Cover Awe: We Have a Clinch!

by Amanda · Mar 3, 2025 at 4:00 am · View all 6 comments

Let’s take a look at some gorgeous covers!

A black cover. There's an illustration of a woman wearing a tweed cap, a waistcoat, and holding a tea cup. She is in shades of greyish blue that blend to muted pink. A dark red liquid spills from her cup. Steam curls up around face and one eye is obscured by bangs. The shape of closely seated apartment buildings is shown within the lower half of her body,

Cover art by Valentina Remenar

Lara: Oh, I love that cover!

Sneezy: That’s so atmospheric!

Sarah: Well damn.

Amanda: The position of the smoke! The dripping tea (or is it?). The image of the city within her body. Such great composition!

Sarah: The hair over her eye!

Echoed by the smoke!

Trial of the Sun Queen by Nisha Tuli. A gold cover that has a mix if items in a collage: a mirror, shackles, roses, a masquerade mask, and a pendant with a red stone. The title is in silver that weaves through the items.

Sarah: This is pretty.

Amanda: This reminds me of those I Spy books and you have to pick out all the little items in a giant pile of stuff.

Sarah: Totally. And I love how parts of the design look like metal against coils of paper.

Sneezy: Imagine this as a relief made from wood and metal!

The Mistress Experience by Scarlett Peckham. A clinch cover. There's a cottage in the background surrounded by a green field dotted with pink and purple flowers. A shirtless man sits in the field. A woman in an off the shoulder white dress is on her knees, looking down at him. She has red wavy hair with a white flower tucked behind her ear.

Cover design and illustration by Alan Dingman

Amanda: Normally I feel indifferent about clinch covers and then I see something like this.

Lara: I love the painted look of the cover. Makes me nostalgic for my early romance reading.

Sarah: This cover knows its audience, for sure. I love how she is positioned over him and the way he is looking up. Even if I didn’t know Peckham’s writing, the vibes are

Sneezy: I love how the colour of the title adds to the feeling they’re cocooned in flowers while still being legible. The white flower in her hair also adds to that sensation even as it highlights them and immediately focuses our eyes on them. This composition is SO clever, I love it!

A House Like an Accordion by Audrey Burges. A shiny, royal blue background. There's a keyhole outlined in gold with a bird silhouette in the middle. Spokes of gold come out from the keyhole. In the sections are different patterns: locks, keys, and maze lines.

Cover design by Mumtaz Mustafa

Amanda: I definitely want to know how shiny this is in person.

Lara: Ooooh, this is pretty

Sneezy: Me too, Amanda!!! Oh, this brings back SUCH great memories of shiny covers! I feel like the lines and shapes would make this lovely to admire in the afternoon sun.

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  1. Melody Prime says:
    March 3, 2025 at 10:28 am

    Ooooh. I saw the cover of A Tempest of Tea in person Saturday and was definitely in love with the cover design. So glad to see it featured this morning.

  2. Jazzlet says:
    March 3, 2025 at 10:49 am

    Melody could you tell if it was tea or blood? I love it either way.

  3. cleo says:
    March 3, 2025 at 5:31 pm

    @Jazzlet – the MC runs a tearoom that caters to vampires in the off hours, so it could be either.

  4. denise says:
    March 3, 2025 at 11:37 pm

    Love A Tempest of Tea cover.

  5. LittyN says:
    March 4, 2025 at 5:45 am

    Tempest of Tea is great! And the cover for the sequel, coming in September, is also gorgeous. It’s “A Steeping of Blood.”

  6. Kathy says:
    March 4, 2025 at 11:27 pm

    The face on the Tempest of Tea cover reminds me of a young Lauren Bacall.

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