Eclipse the Skies by Maura Milan is the highly-anticipated sequel to Ignite the Stars. Check out the amazing cover, plus an excerpt, right here!
The cover for Eclipse the Skies puts a fierce warrior woman front and center. Combine that with a splash of vibrant red, plus the mysterious backdrop of a sky full of stars, and you’re bound to have a cover that grabs your attention and never lets go.
Associate Art Director Ellen Kokontis says, “With the cover of Eclipse the Skies, we wanted to capture a more sinister tone than with Ignite the Stars. In Ignite, Ia starts off as a badass, but she learns a lot about herself and what she’s fighting for. She has faced some dark truths and now, in this book, she has to fight an enemy who is much more personal. The cover of Eclipse shows her grounded, really centered, in this dark, foreboding nebula. The helmet and persona of I. A. Cocha is gone — now we see a young woman who is ready to fight her own battles. We get the sense that Ia is absorbing this violent, red energy behind her and ready to unleash it on anyone who would dare hurt the people she’s grown to love. She has this raw power that totally draws you in with her smoldering expression, which the model, Jessika Van, totally nailed. I think this cover should brace the reader for what is going to be a hell of a ride with some dark turns.
And what does the author think of this cover? Maura Milan says, “The cover perfectly reflects Ia’s struggle in this book. An eclipse occurs when celestial bodies obscure one another as they pass in orbit. On the cover, Ia is blocking the light, which alludes to the idea that she is her own main obstacle in her journey. There are fears that Ia needs to confront before she can move on and once again bring in the light. The idea of necessary opposites is really important in this book — light and dark, strength and vulnerability. And the model, Jessika Van, perfectly expresses that duality on the cover.”
Read an exclusive excerpt from Eclipse the Skies:
“Looks like your squadron’s up.” Her eyes locked onto his. “So what are you going to do?”
Those were his orders. Sure, he hadn’t given a mif about orders in the past. But now there was a battleship going down right before his eyes. He was a flyer, trained for situations like this. This was his city, the one he grew up in; he could help save it. Knives felt his jaw tighten knowing this was what his father wanted for him. Fine, he would play the hero. He had to grow up, and not chase his heart. “I have to go, Ia.”
She grabbed his shoulder. “Before you leave, give me a jet.”
“You know I can’t.”
“Fine,” she said as she walked over to a cabinet. She opened it, revealing a line of windpacks hanging evenly on a metal rod. She picked one out, shrugged it over her shoulders, and fastened the clasp at her chest.
So that was what she was looking for all along, he realized.
“Well, then,” she said, her voice so calculated, so certain. “I’ll just have to jump.”
She touched a button on a black metal band around the base of her neck, and her helmet assembled upwards around her head, one smooth panel over the next, until he stared back at that red feather slashing crimson against the black visor.
Life was all about choices. He could stop her if he wanted to, but Knives knew he couldn’t keep her. He watched her running to end of the tarmac, and then, like the first day they met, she spread her arms wide open, and leapt.
“Yeah,” he whispered, “Just like old times.”
About ‘Eclipse the Skies’
Ia Cōcha never thought she’d be working for the Olympus Commonwealth. But that was before she found out her trusted brother Einn was trying to tear apart the universe. Now, Ia, the Blood Wolf of the Skies, has agreed to help the Royal Star Force on one condition: when she finds him, she gets to kill Einn herself.
Brinn Tarver has just come to terms with her Tawny identity when the public lashes out against her people, crushing her family. At her breaking point, she starts to question everything she believes in — including Ia.
After the death of his mentor, Knives Adams is doing his best to live up to a role he didn’t ask for as Aphelion’s new headmaster. Still, with each new step deeper into war, he feels torn between his duties and the pull of Ia’s radical — sometimes criminal — ideas.
As they fight to keep darkness from eclipsing the skies, their unpredictable choices launch this breathtaking sequel to explosive new heights.
Eclipse the Skies by Maura Milan will hit store shelves on September 3, 2019. You can pre-order it on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, IndieBound, and Book Depository, or simply add it to your Goodreads list!