Cover Awe: Sweet & Striking

Let’s look at some cool covers, shall we?

A Million to One by Adiba Jaigirdar. An illustration cover of four young woman. Top middle is a blonde woman in a big, pink hat. In her gloved hands is a parasol. Middle right is a brunette with wavy hair. She is in a blue dress and clutching a strand of pearls. Bottom middle is a brown-skinned young woman. Her hair is pulled back in an intricate bun. She's wearing light pink and wrapping cloth around her hand. Middle right is another brown-skinned young woman with her dark hair pulled to one side. She has a glittery blue hair clip in place and is wearing blue and white. A fountain pen is in her hand.

Cover illustration by Jack Hughes

Cover design by Corina Lupp

Amanda: Lesbian heisting!!

Sarah: I love the nod to Titanic in her hat and parasol!

The Bride Goes Rogue by Joanna Shupe. A dark haired man and woman are wrapped up in cream-colored sheets, holding hands.

Cover illustration by Anna Kmet

Cover design by Guido Caroti

Amanda: I actually think this cover is really sweet.

I want to hold hands in a big bed!

Carrie: The handholding is a sweet touch.

Claudia I like it too, and it reminds me of a similar Tessa Dare cover — I think A Week to be Wicked.

Elyse: I just requested this one and I want it so bad. I’m in a mood since I started watching The Gilded Age.

American Royalty by Tracey Livesay. An illustrated cover of a man and a woman. The man has light skin and dark hair. He's in a royal uniform. The woman has deep brown skin and a beautiful, voluminous red dress on with gold hoop earrings and red lipstick. The background is a deeper red with a quilted pattern and the title fond is in gold.

Cover illustration by Erick Davila

Cover design by Diahann Sturge

Elyse: Yes please!

Amanda: The deep reds are so striking and really make this stand out. Also, I need all the makeup details!

Sarah: I received a print ARC of this, and when I opened the envelope I said, out loud, ‘Oh, WOW.’ In person, this cover glows, I swear.

Station Eternity by Mur Lafferty. Cover is in creams, blues, and pinks. It's a silhouetted image of a woman in glasses. Half the woman is cast in shadow in a deep blue. In her glasses, which are outlined in a cream color, are the reflection of planets and a bee.

Cover designed by Will Staehle

Amanda: Loving all the use of negative space in the design!!

Sarah: MIDSOLAR MURDERS I see what you did there. And this is extremely interesting design and illustration. I’m so impressed.

Comments are Closed

  1. kkw says:

    Interesting. I find the cover of American Royalty incredibly off-puttingly uncanny valley, although I do like the color scheme. I definitely didn’t let that influence me tho because I have totally absolutely learned to stop judging books by covers… I really don’t like royalty romances, or celebrity ones, it’s not that I can’t even look at it I swear.

  2. Crystal says:

    The guy on American Royalty looks so much like Rami Malek to me. It’s all I think of every time I see it.

  3. cayenne says:

    Re American Royalty: I love the colours, and the woman is absolutely stunning. The man, however, doesn’t appear to actually be looking at the woman herself; he looks extremely stiff, and has the slightly stooped look of a person peeking to read over someone’s shoulder, a habit that I find so terribly annoying that it always invites immediate reprisals. Given my [lack of] height, reprisals usually mean an elbow in the gut, and this dude had my elbow twitching.

  4. Lianne says:

    I am so looking forward to Station Eternity. It’s an sf meets cozy mystery, where the lead character gets so tired of murders happening around her (and being the one to solve them) that she flees to alien space, except…

    And Mur was pretty darn giddy when she got the cover art.

  5. Darlynne says:

    When Disney’s Snow White was released, no one noticed that every character–except the prince–was drawn with great detail. The prince, who didn’t even have a chin, was nearly amorphous because he didn’t matter in that version of the story. From Sleeping Beauty on, artists paid attention to male characters, making them more defined and adding a personality.

    This is what the cover of AMERICAN ROYALTY says: the young woman is completely stunning and draws our eyes immediately; he does not, except for looking like he’s searching for something in her hair. Hopefully the text shows him in a better light.

    @Lianne: Same here.

  6. EC Spurlock says:

    Ditto the uncanny valley look of American Royalty. It also looks like their clothes are too big for them (that ruffle hitting her face, his braid looking more like a rope) unless it’s supposed to be a perspective thing? And what is the time period for this book? It’s hard to tell by the clothes. The colors are gorgeous and the woman is just lovely, but everything else seems kind of — off, somehow.

  7. denise says:

    Not only do I love the cover of American Royalty, the story is incredible. The cover fits the story to a T. Or shall I say Cardi B.

  8. Tiago 5 says:

    Joanna Shupe’s Book is a KEEPER! THIS STORY WAS SO GOOD ON SO MANY LEVELS,and they were this book cover and MORE. This whole series is a must buy for me. Cannot wait until she tells Nellie’s Story.

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