This Cover Awe, we’re talking about great costuming on romance covers! Now I will fully admit that I picked all of the covers below, so it’s fully my fault if you hate them. What I also enjoy about this feature is we get to discuss what elements of a cover work for us and what doesn’t. Sometimes, we disagree!
Amanda: Sarah did a podcast episode with Alyssa on the costuming and you should all go listen to it. But I love the cute dress, like it’s something I could wear, which I love. I also love how the hero’s bow tie is coordinated!
RHG: I love this one.
Elyse: That dress is just breathtaking.
Sarah: I’m entirely biased since I know so much of the story behind this picture, but I love so much about it.
CarrieS: I love the colors!
Amanda: Though you can’t see her entire outfit, the whole picture really is something. The make up, the flowers, the hair, and that eye contact. IT’S EYE CONTACT DONE RIGHT. Man, I just want to see the bottom half of her dress. Or is it separates? Please let it be separates.
RHG: I also love this one. That is a BACK.
Sarah: I love the defiance of her expression, and the number of flowers in her hair.
CarrieS: I just can’t picture what happens if she turns her head. Are there more flowers or what? What’s keeping them on there? But I have to agree that her expression is Not Messing Around.
Amanda: There are so many little touches that make this dress a standout – the pearls, feather hair accessory, and that dark lip. I also adore how the color of the dress blends into the pinkish sky. Whether it’s sunrise or sunset, I have no idea.
Sarah: I don’t usually do cover reveals here, but when I saw this cover, I gasped out loud. It conveys so much – with so little in terms of imagery. Just gorgeous.
CarrieS: I would like to see less cleavage and more face if for no other reason than to get to see the whole hat! Otherwise, love it.
Amanda: A hero cover! The hero in this book is a cowboy and I like how he’s actually dressed by someone who probably works outside in inclement weather. He’s not blasting his nips or showing off his abs next to some fence in a field.
Sarah: HE HAS CLOTHING ON. LIKE ACTUAL WORK IS TO BE DONE. IN THE WEATHER. ON EARTH.
I need to go lie down now.
CarrieS: I agree, that sweater is a lot sexier than all those abs I keeping seeing on cowboy covers.
Amanda: I think all of the Darkest London books by Callihan are kind of powerful and dreamy. But that dress looks like it was MADE FOR just sulking through a forest with a lantern. And I desperately wish my hair could pull off that artfully tousled look.
Sarah: The balance of color really works for me, but I don’t believe that you wander around in the forest with a lantern and no jacket. AREN’T YOU COLD, MA’AM? Also, where exactly is the wind coming from?
CarrieS: I like the dreamy atmosphere but I too feel a need to give this woman a cardigan. Also, is that a train in the back? In the woods? That’s not a good idea.
Amanda: Maybe it’s a balmy forest, Sarah! I do think the series is undergoing a cover revamp because the ebooks seem to have different designs, which I also love for their minimalist qualities.
What do you think of the covers above? Do you have any favorite romance covers with gorgeous clothing?
Jessica Hart/Pamela Hartshorne, when she was still a Harlequin author(sob), had a discussion on her blog about if men were attractive in sweaters and using the qualifier “knitting pattern good looking” for certain men.
That cover guy is definitely doing sweaters right. And he’s wearing a cowboy hat and I don’t hate it. Win win.
All of the Luxe novels by Anna Godberson, those dresses, particularly the last one. I’d be lying if i didn’t admit that I loved that dress so much I looked up who designed it. Maggie Sottero. I’d also be lying if I didn’t say my wedding dress was from that brand. It was not mere coincidence. I loved the aesthetic.
Catching Jordan by Miranda Kenneally has one of my favorite YA covers – it’s about a female football quarterback who falls for her best friend, who’s also on the team (plus another guy on the team – it’s YA, of course there’s a triangle). I’m not s huge fan of the no heads thing, but I think both of them in bare feet and denim on a football field works really well.
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/9888775-catching-jordan
And I also love the cover of Warrior by Zoe Archer – a hero, wearing clothing, on a cover! Looking like a Victorian Indiana Jones. I have no idea if the clothing is period appropriate and I don’t care. Yum.
Don’t wish to be picky–or maybe I do–but I find the heavy sweater and straw hat combo unlikely. No cowboy wears straw after labor day.
I love the jacket on the cowboy—I always worry about those shirtless guys getting bd sunburns—but I can’t help feeling as if that hat doesn’t quite fit. Isn’t it sort of hovering over his head?
Sulking or skulking in the woods in a – admittedly pretty – sleeveless dress with a train? With a lantern? Highly impractical!!!
a) She needs a shawl or cardigan because it’ll be cool and the lantern attracts insects. Also, there are probably thorns somewhere.
b) Hopefully she has a washing machine or a bevy of laundresses at home. That dress will be full of twigs, leaves, thorns, dirt, spiders, ants, centipedes, distressed voles and such.
c) She definitely needs a head covering – insects in your artfully tousled hair are soooo unpleasant.
Also, I wonder whether she might be half giraffe. That neck seems incredibly long….
@PamG: Ha! How funny – I thought the same thing while I was looking at it. Maybe it was chilly in the morning but warming up to the low 80s?
@Lora: I thought about mentioning the cover for The Luxe while we were building this entry, and then thought against it – you’re totally right. The dresses on those covers were so captivating, I didn’t want to stop looking at them. HOW COOL that you found the designer and used one of her creations for your own wedding!
I loved that dress on the A Princess In Theory cover that I’ve started stalking it on Etsy. It’s a top contender for my goddaughter’s wedding next summer. Just waiting on her to pick a dress for herself and bridesmaids before I start clicking.
Myself, I loved the dresses on early Julia James books because partly because they were gorgeous, but mostly because they accurately depicted dresses worn by the characters.
I love the dresses on the covers of Mary Robinette Kowal’s Glamourist Histories books and iirc Kowal even designed/sewed one of them herself.
I don’t like numbers one, two and four because they’re just a bit too much like getting right in the personal space of real people. I would like a little distance, at least via filters or other artistic interventions, if I’m going to read about these people’s intimate lives.
My problem with #2 is that all the scrollwork and confetti have the effect of fracturing the title and making it harder to read. The special effects should enhance the title not detract from it.
I love the way the title and author’s name are handled in #3. Much easier to pick out from the background.
The last one is also easy on the eyes, font-wise, but for some reason the cover bugs me. Why does she even need a lantern with all that face-glow she’s got going on?
“LIKE ACTUAL WORK IS TO BE DONE. IN THE WEATHER. ON EARTH.”
I think I just died laughing.
I am desperate for A Princess in Theory to come out, and that cover only makes me want it more. So excited for that book.
Agree on the “sweaters are sexy” for the Wild Card cover, but the more I look at it, the more something seems .. off? I agree with Lil that the hat doesn’t fit quite right, and there’s a weird bulge/glow thing going on at the back of the skull. Now I’ve stared too long and ruined the cover for myself!!!
Another vote for the cover of Warrior, and all of The Blades of the Rose series covers – the characters are all clothed, in poses that could have come from the story, and actually look they they’re described!
I’ve loved the colors on the cover of When the Marquess Met Met His Match for a while – must actually read the book one of these days!
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/13552233-when-the-marquess-met-his-match
Shout-out to the cowboy artist who created an image of hair that I JUST WANT TO RUN MY FINGERS THROUGH. Can I get an amen??
I love all of these covers, but I’m especially impressed by Wildcard. I don’t usually like hero covers, but this one is actually interesting and sexy. I love the texture and cut of the sweater, it’s super tactile. Also pleasantly unveiny, if only because he’s mostly covered.
And some of that work was done after he last combed his hair. Yee haw!
I believe the model on the Havana cover is wearing a fascinator, not a hat. It’s such a fun word that I had to share. Also, fascinators that look like tiny hats are called hatinators.
The comments on the last cover remind me of Mr. Woodhouse in Emma. 😉
“Is that a train in the back? In the woods?”
Reckon the girl is Moonglowing like a train.
Think Clare Bowditch lyrics: “When the lights went down you shone / like a mirror train at dawn”.
Ok, so now I need purchase links just because these covers are SO great!! And YES to a man wearing clothes for a change 🙂
@Susan Sims: Clicking the image takes you to Amazon, but we can definitely toy with some kind of buy links in the future!