NB: This week, we’re taking a look back at some of our favorite and our most popular pieces of writing this year. We’ve got a week of best-of posts to share, with reviews, cover snark, and more. We hope you enjoy revisiting our archives, and most of all, we wish you and yours a wonderful holiday and a happy new year – with all the very best of reading.
…
Say hello to the top five Cover Snark posts of 2021! These are the most viewed Snark posts from last December to now! It’s such a joy to put these together and I hope you all get as much joy from reading them.
Let’s count them down!
5. A New Mannequin Movie (March 29)
The heroines on these covers are really pulling the weight. They’re not having it, at all. The only non-couple cover, though, features an unusually calm baby precariously perched on an instrument.
Best reader comment is from Lisa:
Is it just me or does the slippery lady on the first cover look like one of the Wakefield twins from the Sweet Valley High book covers?
Jessica Wakefield has crashed another motorcycle and accidentally travelled through time… and swooned straight into the clutches of a dastardly rogue! Will Elizabeth – with the help of Winston – figure out time travel in time to save her twin from certain ruination?
4. Baby Transformers (December 14, 2020)
We love a good nip-centric cover selection, that’s for sure. There’s also a Golden Girls gif, which I fully believe makes everything better.
Best reader comment is from MsCellanie:
So, based on the cover art, Jace, sorry JACE, is being chased by an evil tree-creature who has given him some kind of wood-rot disease that started in his shoulder and is now spreading.
I can only guess that his love interest will be a tree surgeon who breaks all the rules.
3. Just What (May 31)
Sometimes, covers just honestly confuse and confound us to the point where we can only say, “What?!” There are some A+ puns and an alien creature who is curious about our own American holiday customs.
Best reader comment is from DiscoDollyDep:
Re Turkey Alien (which brings up a whole different image than the one on the cover): that air-brushed-on tattoo seems to show up on lots of covers—especially alien or motorcycle club romances. I guess it’s code for: “yeah, this guy’s a badass—and we’re showing it by giving him this generic curlicue tattoo that has some vague symbolic vibes but really means nothing.”
2. A Rose by Any Other Name (January 25)
Holy hair, Batman! One thing you can count on in this selection is that the amount of hair product used on each cover model is definitely in the gallons.
Best reader comment is from Jane Lovering:
Poodle’s hair appears to be heading in every direction at once. He needs one of those topiary cuts that they give real poodles, a nice top-knot and bobbly legs.
1. The Beard Mold is Spreading (March 8)
While the number two spot on our countdown was an ode to hair, this one is more of an ode to wardrobe choices. There are photoshopped backs, nipple belts, and a crotch wolf.
Best reader comment is from HeatherT:
Note for all cover designers: If your cover consists of a shirtless dude looking down, do not put ANYTHING where his junk should be. Not buildings, not babies, not flames, not animals, no — not that either (whatever idea you just had). Stop it.
And that’s our top five! What do you think? Did you have any Cover Snark favorites this year?
