Cover Awe: What’s Your Favorite Cover This Year (So Far)?

For this month’s Cover Awe, I wanted to look back at the first half of the year and the books we’ve found most visually stunning, memorable, and full of, well, awe.

Amanda: THIS IS TERRIBLE

Sarah: WHY.

Amanda: I love a lot of covers!

Okay stipulations! 2021 books that are out already?

Sarah: How about this, no later than June 30? So first half of the year.

Amanda: Ok.

Sarah:  Of the ones we’ve featured in Cover Awe, I love the cover for Leather & Lace: 

Leather and Lace by Rebel Carter. Two women stand in a field with a coppery sky (sunset maybe?). One has gorgeous, shiny red hair and the other has platinum blonde pixie cut. Also shiny.

 

Sarah: And I loved the cover for The Nature of a Lady, with all the cobalt, lavender, and filigree.

The nature of a lady cover features a blonde woman in a 20s gown in deep cobalt against a blue and green nature background

 

Amanda: Okay, this is a cover for an upcoming YA title (6/29). The glasses, the power stance, the look in her eyes as she wields these thorny vines. It says, “I’m thinking about fucking you up.”

An illustration of a Black woman with chin length wavy hair with glasses and flowers in her curls with a very 'do not mess with me' expression of confidence and warning

Sarah: That is a terrific cover.

Amanda: Even the sharp edges of the font! Lots of great detail.

Elyse: This speaks to my goth teen heart:

In the ravenous dark with roses against a black background in the shape of a sluff and a pale illustration of a crying woman in the middle over the nose and mouth

 

Shana:

An illustrated cover for Instructions for Dancing by Nicola Yoon featuring two people in a dip posture with long braids hanging down

This is coming out in June, and it’s the cover that most made me feel like: I want to read this immediately.

Sarah: That cover is terrific, I agree.

What about you? What’s one cover you’ve loved this year? Please share your favorite if you have one!

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Cover Awe

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  1. DiscoDollyDeb says:

    It’s no secret that DDD is a cover-model maven, so no surprise that my favorite cover is this one for Karla Sorenson’s FLOORED. It’s not just that the cover models are very attractive (although they are), but the composition of the photograph—the light coming in from behind them, the way they are leaning toward each other and holding hands—makes it very sexy and romantic.

    https://www.amazon.com/Floored-Karla-Sorensen-ebook/dp/B088NMDLBZ/ref=mp_s_a_1_3?dchild=1&keywords=karla+sorensen+floored&qid=1621851657&sr=8-3

    But then I realized that, although I read FLOORED in 2021, it was published in December of 2020, so technically not eligible for favorite cover of 2021 so far. For a book published and read in 2021, my favorite is the cover of Natasha Knight’s WITH THIS RING, which features cover model Andrew Biernat in profile, looking down (which, despite the sexiness of the pose, gives him a vulnerable look), bearded, hairy chest, abs, shirtless—but with his shirt casually thrown over his shoulder, as one does. Yum!

    https://www.amazon.com/This-Ring-Have-Hold-Duet-ebook/dp/B08VD5Z9KB/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=natasha+knight+with+this+ring&qid=1621851323&sr=8-1

  2. squee_me says:

    I love love love the cover of Winter’s Orbit by Everina Maxwell but I also LOVE the book so that might be influencing me. Also the cover captures the essence of the book IMO so the appeal may be wrapped up in the story rather than the cover standing on its own. I do think it’s objectively a beautiful cover but at this point it’s impossible for me to evaluate it object outside the context of the book!

  3. TinaNoir says:

    I think the cover for Denny S. Bryce’s Wild Women and the Blues is simply gorgeous.

  4. PamG says:

    I’m feeling a little hungry today, I guess, but the cover of makes me drool.

  5. PamG says:

    Sigh. Html is not my friend.

  6. Katie says:

    It’s outside the time frame but I just saw the cover for Nalini Singh’s next Guild Hunter book today and made many sounds of joy:

    https://collider.com/archangels-light-book-cover-nalini-singh-guild-hunter/

  7. HeatherS says:

    I’m really loving the cover for A Chorus Rises by Bethany C. Morrow (it’s the sequel to “A Song Below Water”). Absolutely stunning.

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