ILONA ANDREWS

As you probably guessed by now, Beast Business has been pushed back to Friday. Arabella POV ran too long. Don’t laugh.

Today we bring you a companion to the free preview of This Kingdom.

Here it is again, if you missed it. It is a promo done by the US publisher and available everywhere the US edition reaches.

Amazon / BN / Bookshop / Google Play Books / Kobo

Nobody knows Kair Toren better than a stelka. Stelkas can’t talk, but if they could, they would tell you all sorts of secrets about what going on in the capital of Rellas.

This stelka is going to take us on a tour of Kair Toren as envisioned by Candice Slater.

The Mage Tower. Click to enlarge

The Mage Tower is ancient. It smells of magic, and if you get too close, your fur will start crackling. This is where mages of Kair Toren make their magic. Sometimes stupid birds fly into the flower petals at the top and the magic fries them. They are good eating.

The Garden of Soft Blossoms

The Garden is located in an ancient fort, with thick stone walls and towers. It sits on the edge of the city, just south of the North Wall and looks over one of the rivers. It smells delicious. There are a lot of humans there, mostly at night. Sometimes you can sneak to the back and raid the garbage in the back courtyard by the kitchen for yummy tidbits.

The Bad House

This is the bad house. It smells like human blood. The humans inside are mean and they will kill you if you come close. But it won’t stay the bad house for too long. This is where I’m going to live eventually. I will get to sleep on the human bed, and people will give me yummy meat.

The Map

Here, you can have this map. Click it to make it bigger. See, I can be kind to humans. I am not all teeth. Although my teeth are pretty amazing. Chomp.

This is your official spoiler thread for This Kingdom. Speak freely! Ask your questions here, in the comments. The humans said they might do a zoom later and even answer some.

The post This Kingdom Preview: Art, Maps, and Questions first appeared on ILONA ANDREWS.

I hope everyone made it through the worst of the cold. We’ll have lots of good news and releases this coming week to help lift spirits!

First bit of happy: against all odds, Subterranean Press has softened its policy before the might of the Horde and is republishing the Innkeeper Chronicles, Volume One.

UPDATE: This has SOLD OUT now, in less than 24 hours!

This is not something that usually happens, once the stock is exhausted the books are never reissued. But it is something that happens to us. Because Horde power, that’s why!

This is the preorder link and it will go live tomorrow, January 26, at 12:00 PM EST.

To clarify: the link is not broken. It doesn’t lead to anything yet, because it’s not yet 12 pm on January 26. I know your ways hehe!

Subterranean’s reissue is the omnibus of the first 3 novels in the Innkeeper Chronicles series (so Clean Sweep, Sweep in Peace and One Fell Sweep) and it’s a BIG boy.

Over 760 pages of hardback goodness, signed by Ilona and Gordon, with a full colour wrap-around dust jacket, plus the familiar and beloved illustrations by Doris Mantair in both full-colour and black& white inside. The books are already with the printers and should ship out in a couple of months if all goes well.

Secondly, Ilona and Gordon hosted Jessie Mihalik yesterday to celebrate the release of her new romantasy, Silver & Blood, which will drop on Tuesday and is available from all major retailers, in epub, paperback and audio format (and gorgina hardback in the UK. Honestly, we’ve been rocking it lately over here with the pretty editions, yay us.)

We spited the cold and talked about the price of magic, the author–reader contract, what’s new in the Hidden Legacy world and most of all about Jessie’s new Avon-published duology, which is a Beauty and the Beast retelling with a smitten male protagonist, immersive world, and all the hot and dark twists for us to discover!

As promised, you can watch the Zoom recording below or catch it on YouTube via the Mod account.

PS: Edgar de Bruijn, if you’re reading this, the B.A. Bookish Boutique are trying to contact you about your Ilona Andrews merch order, please check your emails.

The post Silver & Blood, Zooms and Innkeeper: The Reprintening first appeared on ILONA ANDREWS.

So much stuff. Okay, let’s see if I can get some of this in here without collapsing.

Winter Storm

We are expecting a massive winter storm. As I am writing this, the outside world is soaked. Standing water lingers on the street and in the driveway. It is the first major rainfall we had this winter season. We need it desperately, because we are in full drought.

Tonight, and especially tomorrow afternoon, all of this will freeze. Ice will coat the ground and build up and down the electric cables, the temperature will drop, and Texas grid, which is made of tissue paper, will likely collapse again. We are already having multiple pole fires and outages.

We expect to lose power. If this happens, we may have to reschedule the Price of Magic Zoom and the release of Beast Business. We have a bit of an emergency with the copy editor, but we found someone else, so we are back on track. If the grid holds, we should release on the 27th. If the grid fails, it maybe more like Friday instead of Tuesday.

The novella is finished and has been through the first round of edits, so it’s not the matter of “it’s not done,” it’s the matter of “it’s not clean.” We need to do a copy edit and a proofread. Mod R has my number, and if we are powerless, she will update you.

Beast Business Release Party with This Kingdom Preview Q&A

We will be doing a second zoom to celebrate the release of Beast Business, probably next weekend – the registration link will be posted on the blog next week. We have been given permission to answer your questions regarding the content of the free preview of This Kingdom during the Q&A, but we will not be revealing any spoilers.

Gordon has promised to stick to that policy. (We are wise to your ways.)

Imagine Books: This Kingdom

This Kingdom is attractive and charming, and it now has several special editions. One of these is by Imagine Books, and I’m here to tell you more about it.

DISCLAIMER: We cannot answer any specific questions, because we did not commission this edition and have nothing to do with the order fulfillment. This was done through Tor, and we are breaking this down to avoid any confusion.

What is it?

It is a box containing the Tor Hardcover with teal edges and some extras.

The book:

The extras:

• Signed bookplate sticker – we sign it and they attach to the book.
• Redesigned front dust jacket with foiling: @jescole.art
• Reverse dust jacket: @davidev.art
• Page overlays: @avoccatt_art
• Bookmark with character art

Add-on option:
Additional page overlay — $11.99

Okay, I didn’t know what page overlay was, so I had to look it up. It is a semi-transparent full page illustration that is almost like a very large bookmark. It fits over the page, so if you wanted to mark your favorite place or a scene in the book, you would slide it in. So imagine a removable illustration. Google came up with this awesome Instagram post about it, so if you want to see the pictures of what it might look like, go here.

(Also, page overlays, super cool, and we will be doing this in the future.)

To reiterate: this is a Tor hardcover with extra stuffs.

The price: This book will be priced at $42.99 plus tax plus shipping (this price does not include the add-on overlay).

The preorder date: the preorder will drop on Imagine Books Shop website on February 28th at 11:00 AM PST. Yes, we will remind you on the blog when it goes live.

The shipping date: This special edition is estimated to ship in JUNE. So, the regular release date for the Tor Hardcover is March 31, but this edition will NOT ship on that date. It will ship later. Here is what Imagine Book Shop says about it:

Why does a preorder take longer to ship, and how does this relate to special editions?
Great question! Our special editions feature custom artwork that is exclusive to Imagine Books Shop—that’s what makes them special. The artwork is designed, illustrated, and then sent to be manufactured. The longer wait time is
because the art (in this case, dust jackets and overlays) must be produced and shipped to us before we can ship the customized books to you.

We are currently estimating that this book will ship in June. Ship dates are estimates. We always do our best to get your order to you on time, but unforeseen circumstances or delays may occur. If there is a delay, we will always keep you updated.

We asked some additional questions. All answers are provided by Imagine Books.

Tell us about you?

“Hey everyone! I work for Imagine Books Shop, and we are thrilled to announce that we are collaborating with Macmillan and Ilona Andrews to bring you special editions of This Kingdom Will Not Kill Me!

As huge fans of Ilona Andrews, we couldn’t be more excited and honored to share these
editions with you. I got early access to this book and absolutely loved it. This is truly an amazing story that is near and dear to my heart. Reading this one was a special experience.”

Do I need a subscription to buy this book?
“No! This order is open to the public. No subscription is required to purchase these editions.”

Where can I buy this Imagine Books Shop edition of This Kingdom Will Not Kill Me?
“Our website is the only place this particular edition of this book will be available.
Here is the link to our website: Imagine Books Shop.”

Do you ship internationally, and what are your rates?
“Yes, we ship internationally. Shipping rates vary by location.”

What is a preorder, and how does this affect shipping?

“A preorder means you place an order for a book that will not ship right away. Our estimated shipping timeframe is June. Our preorder goes live on February 28th.

“Members of our Facebook group get early access to reveals and early access to sales by half an hour. We can’t wait to show you what’s coming! Here is the link to join:
Imagine Books Shop Facebook Group Link.”

Why does a preorder take longer to ship, and how does this relate to special editions?
“Great question! Our special editions feature custom artwork that is exclusive to Imagine Books Shop—that’s what makes them special. The artwork is designed, illustrated, and then sent to be manufactured. The longer wait time is because the art (in this case, dust jackets and overlays) must be produced and shipped to us before we can ship the customized books to you.

“We are currently estimating that this book will ship in June. Ship dates are estimates. We always do our best to get your order to you on time, but unforeseen circumstances or delays may occur. If there is a delay, we will always keep you updated.”

Are these editions limited?
“Yes. Once the initial stock sells out, the preorder will close, and there is no guarantee that we will restock these editions. We typically do not offer reprints.”

What is a page overlay?
“A page overlay is a vellum sheet that depicts a scene from the book. In simple terms, it is an art print (on thinner paper) designed to be inserted into a book to bring your favorite scenes to life.”

There you have it. For all additional inquiries, please contact Imagine Book Shop. If you ask us, Mod R will just paste the link back to you.

The post This Kingdom Comes to Imagine Books and Other Fun Stuff first appeared on ILONA ANDREWS.

Today we bring you two more stories of writers realizing they wanted to be writers.

Alyssa Day

The moment everything changed for me was when I volunteered to pick up an editor (Kate Seaver, then at a small indie publisher, now at Penguin Random House) from the airport for a writers’ conference. We chatted on the drive to the hotel, and I told her about a novel I had in mind. I was working all the time, and I had two small children, so I’d been dithering about writing it. Did anybody really want to hear my stories? (I’d already published a nonfiction book about being a military family during wartime, but I’d wanted to be a fiction author since I was a little girl reading Nancy Drew.) I didn’t even have a title for the novel yet. I just called it Tuna Fish Girl, because the heroine liked tuna sandwiches. (Yes, I know. Awful!)

But I told her about it, and she laughed so hard and said, “If you can write like you can tell a story, that’s going to be a wonderful book.” After that conference, she kept in touch with me, and kept saying, “Send me Tuna Fish Girl!”

So, finally, I did. My agent sent the editor my proposal (a synopsis and 50 pages) on a Friday, and I had an offer to buy it Monday morning. They wanted to launch their new chick-lit line with my book! We even went to auction with other publishers wanting to buy it. (No, everything in publishing does NOT go this well. Think: roller coaster.) I was so ready to quit being a lawyer and try writing full time, so I jumped at Kate’s offer. 

I’ve never changed my mind about being an author, even during the tough years. It’s hard sometimes, making this job work, since I have chronic bouts of clinical depression, but I wouldn’t trade it for anything. I love creating worlds and inviting readers into them, and I will never get over the wonder of writing.

Alyssa’s Featured Release

NOBODY’S QUEST

(June 2, 2026; adult romantasy)

Prophecy insists that nobody will defeat the goddess of war.

Meet Nobody.

For a hundred years, Altarra has burned. The goddess of war, Morrigan, has conquered kingdom after kingdom, leaving only ruin in her wake. Every prophecy says the same thing―nobody can defeat her.⁣
⁣
And after a century of failure, someone finally takes that literally.⁣
⁣
When the goddess Artemisen chooses Soli Graymind―a nobody from the lowest caste who suffers from chronic depression―to lead one last desperate quest, the world laughs. But Soli won’t be alone. She’s joined by five others just as broken, just as lost:⁣
A thief with no Guild.⁣
A noble with no wealth.⁣
A sorcerer with no hope.⁣
A warrior with no morals.⁣
And a prince with no kingdom―the one man she can’t stop thinking about, even when hope itself is dying.⁣
⁣
Together, they are Altarra’s last chance.⁣
⁣
Because maybe being a “nobody” is more powerful than anyone imagines―including themselves.⁣

LEARN MORE Stephanie Burgis

The first time I realized that becoming a writer was an actual possibility – that real people wrote all the books that I loved, and wrote those books as their actual grown-up JOB (whoa!!!) – I was seven years old, and the discovery BLEW MY MIND. I still remember turning to my mom that day, as we drove out on an errand, to share my epiphany: 

“I’ve found something I love even more than reading: writing. I’m going to be a WRITER!”

Of course, because my mom is a smart and practical woman, she responded instinctively, before she could stop herself, “Oh, God. Really?”

As a mom now myself, let me tell you: I get it. What loving and practical mother would want their kid to pin their hopes onto such a scary-sounding, unreliable-paycheck of a career? My family didn’t know any novel writers. We knew vets and math professors and civil servants and other people who made their living with steady, reliable salaries. Good, safe jobs. (Or at least, so they all seemed at the time. All of my friends in academia are laughing hollowly at this point.)

By the time I was an adult, I knew just how unlikely it was that I would ever really be able to become a professional author. But that just made me all the more determined to put my whole heart into becoming the best that I could be, applying for competitive writing workshops, searching out reliable critique groups, and researching publishing even as I majored in different subjects in college and made firm plans for dayjobs to pay my rent.

I sold my first trilogy of novels when I was 31, 17 years ago. Since then, I’ve published a surprising number of books in more than one genre, and I’ve even won a few awards – but even now, every time I sell a new series to a traditional publisher or get a good review for one of my self-published books, I still find myself thinking with tentative hope, “Wow. This really might work out after all!” 

I don’t ever take this career for granted…but I’m incredibly grateful for it every single day.

Stephanie’s Featured Release

WOOING THE WITCH QUEEN

Queen Saskia is the wicked sorceress everyone fears. After successfully wrestling the throne from her evil uncle, she only wants one thing: to keep her people safe from the empire next door. For that, she needs to spend more time in her laboratory experimenting with her spells. She definitely doesn’t have time to bring order to her chaotic library of magic.

When a mysterious dark wizard arrives at her castle, Saskia hires him as her new librarian on the spot. “Fabian” is sweet and a little nerdy, and his requests seem a little strange – what in the name of Divine Elva is a fountain pen? – but he’s getting the job done. And if he writes her flirtatious poetry and his innocent touch makes her skin singe, well…

Little does Saskia know that the “wizard” she’s falling for is actually an Imperial archduke in disguise, with no magical training whatsoever. On the run, with perilous secrets on his trail and a fast growing yearning for the wicked sorceress, he’s in danger from her enemies and her newfound allies, too. When his identity is finally revealed, will their love save or doom each other?

LEARN MORE

The post The Moment Everything Changed: Part 3 first appeared on ILONA ANDREWS.

Happy Monday! Today we are bringing you the sign up form for a Zoom Chat with us and Jessie Mihalik.

Jessie’s new book, SILVER & BLOOD, is coming out on January 27, 2026. I really loved it, and now we get to talk to her about worldbuilding and the price magic exacts for its miraculous power.

The Zoom chat is scheduled for 4:00 pm, on Saturday 24th. We will record and upload the recording to YouTube and to the blog. Registrations is capped at 500 so spots will go fast.

CLICK HERE TO SIGN UP

Please comment with your questions for this panel or send them to Mod R through email.

About SILVER AND BLOOD

On a deadly mission to kill the mythical beast that has been haunting her woods, a desperate mage finds her fate intertwined with the handsome, powerful man who saves her in this dark and sexy romantasy—perfect for readers of Jennifer L. Armentrout, Callie Hart, and Holly Black.

There’s something in the woods…

When a vicious beast begins attacking her fellow villagers, Riela reluctantly agrees to enter the forbidden forest and kill the monster as she’s the only mage available—or so she thought.

Untrained and barely armed, Riela is quickly overwhelmed when one beast turns into two. She fears her death is at hand until the unexpected arrival of a scarred, strikingly handsome man with gleaming moonlit magic changes her fate—and provides a rare opportunity to learn more about her own fickle power.

After being rescued and healed from the beast’s poison, Riela awakens in a magical castle complete with a gorgeous library, a strange wolf, and the surly man who saved her life. She soon learns Garrick is both more powerful and far deadlier than a mere mortal mage—but thanks to a century-long curse, his powers are weakening.

Trapped in his castle and surrounded by the treacherous woods, the spark of attraction between Riela and Garrick slowly ignites into fiery desire. But the more they discover about Riela’s magic, the more suspicious Garrick grows of her identity. As they unravel the secrets and lies connecting Riela’s past to Garrick’s, the tenuous threads of trust between them start to fray.

Because Riela’s life—or her death—might be the key to regaining everything Garrick has lost.

Also, while you wait, Jessie has a free story available on her site. It’s unrelated but no less fun.

The post The Price of Magic Zoom with Jessie Mihalik first appeared on ILONA ANDREWS.

I’m lost, which series is Augustine from?/ I’ve read everything I don’t remember an Augustine? /Is Augustine someone from This Kingdom?

Augustine is the character from the Hidden Legacy series. We first meet him in Burn For Me, which is the first book.

A section of the wall slid aside. The receptionist looked at me. I stepped through the opening into a vast office. We must’ve been in a corner of the fin, because the wall to the left and straight ahead consisted of blue glass. A white, ultramodern desk grew seamlessly out of the floor. Behind the desk sat a man in a suit. His head was lowered as he read something on a small tablet, and all I could see was a thick head of dark blond hair styled into a short and no doubt expensive haircut.

I approached and stood by a white chair in front of the desk. Good suit, in that color between grey and true black people sometimes call gunmetal.

The man looked up at me. Sometimes people with talent in illusion minimized their physical flaws with their magic. Judging by his face, Augustine Montgomery was a Prime. His features were perfect, in the way Greek statues were perfect, the lines of his face masculine and crisp but never brutish. Clean-shaven, with a strong nose and a firm mouth, he had the type of beauty that made you stare. His skin nearly glowed, and his green eyes stabbed at you with sharp intelligence from behind nearly invisible eyeglasses. He probably had to have protective detail when he left the building to fend off all the sculptors who wanted to immortalize him in marble.

The glasses were a masterful touch. Without them, he’d be a god on a cloud, but the hair-thin frames let him keep one foot on the ground with us mere mortals.

“Mr. Montgomery,” I said. “My name is Nevada Baylor. You wanted to see me?”

Montgomery valiantly ignored the purple tint of bruises on my face.

“Sit down, please.”

He pointed to the chair. I sat.

“I have an assignment for you.”

Andrews, Ilona. Burn for Me: A Hidden Legacy Novel (pp. 29-30). HarperCollins. Kindle Edition.

Is the baby tiger ok?

Who do you take us for? Yes, the baby tiger is okay. Nothing bad happens to Kitty.

Does this mean the series is now back, and we’ll have Arabella’s trilogy?

No. You get Augustine’s novella with bonus Arabella scenes and her shorts from the blog. No promises for anything else.

Will Beast Business be available from your direct store? Is it an exclusive? Will it be on Amazon, B&N etc?

Beast Business will be available from all the usual retailers and our store.

Which formats will Beast Business have? When will they be available?

We are starting with the ebook, print paperback, and audio to follow. Print will be shortly after or on the release date of the ebook, while the audio will be a few months out. We are looking for our perfect Augustine audio reader. As always, the price of the POD print edition will be horrendous, but we have to make at least $1 from each sale, or we will be taking a loss.

We will announce the exact dates as they come in.

Will the audiobook be traditional narration or dramatized? Dual POV?

The novella is dual POV but we have made no decisions in regard to audio yet. It is a shorter project and not all audio readers work on shorter projects, but we are in process of reviewing the auditions.

Is it really coming out this January? 2 weeks from now January?! Can it be true?

We are aiming for the tail end of January. It’s the matter of getting the edits done. If we miss this deadline, we will have to push it to summer, because we do not want it to intrude on This Kingdom publishing window. Nobody wants to wait till summer, so January it is.

When does BB happen in the timeline?

A couple of months after Baylors buy their house.

Is this the same artist as the Hidden Legacy special edition?

Yes! Helena is amazing.

Is this Augustine’s real face or Augustine as he illusions himself to look?

If only there was a novella that might explore that question and give us some answers.

Detail Police: Why is Diana not blonde? Why does the cub not have 4 nostrils and a tentacle collar and 4 eyes and is not blue? Are Augustine and Diana the same age, because she is older than Cornelius?

It is so nice to see you guys still being that passionate about the series. It warms my evil heart. Let’s take these one at a time. Diana is not blonde because she changed her hair, which you can find in the first snippet of this novella.

Zeus does not have four eyes.

A creature waited next to him, indigo blue, with a spray of ghostly black and paler blue rosettes and spots across its fur. At least two and a half feet tall at the shoulder, six feet long, with a thick neck crowned with a fringe of tendrils, a short wide muzzle with dagger teeth, and wide paws as big as my hand. It reminded me of a tiger.

Andrews, Ilona. Wildfire: A Hidden Legacy Novel (p. 90). HarperCollins. Kindle Edition.

and

There was something feline about it, something reminiscent of the broad powerful tiger, but its nose was a complicated thing of four nostrils, and the fringe of tentacles that ringed its neck moved on its own. The beast looked at me with an understanding, as if it was a lot smarter than any Earth animal. It was just odd. Really odd and unsettling.

Andrews, Ilona. Wildfire: A Hidden Legacy Novel (pp. 95-96). HarperCollins. Kindle Edition.

It’s hard to draw that kind of nose on a tiger, especially when it’s that small, and Kitty is very young, so the tentacles are still forming, which is explained in the novella. The tiger is most definitely blue. Some of you think she is white, but she is not.

This is a white dress/blue dress situation.

I will also pause here to say that right now every book cover – not an exaggeration – is accused of “being AI.” We made a conscious decision to keep Kitty as tiger-like as we could and gave that description to Helena, because if Kitty was drawn with four nostrils, some people would assume it was an AI-generated image gone wrong. The potential fallout to the art and to the book was not worth it.

Augustine and Diana are roughly the same age. At the beginning of the series, Augustine is in his very early thirties, while Cornelius is 28.

Also, this cover is gorgeous, but it cannot possibly match the mental image of every Hidden Legacy reader because there are tens of thousands of you. While Helena is definitely an art Prime, there is no magic like that.

When will GA rerecord the books with the new Augustine?

They will not be rerecording them. So many people worked on them and the original actor gave a wonderful performance. He is very talented and his performance was inspired. It’s more that Catalina’s trilogy will get a different Augustine.

I thought the novella was a serial?

No. We only posted a couple of snippets. Serials require so much time, and we are putting in over 2,000 words on This Kingdom #2 every day.

When is the Spanish edition coming?

Mod R tells me June 9th, but please check with Hidra directly.

We are seeing two audiobooks of Inheritance on sale.

Correct. We are doublechecking this, but this is probably caused by our distributor stepping in. Initially, the Inheritance audio was exclusive to Audible/Amazon but now, after 90 days passed, our distributor will pushing it to other retailers. You are seeing that preorder.

My Turn

Now I have a question for you. We had a bunch of how-to writing articles on the blog, which we mostly archived. I’m not great at teaching. First, I’m not an expert. I know how to write commercial fiction, but I have none of the education that would train me for explaining how to do it. Second, fiction is also strange. What works for one person doesn’t work for another. You can really damage people with feedback if they are not ready for it, and I feel like I do more harm than good.

However, Mod R mentioned that people are still looking for the articles. I can bundle them together for you into an ebook reference, if there is enough interest, but I would have to charge a couple of bucks for it to recoup the time investment and editing costs.

I think the topics were something like how to fold time, how to write a chase scene, difference between show don’t tell and passive voice, basic story structure, etc. We did a class one time on the worldbuilding based on economy, and I think I still have the write up for that somewhere. For those who are still asking about the alphahole article, I took it down ages ago and I don’t have a copy of it.

I don’t think there will be enough interest in any of this, but if you want it, we will consider putting it together. If you want it, let us know in the comments and tell us which topics you want to be covered.

The post All the Questions, Some of the Answers first appeared on ILONA ANDREWS.