Blurb and Cover Abuse

I do not blame the authors involved for this, but the publishers. I know the kind of shenanigans lurking on copyright pages, but I was in a hurry, so shame on me, I guess. Tempting Fate turns out to be a reprint from 1990, which might have originated as a category title. Even if you don't check the fine print, there's a forwarding note from the author indicating she at least went back and looked it over almost twenty years later. I didn't find it- ahem- to be among the author's best, but some reviewers seem to have liked it better, so your mileage may vary. However, I do think such reprints ought to be branded more obviously on the cover. And I also believe that a publisher plays dangerous shell games with reader good will when choosing cover art and blurbs like this to accompany it.

The highlighted blurb is by bestselling author Tess Gerritsen. "Carla Neggers writes a story so vivid you can smell the salt air and feel the mist on your skin." Note the lantern-lit rowboat, rocking empty at a lonely little pier at sunset. Picturesque, no?

Except the story takes place in Saratoga, New York, near the Adirondacks. Its premise includes horseracing, Victoriana, rockclimbing, mineral springs, and hot air ballooning! The cover art has not one, blooming bit of relevance to this book, but it fit Gerritsen's quote nicely, the one which was originally written about ANOTHER BOOK, The Harbor.

Shady, shady, peeps.

UPDATE: I added the cover for the single-title original, in case anyone thought that the TF cover represented some mistaken duplication. It's an entirely different picture with the same subject matter. It's intentional.