Tor is dedicated to supporting the independent book stores. They are vital for the book community, and we all benefit is they flourish and stay in business.

To that end, Tor is offering preorder incentives to independent book stores.

How does this work: the independent book store signs up for promotion and receives 15 key chains and 15 art prints in addition to the hardcovers. If you preorder a hardcover from one of those stores, you get a keychain and an art print at no charge.

The art is by Candice Slater and it is beautiful.

You can’t zoom in on it, because the file is too large to upload, but it is stunning.

As you can see, these are gorgeous. But because the economy is slumping, it is understandable that some indie stores want to have enough preorders before they commit to the promotion.

We are trying to connect readers and bookstores.

If you are an independent book store participating or interested in this promotion, please post a comment on this post with your store’s name, address, and how people can preorder (website, etc.)

If you are a reader looking to get these extras, please check the comments for the store near you. Once we have enough, we will make a list of stores and post it on the website. We have a limited reach, so if you do not see your favorite on the list, give them a call. This kit is on Edelweiss and the Kit ISBN is 9781250438478.

Supplies are limited. This is not a hard sell. I’m not trying to create a sense of urgency. We get paid the same whether or not the readers takes advantage of this offer. It’s just Tor printed a set number of these, so once they are gone, they are gone. Please be aware.

In other news, we’ve received the arcane editions of HL and there will be a giveaway next week. So if you’ve missed out, we will be giving away one full set.

Itsy bitsy snippet from Maggie #2 in honor of the book stores and those of you who have ever done research in a library pre-computer datatabases.

Hazing

“My lady?”

I looked up from the ancient book and blinked a few times, trying to get my eyes to focus.

Luminary Korin stood in front of me, his face a picture of polite anticipation.

“Yes?”

“May I borrow a moment of your time?”

I straightened and winced at my aching back. I’d spent the last five days going through the Chronicler’s collection. The paper catalogue was a nightmare invented by a sadist. Everything was cross-referenced, nothing made sense, and just as I thought I was getting the hang of it, it threw me some kind of bizarre curveball. Trying to find anything was pure torture.

Lorekeeper Orso offered no help, and I suspected he enjoyed making me work for every crumb of knowledge. This was some kind of weird academic hazing, and I had no idea what I had done to deserve it.

I picked up one of the catalogue cards I’d copied and showed it to Korin. “Does this make any sense to you?”

He opened his mouth.

“Don’t you dare, Scholar heathen!” Orso’s voice rang out.

How did he even know? He was in the back room copying the decaying scrolls.

Korin gave me an apologetic glance. “Professional courtesy prevents me from aiding you in this matter. Our two Holy Orders are at once related and at odds. You might say we are siblings, and we must respect each other’s fences.”

Back to work for me and happy commenting to you.

The post This Kingdom Supports Indie Stores With Extras first appeared on ILONA ANDREWS.

It is Monday, and I’m armed with Russian Country tea and a list of BDH questions.

The process of creating the Maggie cover through traditional publishing. How did everyone decide on the theme, covers, etc? Were there other drafts or ideas? Why is the UK cover slightly different in color?

We have now worked with several traditional publishers, so we are a little jaded about this process. Usually it goes like this:

Us: Here is the manuscript for a hypothetical book titled The Rose Dagger.

Editor: Sales hates the title. Can we change the title to Daggers and Roses?

Us: Yes.

Editor: What do you want on the cover?

Us: A green dagger with a white rose.

Editor: Here is a blue sword with a green snake around it.

Us: …

Editor: I will see what I can do.

One month later.

Editor: They made the sword two inches shorter, and turned the snake white. Marketing loves it, and we’re going to print.

Here is how it went with Tor:

Editor: Do you have anything you’d like me to keep in mind? Wish list items, recent covers you’ve loved, recent covers you haven’t loved, any aesthetic boards/Pinterest boards/etc? Anything you want us to know?

Us: We don’t want an item cover. We like this and we don’t like that.

Long and detailed conversation regarding the cover and the title, including who we are appealing to, what kind of cover style would be best, which colors are our favorite.

Editor: Behold a list of artists. Which artist do you like?

Us: We like Andrew Davis. (Although honestly everyone on that list was amazing.)

Editor: Andrew Davis it is.

A few weeks later.

Editor: Here is a sketch!

Us: Love!

A few weeks later.

Editor: Here is the color version.

Us: Love even more!

So it was a shockingly awesome experience. I have summarized it but there were many emails going back and forth. Hopefully, Tor is cool with us drawing the curtain back a little bit to show you how the design of the cover was chosen, because a lot of thought was put into this image and I want to give them credit.

The Cover Process

The primary function of the cover is twofold: it must be eye-catching and it must indicate the genre of the book.

The challenge here was to communicate several things. This Kingdom Will Not Kill Me is an epic fantasy, so we wanted fantasy elements. This Kingdom is also a portal fantasy, so we wanted something to point to that.

Type of cover.

We didn’t want an object cover. This would be an object cover, for example.

They are very beautiful, but there is an awful lot of them. If you search romantasy and object cover, you will find a plethora of books. Many of them have similar elements: sword, crown, flowers, etc. It’s a little harder to stand out.

Here is an excellent example of an object cover from Elisabeth Wheatley. By the way, the second book, Oath of the Wolf, is out.

We didn’t want a cover with people on it. The issue here is twofold again: if we put a couple on the cover, that would be a spoiler and it would also not match the book, because a couple communicates romance like Silver and Blood.

We didn’t want to put Maggie on the cover either.

This beautiful Dominion cover reads romantic fantasy and has slight YA/NA overtones, which is exactly what this book is – it is a romantasy with a young protagonist.

The Curse of Beasts and Magic cover communicates the portal nature and has a person, but also has paranormal romance/urban fantasy overtones, which are perfect for this story, since part of it takes place in our world. It is also clearly romance-centered.

None of this would work, because Maggie is never shown in our world and while This Kingdom has a strong romantic arc, it is more like Kate Daniels in a sense that the love story is there but not central.

So: epic fantasy, portal transition, no objects or people on the cover to appeal to a wide audience that likes fantasy.

Art Style.

The next question was art style.

We didn’t want realism.

This is an actual person with the art backdrop. Didn’t want that. This Kingdom is about a person falling into their favorite book. We wanted to get the “magic book” overtone across.

We didn’t want graphic style either.

This is very clean and geometric, but we wanted intricate and fantastical.

Colors.

This was very straightforward. Tor asked us what colors we liked and we said blue. We also expressed a preference for a lighter color palette. Again, this is to make sure the cover stands out. A lot of the romantasy right now follows a similar color scheme: dark background, saturated red or blue, and some kind metallic. It’s almost gothic-looking.

Cover elements.

The beast: one of the most prominent elements on this cover is a magical beast. While it doesn’t look exactly like that in the novel – the artist interpreted the description – the colors and the general shape are correct. This is a creature that is massive. It looks prehistoric, a mammal with a beak, and it can travel over great distances. It symbolizes travel, transition, and change. And it nods to the dragon in The Neverending Story.

The three circles: these symbolize the moons of Rellas.

The ocean spread before our boat, endless and calm. The clouds melted away, and an enormous sky reigned above, studded with glittering stars. Three moons spilled their light on the water: Prata, a giant silver crescent with gold tiger stripes; Drao, a much smaller ruby-red waning gibbous; and Broe, the smallest of the three, a grass-green, last-quarter moon. The view took my breath away. I smelled the briny salt water, I felt the wind and the steady movement of the boat under my feet, so it had to be real and actually happening. But it was so . . . magical.

The city: this is Kair Torren, the capital of the Kingdom of Rellas, where Maggie lands. This city is a huge part of the book. I’ve read a very kind review once that said that we tend to present cities as characters, and that is probably true. If Kair Torren was a person, it would be an old, experienced assassin who masquerades as a courtier by day and then ruthlessly murders his targets by night.

Kair Torren means castle towers. The city began as a castle looming on a hill and guarding a port. It could be seen from far away, and when people gave directions, they often said, “Go until you see kair torren.”

A little bit of nerding out: the word itself happened to be generated when we created the Rellasian language, and we loved it. There are many similar sounding words in several languages and they all somehow apply. We have Welsh “caer” meaning fortress, and the Norse “Kair” meaning rock or cliff; Hawaii “kai” meaning sea. Kair Torren is a heavily fortified city, situated in the hills overlooking the sea. This word pops up frequently in different fantasy books and games, usually meaning castle, and that also works because in our world, this city was in a book.

Okay, I will stop boring you with research now.

The Mage Tower: this is the first thing Maggie sees when she comes to, and it is a huge shock to the system. Not only does she recognize it, but it is also very clearly magic. There is nothing like that in our world. I have beautiful art of this tower from Candice Slater, which I will show you a little closer to the release.

You can see why we love the cover. It is packed with all of the things we wanted.

Foreign Editions

To date, This Kingdom has been sold to publishers in France, Germany, Poland, Slovakia, Spain, Ukraine, and UK. Sometimes the foreign publisher retains the cover with slight alterations, and sometimes they commission an entirely new cover. This is driven by market considerations. They know what their audience likes and they try to appeal to them.

The UK edition uses the existing US cover with slight alterations.

The publisher felt that the UK market appreciates a more gritty sensibility so they darkened the edges and applied some texture.

I will post more foreign covers as they come along. What are some of your favorite covers?

The post Cover Sensibilities first appeared on ILONA ANDREWS.

It’s always exciting when a new story finds its voice, and House Andrews are happy to announce that This Kingdom Will Not Kill Me – Maggie the Undying 1 will be brought to life by none other than Kristen Sieh!

Kristen is a very accomplished stage, television, and voice-over performer with many audio credits under her belt. She is known for her incredible range and emotional precision, which (no spoiler!) will come incredibly handy for Maggie and her modern-girl-meets-epic-world adventures.

We will, of course, try to bring you exclusive Horde treats like samples, behind-the-scenes moments and perhaps even interviews from the recording process.

The audiobook will release alongside the print and e-book formats on the 31st of March 2026 and can already be preordered from all major audiobook retailers including Audible, Google Play, Audiobook etc.

The post This Kingdom Will Not Kill Me Audio Announcement first appeared on ILONA ANDREWS.

Spooky season doesn’t quite hit the same when everything is scary all the time, but House Andrews always make sure we still have treats in store.

Despite the atmosphere of deep, abiding mistrust (Horde, you fool of a Took!), there is in fact an Inheritance audiobook. It exists. It dual POVs. It will be released just as soon as the final audio edits are completed.

I’m bringing you proof with snippets of Elias, narrated by the very talented and versatile James Konicek. Yes, the same James Konicek who voices Mahon in the Graphic Audio Kate Daniels adaptation, but gorgeously hmmm-y here in a completely different way. Prepare your swoon receptors accordingly.

Three samples for you today, the last one with mild spoiler warning in case you have kept yourself spoiler-free until now:

Fatal Event:

Something happened to mom:

Do not enter if you’re spoiler-fasting. We found something:

If you want to imagine how the duets will sound before we share those teasers, Ilona previously shared a tour de force Ada sample from Hillary Huber here.

Winner, winner, Maggie Dinner

Our “This Kingdom Will Not Kill Me” ARC giveaway has a new winner, selected by the sacred ritual of the Random Number Generator.

Congratulations, Chrissy Bee!

They will be contacted today and have until Friday, October 10th to reply, or we will choose yet another lucky person.

A treat for the road

Ilona shared a surprise snippet from a short story extra over on Facebook, and as tradition goes, I’m pasting it here for everyone who missed it/doesn’t do social media.

“They reached his office, where Lina sat at a pristine desk, presenting the last line of defense to the visitors. The desk was crafted from polished metal with a single white orchid growing from a simple pot. His secretary chose to match the orchid today.  A white dress hugged her body, perfectly tailored and form-fitting, yet elegant. Her deep emerald hair, wrapped in a trendy twist, shimmered with beryl highlights.  Her eyebrows were black and shaped with laser precision, and she had selected green and black to accent her eyes and mauve to tint her lips. As always, the effect was stunning.

Unfortunately, his protege had referred to that precise shade of mauve as “hot dog lips,” and now he could not divorce himself from it. Mentoring Arabella came with its own annoyances.”

What will this be an extra for? That’s for us to wonder, and our chalant book-attracting pheromones to manifest. I’m sure no one will overreact hehe.

The post Goodies for the Horde: Samples, Snippets and Winners first appeared on ILONA ANDREWS.

Drumroll, please. By the grace of Random Number Generator, we have three winners. So many of you have entered that we had to break the comments into pages, and the winner was selected by rolling for page number and then the comment number from the oldest to newest.

(We had a total of 6,028 entries. At some point the site went down for a little bit. This is shocking numbers.)

Because so many of you have entered – this is the largest giveaway we’ve ever had in terms of entries – we added another ARC to the winner pool, so there will be 3 instead of 2.

Our Winners

Winners have been contacted by email. If we fail to reach them by the end of the week, new winner will be drawn next Friday.

Thank you for sharing your happiness with us. If you didn’t win, please don’t despair, there will be other opportunities to win This Kingdom.

Stay tuned tomorrow for the disaster of Froggerton.

The post The Winners of This Kingdom Giveaway first appeared on ILONA ANDREWS.

Australian Availability

First, we are very sorry This Kingdom is still not currently available in Australia. This is happening because of the particular way the Australian book distribution works. A lot of Australian booksellers don’t use automated metadata feeds, which probably means nothing to anyone who is not in the publishing industry.

The important bit is that books distributed to Australia by Australian publishers usually pop up for pre-order 3-4 months before the release date. This Kingdom will follow this same pattern: you should see if for preorder around December 2025.

We apologize for this inconvenience. It is better in the long run, because the availability of the book in Australia will be much wider. Instead of shipping individual orders from US, the local bookstores will stock it, which hopefully will mean less frustration for everyone. We want to keep the local bookstores in business, whether they are in US or Australia.

Cover Thoughts and Questions

We are so glad so many of you are excited about Maggie. Some of you emailed us with questions, most of which we can’t answer due to spoilers. Here is what we can say:

The three circles on the cover stand for 3 moons of Rellas, and the bird is a magical creature. It’s not really a bird in the narrative, it’s a cross between a mammal and a feathered dinosaur, but that’s how the artist imagined it. The creature itself isn’t a major part of the book, so it’s more about what it symbolizes. Hopefully it will make sense once you read the book.

We both really love the cover, because it is at once very different from everything that’s out there now and oddly nostalgic. It looks like the kind of book you found in the library, took home on a whim, and discovered a different world between the covers.

To continue that point, just to clarify one more time: This Kingdom is an epic fantasy with a romantic subplot.

It’s not a grimdark where things are hopeless and everyone dies. It’s not a romance where we meet the hero on page 2, and he immediately goes after the heroine, and we have lots of spicy times with an occasional sword fight thrown in. It’s not a heroic fantasy like Kate Daniels where the protagonist is a genius swordswoman and often solves her problems by kicking people in the face while firing off hilarious oneliners.

It’s an epic fantasy with a romance woven through it. There is a lot of worldbuilding, intrigue, violence, a large cast, and several dangerous love interests. It deals in archetypes. We have a found family, a cute pet that doesn’t die, but we also see people murdered in gruesome ways. It’s the kind of book George would enjoy reading if he decided to abandon his obsession with managing the Galaxy for a couple of evenings.

Maggie is just an ordinary person. She isn’t a virtuoso fighter or an all-powerful mage. She doesn’t know how to kick people in the face. She does occasionally solve her problems with violence, but only as a last resort. She is a fan who ended up in her favorite book, so she is weaponizing her book knowledge.

It is still our voice and our style, but in an epic fantasy form. We will have excerpts and samples for you closer to release to hopefully help you decide if this is the kind of story you might be interested in reading.

Inheritance, etc

While This Kingdom is our current traditionally published project and takes precedence, we have other things we are working on.

Mod R sent us a list of many questions regarding the Inheritance.

Schedule?

Inheritance should come out this summer, then we are working on Maggie 2, then on a self-published project, then Maggie 3.

Sequel to Inheritance?

The inheritance will have a sequel. Mostly because the sequel was requested numerous times. The story grew unexpectedly, and it looks like Ada will need more time to flex her new powers and come to terms with Elias existing. So let’s say one more.

Crossover?

By now most of you have caught on to the Innkeeper elements, but this will not be a full crossover. Ada and Dina are unlikely to meet, which isn’t to say that Dina will never spot a human woman with a very large German Shepherd shopping at Baha-char in some distant future.

Signed copies of Inheritance anywhere? Do you want release events with anyone?

As of now, we are not planning a zoom or signed copies or any kind of release publicity, because we are behind on Maggie #2.

Shop opening for release?

Probably not. We have a lot on our plate. People have been asking for I Am Chalant items, so if we do something, the selection will be extremely limited. But right now the store is unlikely.

Let’s see what else is in this admin list, reminder for Candice, reminder for audio, copyedit arrangements, sign the contracts… Okay I think we mostly covered things.

Now the bad news: we will be skipping the Friday installment this week.

Guys, I’m exhausted. Like I’m so, so tired. We crash wrote the Inheritance very quickly, and we had to do copyedits and proofread on This Kingdom at the same time and juggle the artist and audio contracts. Real life also has been a little dense lately. I feel like Ada: A million moments and all of them taken.

The edit for the Inheritance is substantial. The story won’t significantly change but there is a lot of clean-up. As always we will be streamlining and addressing inconsistencies that creep up in the first draft. And since we were tired, we underwrote the finale, and predictably, to no surprise at all, the editor pointed that out.

I’m sorry, I have got to touch grass for a couple of days before we dive back into the edit. We don’t want to give you a scene that might be completely recut in the final draft. So we will see you Monday.

The post Wednesday Updates and Skipping Inheritance on Friday first appeared on ILONA ANDREWS.

This stunning cover is brought to you courtesy of Andrew Davis. It is absolutely beautiful and we are delighted. You can find more of Andrew’s work on his Instagram.

This Kingdom Will Not Kill Me

The page-turning politics of Game of Thrones meets the worlds-spanning romance of Outlander in this blockbuster new epic fantasy series from the #1 New York Times bestselling author duo Ilona Andrews.
DELUXE EDITION—featuring gorgeous sprayed edges!

When Maggie wakes up cold, filthy, and naked in a gutter, it doesn’t take her long to recognize Kair Toren, a city she knows intimately from the pages of the famously unfinished dark fantasy series she’s been obsessively reading and re-reading while waiting years for the final novel.

Her only tools for navigating this gritty world of rival warlords, magic, and mayhem? Her encyclopedic knowledge of the plot, the setting, and the characters’ ambitions and fates. But while she quickly discovers she cannot be killed (though many will try!), the same cannot be said for the living, breathing characters she’s coming to love—a motley band that includes a former lady’s maid, a deadly assassin, various outrageous magical creatures, and a dangerously appealing soldier. Soon, instead of trying to get home, she finds herself enmeshed in the schemes—and attentions—of dueling princes, dukes, and villains, all while trying to save them and the kingdom of Rellas from the way she knows their stories will end: in a cataclysmic war.

For fans of Samantha Shannon, Danielle L. Jensen, Sarah J. Maas, and isekai and portal fantasy, This Kingdom Will Not Kill Me is the beginning of the most epic adventure yet from genre powerhouse author duo Ilona Andrews.

Snippet

Knight Captain Jehan had a dilemma on his hands. I wasn’t sure what he had expected, but I clearly wasn’t it. I wore a gown in a beautiful green. My hair was braided and styled to the latest fashion with silver cord and appropriate ornaments. My makeup was flawless, and I was looking at him as if he were a mosquito buzzing around me. Clover stood behind my chair, her hands demurely folded, her eyes downcast.

Knight Captains acted in the same capacity as police lieutenants in most large cities back home. Kair Toren had four main City Guard stations, each headed by a Station Commander, who had anywhere from four to six knight captains under his authority. The knight captains supervised the sergeants, who in turn supervised the guards. In terms of position, Jehan was upper middle management, and he hadn’t gotten that far by being dense. Intimidating a commoner was one thing, although under Rellasian law, even a commoner could appeal. Detaining a noblewoman without a solid cause was an entirely different matter, and if handled incorrectly, could cost him his career.

I had been ushered into his office three minutes ago, and he had yet to say a single word.

The Knight Captain gave me a heavy look. He was in his mid- to late thirties, maybe even early forties, a tall man with a severe expression and some silver in his hair. He wore a black and teal tabard over dark chainmail. A teal half cloak hugged his throat and draped down his back with a metal pauldron on one shoulder. A complicated belt of dark leather wrapped his waist, offering a variety of pockets filled with various things a City Guard Knight Captain might find handy.

His office was a large square space in the middle of the Southern Guard Station. He sat behind a heavy wooden desk, with stacks of paper and scrolls on both sides. Behind him the Kair Toren flag stretched across the wall, teal, edged with black, with a stylized Skyline of Eagle Roost in gold. The Justice Chamber was attired in royal colors, mostly purple, but as municipal police force, the City Guard had its own color scheme.

One of us had to start this conversation or I would be here all day.

“Knight Captain Jehan, I presume?” I asked.

“Correct. Whom do I have the privilege of addressing?”

“You sent your people to my house. Surely you know who I am?”

“That is what we are here to determine.”

Knight Captain Jehan was treating me to the medieval version of the “you’re in big trouble” cop stare.

“So you do not know who I am.” I crossed my arms. “Is this how you find out? When you’re not sure who lives in a house, you just have them dragged down here? It seems like an odd use of the Guard’s time and resources.”

He didn’t say anything.

“Or perhaps I am a special case? I can’t help but note that the Guard station closest to my residence is in the north. Instead, I had to travel for the better part of an hour and cross two bridges to be brought here. Why?”

He glowered at me. “Here, I ask the questions.”

“Please start then. Whatever we can do to speed this thing along.”

He opened his mouth.

Something thudded outside the office, followed by the sound of raised voices.

“Just one question before we begin,” I said. “Am I charged with a crime?”

He unhinged his jaws. “Not yet.”

The commotion got louder and closer.

“Am I being detained?”

“Not exactly.”

“If not, am I free to leave?”

Welcome to twenty-first-century police-encounter protocol.

“Just a moment.” He turned toward the door.

“If I am being detained, I request the services of a law scribe.”

“Hold that thought.” Jehan rose, stepped outside, and shut the door behind him.

Behind me Clover snickered.

A deep male voice roared something in the distance. I couldn’t quite make it out, but it might have been “Where?” Whoever he was, he sounded pissed. Rhythmic thuds drew closer. Somebody was coming down the hallway in heavy boots.

The door flew open.

BOOKSHOP

The post This Kingdom Will Not Kill Me: Cover Reveal first appeared on ILONA ANDREWS.

I have it on good authority that This Kingdom just popped up on Edelweiss.

That is all.

The post This Kingdom Is Up For a Preview first appeared on ILONA ANDREWS.