books include a wide array of characters who defy stereotypes and have an original point of view. The Alpha hero has long been a beloved staple of the genre, but at Crimson, we're committed to publishing love stories that feature both strong men AND strong women. A Crimson heroine can be physically tough, like Winter Austin's former Marine sniper turned rural sheriff's deputy Nicolette Rivers in Atonement, or possess great emotional fortitude, like single mom Alicia Fuentes in Casey Dawes' California Sunrise, who is struggling to raise her autistic son. The best love stories center on couples who find their true equals, and that's something we celebrate at Crimson.
• Smart stories. With so many new romances published each month, it can be difficult to find fresh and quirky takes on love. At Crimson, we seek to publish books that offer a new spin on favorite tropes and titles that stray outside the box. Our historicals aren't afraid to venture far from the ballrooms of Regency England to post-Civil War America, such as in Becky Lower's Cotillion Ball Saga, or to 1920s India on the cusp of revolution, such as in Pema Donyo's Revolutionary Hearts. Our contemporaries tackle unique topics and themes, like nuclear power activism in Ashlinn Craven's Core Attraction. We also continue to prioritize diversity, featuring cultures and characters from a wide range of heritages, like the sexy African-American Henderson brothers in Synithia Williams' Making It Real or the devilish Cajun boys of Holley Trent's Demons Undone.
• Satisfying romance. The ahhh moment. Every great romance has one — that climactic scene that just makes your heartstrings sing. Our couples have sizzling chemistry, but they also always have a deep emotional connection with plenty of challenges to overcome on their romantic journey to earn their happy ending. At Crimson, we understand that the joy of reading a romance is falling in love along with the heroine or hero and savoring the anticipation of that first kiss. You'll be swept away by best friends Lily and Ford when they finally give in to their long-simmering feelings in Monica Tillery's The Election Connection and finding it hard to resist the magic as skeptical Owen falls for bewitching Ezra in Christy Newton's Naturally Enchanted. A Crimson Romance is a romance with heart.
To celebrate these fantastic new releases and three amazing years, we're giving away a free e-book every week in June at our website! Each Monday this month there'll be a new Crimson Romance you can fall in love with right here.