Guns n’ Boys Series Blog Tour
Book #1 He Is Poison
Book #2 He Is Mine
Book #3 Homicidal Instinct
Book #4 Swamp Blood
Book #5 Chokehold
Book #6 Bloodbath
Book #7 Gilded Agony
Midway through writing the Guns n’ Boys series, our covers have gone through a radical transformation.
When we first published book 1, we thought we found the perfect photo for it. It needed to be dark, to communicate its serious atmosphere and the violence between the characters.
But we didn’t take into account a very important issue–despite these books having so much action and blood, they are romances at the core, and that was what the cover needed to project. So no matter how much we loved the old covers for their style, by the time we got to book 5, we bit the bullet and approached our designer (Natasha Snow) for a big rework of all the covers.
We wanted them to be hot, dark and gritty. So yes, we went full man-chest 😉 When starting out in M/M romance we had big dreams of artsy covers. Kat even drew the first one herself! But as we learned about the market and gained better understanding of what makes an eye-catching cover and how it needs to communicate genre and content at first glance, we needed to change our approach. This is what we came up for the series with Natasha:
It features an attractive man, while still communicating the themes of violence, entrapment, and building intrigue.
When the time came to think about the cover for book 8, we knew we needed to keep the series branding and make it somewhat similar in style, but because “Guns n’ Boys: A Breath of Innocence” has much less violence and a sweeter relationship, this is what Natasha came up with for it:
We were delighted to have all this brightness and light after the darkness that always lurks somewhere in Domenico and Seth’s relationship. The bright background will nicely distinguish the books about Mark and Griffith while staying in the same style as the whole Guns n’ Boys series.
To begin your journey with Seth and Domenico you should start here, with Book One: He Is Poison.
— Love like butterfly knives in the stomach. —
Domenico Acerbi. The Villani Family’s best assassin. Ruthless. Vicious. With no patience for weakness.
Seth Villani. The Don’s son. Clueless. Stubborn. In dire need of someone to keep him in line.
Domenico Acerbi grew up ready to give his life for the Family. Ready to follow orders and exceed expectations. A proud man of honor.
The last thing he wants to deal with is training the Don’s son for his future role within the organization. Lazy, annoying, spoiled, and as hot as a Sicilian summer, Seth Villani is no mafia material. But a man who could never become a threat might just be what Domenico needs.
Seth Villani wants nothing to do with the mafia. Unfortunately, he doesn’t get a say when he’s pulled back into the fold. Thrown into a den of serpents otherwise known as the Villani Family, Seth has to find a way to navigate the maze of lies. But when Domenico Acerbi, the most vicious snake of them all, sinks his fangs into Seth, letting go becomes impossible.
If Seth is doomed to follow in his father’s footsteps, he might as well enjoy himself with the most intoxicating man he’s ever met. Maybe he can even fool himself into believing that Domenico isn’t a handsome sociopath who kills for a living.
POSSIBLE SPOILERS:
Themes: Enemies to lovers, mafia, homophobia, assassin, organized crime, forced proximity
Genre: Dark, twisted M/M romance / crime thriller
Length: ~110,000 words
WARNING: Adult content. Sizzling hot scenes. If you are easily offended, this book is not for you.
‘Guns n’ Boys’ is a gritty story of extreme violence, offensive language, abuse, and morally ambiguous protagonists. Behind the morbid facade, there is a splash of inappropriate dark humor, and a love story that will crawl under your skin.
K.A. Merikan are a team of writers who try not to suck at adulting, with some success. Always eager to explore the murky waters of the weird and wonderful, K.A. Merikan don’t follow fixed formulas and want each of their books to be a surprise for those who choose to hop on for the ride.
K.A. Merikan have a few sweeter M/M romances as well, but they specialize in the dark, dirty, and dangerous side of M/M, full of bikers, bad boys, mafiosi, and scorching hot romance.
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Natasha Snow is one of the most amazing cover artists & she proves it Every. Time. She did a really good job with the covers of GnB installments. Glad that you found her. 💗
We love working with her! She’s got such an eye for design 🙂
I LOVE this series!
Can’t get enough Seth and Dom!
I love the new cover design! <3 Natasha did an amazing job!
the covers are so great and eye catching! i think her cover designs are always meant to be and appropriate for your stories. l still havent finished reading GNB but im catching up. im so invested on this!!!😍
Love this series.
Congrats and thanks for the post. This series is great, but no surprise coming from y’all.
I love all the covers, but it’s really nice that you changed the main color for Mark and Griffith’s main story while remaining faithful to its initial theme.
I absolutely adore the amount of consideration and detail that went behind choosing these covers. The stark contrast between Mark/Griff and Dom/Seth’s covers really does immediately translate the difference in atmosphere without even needing to read the blurbs at the back of the books. Thank you so much for sharing the reasons behind the cover changes, too!
What I especially love about the Breath of Innocence title, other than the immediate “Here, have a break from the suffering rollercoaster of pain that was Dom and Seth’s romance”, I do like the hints that there’s still some violence and darkness lurking as a stain towards the bottom of the cover. Not that there *will* be violence in the story, but just… Like a bloodstain on a white shirt, it’s never really going to go away, it’s a reminder that injuries were given and had, but that hopefully it has since passed.