Cover reveal: Get ready for Beverly Jenkins’ Rebel

Though you’ll have to wait until next May for it, romance fans, you can at least take a look at the cover of Beverly Jenkins’ next romance: Rebel.

Although it’s not even December yet, book enthusiasts are already looking forward to next year’s crop of books. In the case of romance, we’ll expect new titles from some, if not all of our favorite authors. When it comes to Beverly Jenkins, though, fans will get the beginning of a brand-new series: Women Who Dare.

It’s a short series name — five syllables total — but the title of the book is even shorter: Rebel. No puns here, or talk about weddings, or nights, or any of the other normal words you’d expect in the title.

That’s before we even get into the cover, because it’s pretty. Check it out below:

Cover to Rebel by Beverly Jenkins. Image via Avon.

It’s not uncommon to see the hero and heroine of the title on the cover together, but there’s a tenderness to this that we don’t necessarily see. It certainly helps that our hero and heroine are almost of a height with each other. In case you’re having a little trouble placing the fashions or the background, the book’s official description places it in New Orleans after the Civil War. That explains the trees in the background.

If you’ll catch that Valinda has quite a drawn-back hairstyle, instead of the looseness you might expect from a romance novel cover … well, that’s on purpose as well. That description points out that she actually sets up a school down in New Orleans, and so the fact that her hair is in what we might call a schoolmarm’s bun is quite the nice detail. It also contrasts with how her dress is off her shoulders, signaling some romantic vulnerability. (Moreover, the bun lets us see the model’s face!)

As for the man playing our hero, Captain Drake LeVeq, on the cover, it turns out that he’s also an actor: Travis Cure. He also happens to have starred in a movie based on one of Jenkins’ other books. It’s possibly one of the best romance cover anecdotes this writer’s ever heard. Admittedly, his costuming isn’t quite as expressive as Valinda’s, but he does have a bit of a billowy shirt (no ruffles, though, since those have become too much of a joke). Unfortunately, the captain himself does not seem to have a ship, or at least it’s not mentioned in the description.

It is, however, noted that he’s “from an old New Orleans family” and is, in fact, an architect. Expect both of those things to come up at some point in the novel.

The question now becomes: when can we read this romance? Right now, it’s scheduled for a release on May 28, 2019. Although it might be a ways away, that means that we have plenty of time to figure out how Drake and Valinda’s story will play out.

Tell us what you think of the cover in the comments below!