Juno came onto the market in November 2006 with books offered in oversize trade paperback only, but they broke into the mass market paperback arena with their title Blood Magic, which was released this month. Juno, an imprint of Prime Books and Wildside Press, takes its name from a Roman goddess who was connected to all aspects of a woman’s life — marriage, fertility, pregnancy and childbirth. Juno’s logo, the stylized peacock feather, is used because the peacock was sacred to the goddess Juno.

So with that kind of thought put into their logo and name, what are their books like? Juno specializes in fantasy featuring strong female characters. This is fiction meant to take the reader beyond the ordinary, something to empower the reader as well as transport them.

Something else that has caught my eye about Juno is their cover artwork. Everyone knows that you can’t judge a book by its cover. But half the battle is designing something that will make someone pick it up and read the back. Timothy Lantz has done the covers for Juno so far and each one is more beautiful and exotic than the last. If you were in the book store wouldn’t you pick one of these up? I sure would.

Besides the novels that Juno publishes they also do short story collections which are edited by Paula Guran. Best New Paranormal Fantasy released last year and Best New Romantic Fantasy released this year. Tia, over at Fantasy Debut recently got a chance to ask Paula questions about Juno, publishing, and the new books Juno is putting out. 

Some of this years releases also include Blood Magic by Matthew Cook, the first in a new trilogy as well as being Cook’s first published novel. He is also the first male author to be published by Juno as well as writing Juno’s first mass market paperback. Lots of firsts for this guy and a lot of pressure. Fortunately Blood Magic delivers. I loved this one and I even got to pick Matthew Cook's brain about his writing process and the follow-up to Blood Magic, Nights of Sin.

Windfollower by Carole McDonell is another novel that Fantasy Debut spotlighted in October as “A literary fantasy that makes you feel like you are absolutely steeped in another culture.” Tia had nothing but glowing words for this debut author and got the chance to ask her some questions about her novel.