Frolic went behind the scenes at a romance cover photo shoot and here’s what we learned

If you’re reading this, it’s probably because you’re a fan of romance. Welcome, we’re glad that you’re here.

As avid consumers of romance ourselves, we frankly can’t get enough sexy book covers. So when the opportunity arose to hang out (and by hang out, we mean panting at all the hot people in period costumes) on the set of a cover shoot, we jumped at the chance.

We hung out on the set of The Lords of Time series, created by author and photographer Jenn LeBlanc. Needless to say, it was pretty awesome.

Here is everything that we learned:

Hair and makeup is an ordeal

Five models trying to pull off a pre-Victorian look. One makeup artist. We saw people transform from hot to period hot in sometimes a matter of minutes.

The underwear is like, used

I mean, technically everything was real, but as author and photographer Jenn LeBlanc explained to us, some costume pieces come from Amazon, some from sales at opera houses, and some from estate sales where people have been hoarding actual period clothes for decades. The pantalettes (aka the most useless long, exposing underwear ever invented) worn by the female models were real antique pieces. Which is cool, but also a little gross.

(An example of the uselessness of pantalettes – see how there’s nothing in the middle?)

Fresh breath is best

It’s a steamy looking set where the talent is in close proximity to one another, so Altoids were a must-have. They seemed kind of necessary given the large amounts of coffee consumed on set.

The models are given a little information about their characters on set

But for the most part, they’re coming in blind. The photo shoot taking place was for a book that’s part of a series, so Jenn would explain character motivations and happenings to best give the models reason for their expressions.

There’s a lot of downtime, and it’s pretty fun

Photo shoots can go from GO GO GO to nothing in a second. And despite the period clothes, people like to hang out on their phones, or chat with one another, or run their mouths about the best romance novels out there giving people pointers on where to start. It’s kind of a toss-up.

About the Author/Photographer

Jenn LeBlanc is a Colorado girl living in a Hollywood world. She writes “wildly original” illustrated Victorian erotic romance and hangs out at the Ripped Bodice bookstore in California.

She wrote, photographed, and published the first ever Illustrated Romance and is Queen Of StudioSmexy.

She loves getting new research books and chatting with readers.

The Rake and The Recluse is the first book in the illustrated Lords of Time erotic romance series.