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Augustine Cover Reveal, This Kingdom Preview Preorder, and This Kingdom Goes to Spain

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We have three announcements for you today.

First, the most important announcement. To recap: Tor is offering a very long free preview of This Kingdom on KU and other retailers. It will be released at the end of January and the “preorder” is up now.

Right now we are seeing it on Amazon and BN. If you find it elsewhere, let us know and we will add the link to this post.

Amazon / BN / Bookshop / Google Play Books

If you are in Europe, you should be seeing this promotion on the main Amazon storefronts like Germany and France; it’s also available in Japan. If you are in the UK, Australia or India, you are likely not seeing it, because this is a US-publisher initiative.

Second announcement: This Kingdom Goes to Spain. We are delighted to work with Hidra in bringing you this translation.

The Cover of This Kingdom but in Spanish
The Spanish cover with what is probably tropes written around it.

Full announcement here: Instagram.

And now finally, the reveal. Augustine’s novella is finished and is sent to our self-pub release editor. It is a novella, about 30,000 words, so about a third of a typical book length. It will include bonus scenes from Arabella’s point of view and Arabella’s short stories from the blog, so you will have them in e-form to keep.

Behold, the beautiful cover: Augustine Montgomery and Diana Harrison.

Augustine, very handsome, his suit torn and bloody, standing next to Diana Harrison with golden eyes, who is holding an adorable blue tiger. They are standing against a backdrop of a distance city with an arcane circle over it and the color scheme is light blue and greens with flashes of purple. On the lower left corner, there is a view of the tiger cub from the back.
Click to enlarge
The cover but without text

The incredible art is by Helena Elias: website / Instagram.

I will pause now to assure some of you that yes, Augustine does look like that, yes, he is of correct age, and if you remember him differently, a reread is in order. We understand that GA casting was unfortunately misleading, and they are recasting that role.

The target date for this release is the end of January.

There will be no preorder. This will be a cold drop like the Inheritance.

No snippet for now, but Mod R read it and she says it’s not awful, so hopefully this will be fun.

PS Mod R: I would like to formally note on record that “not awful” is a paraphrase, and I distinctly remember using terms like “edge of my seat exciting”, “gulped it down”, and ”chopped onions“ instead.

Reader Interactions

Comments

  2. So many exciting announcements recently — these are bringing me a lot of happiness in a difficult time 💞 Thank you!

    Also, love the clarification, Mod R 😂

    • POD paperback yes.
      Audio format- yes, but a bit later, a few months away.
      Not hardcover, sorry.

      • Thank you for the announcements!
        IF a POD paperback is offered – what kind of time delay would be expected, please?

        Sending peace, health and safety to all!

      • Gaaaahhhhhh! So excited for all of it, but especially the Augustine cover… I’ve never really been able to picture him in my mind, but this is incredible! And I love this artist – been following her on SM for a while now, and so excited that her work has appeared on the cover of my fave authors books!!

        • “I’ve never really been able to picture him in my mind, ”

          Of course not. He intended it that way, you know. 😉

          How exciting — I didn’t expect Augustine for ages, not until House Andrews had finished recovering from This Kingdom.

  12. So cool! Making note to begin obsessively checking Amazon in the last week of the month. Also, the cover art is beautiful. Can’t wait to read it.

  14. Huh, maybe I missed something, isn’t Augustine Rogan’s age? I’ve listened to the GA versions and I guess I have no idea why people think Augustine is older/younger. I don’t even know what age other people are thinking!

      • When I heard Augustine’s voice in GA, I thought it was more through the nose which can make it hard to determine, to me, if he was younger or older than Rogan. Oh well.

      • I interpreted him as older because…I’m older 😂 it’s hilarious how I think all actors/characters are too young now LMAO

  17. Oh, very exciting news about the new Augustine story!! Can’t wait to read it. I’ll probably wait on reading the Maggie preview… I’ll devour it once it’s out.

  18. My memory says Augustine was described as ‘just short of a Greek god’. So this image is ok but I wouldn’t call him strikingly handsome. I don’t care, I am so excited to get another piece of Hidden Legacy!

  19. There’s only 2 more weeks of January!! That means a drop within 2 weeks! **Dances around** “It’s the most wonderful time…. of the year!!!”

  21. All kinds of yays and thanks! Your announcement made my Gratitude List for today.

    I LOVE the artwork and Thank Goodness they are recasting Augustine’s voice. No shade on the voice actor, but it came across as too prissy and pedandic. The character sounded more whiny than powerful. So yes, very excited. We’ll put the change down to the power of Panthercakes, shall we?

    • The time between the prologue of Ruby Fever (Baylors moving into the compound) and the main body of Ruby Fever, which is 6 months later 🙂

  26. Im really glad that GA is recasting Augustine because I love GA editions but that was a miscast. So excited and also I love the Tiger cub.

  29. It is beautiful. I’m encouraged that Augustine has his shirt on. I think that the fight scene between Conner and him indicated that he is not all that he appeared to be and I’m very interested in any relationship that could make him look this disheveled. Ooh that would take a lot of distraction for Mr perfect

  31. Thank you for all the announcements! Yippee for a new novella! Ooo, a longer “This Kingdom…” read.

    The reading just keeps on coming. 😁

    • 😀 Ah, BDH.

      Great minds think alike – I just pressured Ilona for same, and soft (!!) date is January 26.

      • Thanks, Mod R!

        For any of the Horde who clicked on the This Kingdom Will Not Kill Me BN link above:

        When you check out, BN will put in the payments section the credit/debit card information you may have in your BN account. Even though it doesn’t cost anything, the website asks for that information. I normally use my gift card to buy books on BN, but this time around, I couldn’t use the gift card since this is free. I just wanted to get this information out there for the Horde.

  35. Yeah! Just in time for my birthday! Lol, My son is a very young looking 27 yr old.
    And my daughter is 31 and they still ask if she is really a doctor. 😊

  37. Yaay…Augustine is coming, can’t wait..

    So if we are from UK or India we won’t be able to read the extended preview??? 😢

      • For Canadian BDH members:

        I just checked, and although Canada is often linked to UK rather than US publishers, in this case, Amazon Canada has the Free Extended Preview link up now with delivery listed as January 27, 2026.

        • Yes, all the Americas 🙂 Canada, Brazil, Mexico etc – seeing the preview and served by the US edition.

          • Mod R, please excuse the humble human. But Where the is the extended preview link located on the Amazon US page? I’ve made my preorder, the webpage says “Free Extended Preview” and…nothing or It’s a invisible Giant Snake about to bite me! O_O

  39. Thank you – I needed this today – and the announcements were great but Mod R’s postscript had my smiling. You are all awesome!

      • Sir Percival Blakeney, Baronet in “The Scarlet Pimpernel”: “There is nothing that is quite so bad as something that is “not so bad”!”

        I would assume that “not awful” would normally fall into the same category.

        So yes, a very necessary Postscript there, Mod R!

  41. oh, thank you, thank you, it’s beautiful! Finding time to do this in the midst of Maggie makes me so grateful for all your hard work! Can’t wait for both! =)

    • Traditional narration, straight read.

      The dramatizations are Graphic Audio domain, and they are a separate company, not commissioned by HA 🙂

  46. I am freaking out over Augustine’s novella! It’s a gift I didn’t realize was coming! Those drawings are just amazing!

  47. “This Kingdom Will Not Kill Me: Free Extended… will be auto-delivered wirelessly to your Kindle on January 27, 2026.”

    Me: waiting excitedly until 12:01 am on Jan 26 😉

  49. Thank you very much! I look forward to Augustine and Diana and the preview of “This Kingdom”. You all are very good to us!

  51. I am constantly amazed at how the visuals of a character escape me. I’m not a very visual reader. I’m going to be paying close attention during my GA re-listen.
    Although – I wonder if I have an unconscious bias against blonds, because Curran, Cornelius, and now Augustine are my top three misinterpretations. Huh.

    • Not a very visual reader either, and I have the opposite – a character by a different author, very clearly described as having dark hair, keeps popping up as blonde in my head. And I know it is wrong, yet the detail somehow persists 🤷 by now I’ve just chalked it up to a brain hiccup and am leaving it be 🙈

  52. Augustine is no more than a couple of years different from Rogan, but of course can look any age he wants. I would assume that he ages himself up and down depending on the effect he wants to impart.

    The only thing I minded about GA Augustine was that he was a little high-pitched and too supercilious; he sounded brittle, when he should sound like he could stand in a room with Rogan on equal footing.

    Needless to say: new HL novella OMIGOD SQUEE

  53. Yea! So exciting! Now I have to decide if I want to read a large preview and then w*it 2 months for the rest of This Kingdom, hummm…

    As I was reading the comment at the end I thought, Mod R said it was not awful, uhh, that doesn’t sound like Mod R!

    Thanks for doing this for us in the midst of writing Maggie 2!

  54. So excited for this. I have loved the snippets and seeing a new story in this setting is wonderful. Still holding hope that Arabella’s arc is sitting with you and may be something we get to see in future.

  59. wahoo!!! so impressed you were able to work on this and maggie at the same time.

    I want to pre order right now so I don’t have to feel anxious about missing it. If i’m signed up for the newsletter will I get a notice?

    I have the memory of a gnat and the attention span of one.

    I have gone to order maggie three times to find out I already ordered it.

    • Yes, the newsletter emails will have the release news and order button as soon as it’s available! 🙂

  60. So excited to read another HL story! I’ve loved the snippets we’ve seen so far. I am glad to hear they are recasting Augustine..I enjoy the GA versions but his voice just seemed off.

  61. I am silently screaming right now!!!!
    Oh my God!!! Thank you Thank you Thank you!!

    I am grateful for Maggie, but the countdown is brutal!! Now with two new gifts, (Maggie freebie, and Augustine) I am ecstatic…

  63. I’ve preordered This Kingdom… through Blackwell’s UK 🤗 also YAY Augustine novella
    Thank you

  64. As I read the not awful, my first thought was “that does not sound like ModR! I look forward to reading more of my favorite series.

  65. Just preordered the preview on Amazon and noticed that it’s #21 in epic fantasy (Kindle store) already.

  68. Oh this is a lovely way to help get me through the longest week ever. It’s the Hotel California of weeks. It just goes on and on and on.

    But behold! A novella cometh! (Assuming I ever get to leave this week, and I don’t just loop back Groundhog Day style while everyone else moves on with the year and gets to read books.)

    I’m also glad to hear that GA is recasting Augustine. I honestly wondered if maybe the voice wouldn’t just gradually change over time as Augustine himself grew as a person.

    I’m also going to go with even if we visualized Augustine like this, a reread is in order. 🙂

    I’m curious, was this planned as a novella and actually stayed a novella? Or was this a short story that did as short stories will do in the hands of our authors? I think this was mentioned, but I can’t remember.

  71. Thank you to our author overlords !
    Unbelievable that you have managed to work on Maggie and Augiana / Diantine novella at the same time !
    Don’t work too hard and make sure you get some rest .
    Love all your work , it’s much appreciated.

  72. Wow I LOVE the art. Kitty is sooooo cute <3 squeal! It's the same artist as the arcane society Hidden Legacy box right? I thought I recognized that art style from the teaser images. I'm so excited!!

  73. Excited about the book release and love the cover but I need to revise my imagining of Zeus. I wasn’t envisioning his species looking that much like an actual earth tiger.

  74. It’s being really hard here now with family stuff and then I look up and holy flaming shit weasels of stuff and I gotta say I am incredibly grateful to have creators like you giving me a place of respite and joy.

  76. Really excited and happy to buy as soon as possible!
    Cannot believe you managed this so quickly.

  78. the artwork is so lovely 😍 Beautiful cover! Diana is looking a little more timid/lost/frail than I imagine her in my mind. Can’t wait to see more of her in the novella!

  80. lol, love that! “yes Augustine looks like that”. I definitely need to reread. so exciting!!!

  83. I love the Spanish title including the word “Inmortal” which I think is so cool and really looking forward the Augustine novella!!

  84. This is not way a dis of the spectacular cover, which I love with all of the details like the eye colour and the arcane circles and the adorable cub! However, is anybody else getting “You there, dashing male secretary” vibes?

    I realise that scene is Cornelius, not Autistine and this is definitely Augustine and it distinctly mentions he wears the glasses as an intentional affectation to take his face down from God level handsome to just barely real world (and I love that you can see this on the cover, it’s very Superman as Clark Kent i.e. that’s a stunningly handsome man with glasses that somehow make him slightly adorable and less intimidating). Still though, maybe it’s just the glasses but ‘dashing male secretary’ anyone?

  86. I’m sooo excited for Augustine & Diana’s story! Can’t wait to get my copy. Will there be print copies too once it’s live? I know you can’t preorder them for the self published stories but hopefully it’ll be available on release day 🤞

  88. Awww! The little cub!
    (Yes, the people are gorgeous too. But I needed cute, and the cub delivered 🤷😉😂)

  92. Yay! Panthercakes! Maggie preview! Maggie hardcovers galore!

    Thank you for giving us so much to look forward to, when otherwise the real world just seems to be unrelentingly slinging chaos at us.

  93. Ilona, I am so excited to see a new Hidden legacy world book. I’m looking forward to many more. I sincerely hope you will resume this series for Arabella & Leon.

    Thank you, thank you, thank you!

  96. Just pre-ordered the preview from B&N. I am amused that they told me they are putting a hold on my credit card, after charging me $0.00.

    Somehow, I think I can afford that.

  98. Sqeee! Love the cover & the kitten in Diana’s arms is tres adorable:) ‘Pancakes’ isn’t too shabby either…..

  100. I am now looking forward to the end of January like never before!!!
    Can’t wait to go visit all my “old friends”!!!