Seen any covers you love lately?
Covers in romance come up again and again and, usually, readers are complaining. Whether it’s the Fabio-licious covers of the 1990s or the cartoon covers all over the place today, there’s always a contingent who just doesn’t like them. And, to be candid, one of the reasons I felt comfortable reading, after a thirty year absence, romance was because I had a Kindle and no one could mock me because of how the books I was reading looked.
There are, however, many many gorgeous covers. We recently had a guest post about the stunning work of artist James Griffin whose work is just lovely. I think Harper St. George’s covers, done by Rita Frangie, are beautiful. Lisa Kleypas’ Ravenels series has great looking covers. The cover of Vanessa Riley’s Island Queen is arresting and aesthetically pleasing. Mary Balogh’s recent covers are elegant and true to the genre. Mackenxi Lee’s covers are quirky and nicely cool. Sonali Dev’s current covers showcase the books India roots and have soothing color combinations.
What covers do you love? And why?
Not many. I do love my covers from Dragonblade – the characters are appropriately dressed for their period, and they are simply gorgeous!
It is an interesting exercise to visit Amazon’s “author pages” and quickly scroll through book covers by author. Many, many authors have perfectly adequate/innocuous/non-offensive – and yes, lovely – covers. It is easy to see the branding when looking at an entire body of work all at once e.g. Lisa Kleypas’ women in beautiful dresses. It would be easy to spot one of her books amongst many on a grocery store shelf (which in the US tends to display covers out, rather than spines out as in a bookstore or library). Which is the whole point of course.
Also interesting to see how any given author’s covers have changed with various printings. And how some authors’ covers are all about some level of “undress” while others books barely have people on them, much less (partially) naked people.
I don’t really care what the cover looks like. All my romance reading is in digital format and I don’t even look at the cover. Now the titles on the other hand….. No matter what cover art is used, nothing screams trashy romance novel which a serious reader would sneer at (regardless of the actual quality of the writing) like a stupid punning title with a duke or earl shoehorned in there. Series contemporary romances are just as bad, with their nondescript titles that make it hard to remember which book is which.
What about punny titles like “The Duke Looks Like a Lady”?
There is that. I tend to dodge those. But sometimes the title isn’t down to the author, and they have to grit their teeth and get on with it.
I’m not blaming the authors. I know they’re not responsible for the often terrible blurbs either. I just know that whenever there’s a discussion thread about some aspect of the genre and people are citing various titles to make their point, I rarely know which books they’re talking about, even when I’ve read them myself, because the title has nothing to do with the story. It will never stop annoying me…
I also like Mary Balogh’s recent covers—they fit the tone of the books. I’m not a big fan of the cartoon covers. They make me expect a cutesy kind of story with juveniles. But I still like them better than the old clinch covers and the ones that assume all you need is a long skirt to show it’s historical.
But there are some older ones that I liked well enough to remember them—the covers for Madeline Hunter’s Rarest Blooms series, and a couple of Jo Beverley books, An Unlikely Countess, with a fading away watercolor look, and A Most Unsuitable Man, with mostly the hero’s face. That one is one of the few times the cover model looked the way I pictures the hero.
I agree about the Lisa Kleypas covers, they are quite pretty. They are historically inaccurate (to say the least) but I think they convey her style and the sweetness of her books very well though.
I think you look at the cover of Devil In Disguise and it accurately tells you what kind of book you are going to get.
Despite this paperback being published in the mid-’70s, the cover is a model of restraint. This post-tryst scene is quite lovely – Anne is en deshabille, while the pensive titular Lord Monleigh plays the lute. This is one of the three romances written by Jan Cox Speas in the ’50s, republished twenty years later. This one is the darkest of the three, but still a great romance. It has not been reviewed here, but the other two, The Bride of the MacHugh and My Enemy, My Love, both have A ratings.
https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/1593129.My_Lord_Monleigh
Not necessarily recent, but I feel like Alyssa Cole regularly gets excellent covers. I don’t know if she has any say in them, but the models look great and the use of color is superb. I wish I liked her books as much as I like her covers!
The Charlotte Holmes books by Sherry Thomas have the most stunning covers, and “Miss Moriarty, I Presume” is no exception. Though I still hope she’ll return to romance writing one day.
Most cartoon covers tend to look like they were done with very limited graphic software, and not even competently at that. Exception: Helen Hoang’s books. Illustrated covers can be really good, though, as in the example of the Will Darling trilogy, which others have already mentioned.
I want to take a pair of scissors to the heroines’ hair in the later Ravenel books.
I agree with both of those picks. Sherry Thomas’ covers are great.
I will say I have to rack my brain to think of romance authors who moved to women’s fiction/mystery and then returned to romance. I’m not optimistic that Thomas or Higgins will return to romance. I hope I’m wrong.
As you mentioned the Mary Balogh covers, the first, I think, three books of her survivors series had the naked man breast covers. They realy didn’ convey type or content of the books. She then protested obviously very furyously and was able to put through that her books got the new regency covers.
Not sure, but I think the UK editions for the original Survivors series books had much better covers than the barechested US ones.
Yes, I don’t think we got any of the man-titty covers for that series! Most of the really big name HR authors – Balogh, Quinn, Hoyt, Chase, Dare – get different covers here, and mostly they’re a bit more… reserved. Sometimes they work well, sometimes they’re a bit dull and generic looking, but I would generally prefer one of those over a half-naked clinch, especially back in the days when I did a lot of reading on the Tube!
I think Harlequin across the board has some pretty awesome covers, particularly in the Harlequin Historical line. Usually, the models are depicted in period appropriate costumes that aren’t falling off of their bodies with nice backgrounds. Sure, there are some wonky ones too, but I like their style for the most part.
Also, I love the often abstract nature of Harlequin Love Inspired Suspense titles. Typically, instead of putting the hero or heroine on the cover, they usually just highlight a key piece of evidence or a setting. For example, a LIS title might show a helicopter over palm trees during a windstorm or depict a stolen violin in an attic. Considering LIS tends to focus more on the suspense than the romance, I think their standard cover designs are really fitting for the line.
The covers of Harlequin’s Desire line are also first rate: gorgeous gowns and tuxes (or suits), statement jewelry, lovely color palettes, and more ethnically-diverse MCs than frequently appears in other Harlequin lines.
Ooh, you’re right! I completely forgot about Harlequin Desire as I’ve only read a few of their titles. Gorgeous covers indeed.
ITA about the Harlequin Historical covers. One of my favorites is the one for Bronwyn Scott’s Portrait of a Forbidden Love. I love the way their bodies are curved around each other, the brushes in the background tell you that art plays an important role in their relationship, and, because it’s a photo and not a drawing, you get a sense of the different textures (silky vest on him, soft pleated fabric on her) and the mostly grey and white color scheme set off by her 3 red bows — all in all, it’s quite sensuous.
https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/portrait-of-a-forbidden-love-bronwyn-scott/1138466780?ean=9781335505941
I know ménage romances aren’t everyone’s cuppa—and the clumsy, photoshopped covers of many of them do nothing for the genre—but I loved the moody/sexy cover for Layla Reyne’s MMF romantic-suspense, WHAT WE MAY BE (credit Wander Aguiar Photography, which produces a lot of the photographs used on covers that feature live models). I love how the cover lets you see the connections between the three characters and the sense that there’s something melancholy/bittersweet going on:
https://www.amazon.com/What-We-May-Be-Romantic-ebook/dp/B096HT2D5J/ref=mp_s_a_1_3?dchild=1&keywords=layla+reyne+what+we+may+be&qid=1631535008&sr=8-3
I did read the book and found it to be rather cluttered—as if it couldn’t decide whether it were a ménage-romance with suspense elements or a romantic-suspense with ménage elements. But I’ll always have that cover.
Yes, it’s a great cover, but the book? Not so much. I think either the relationship story OR the suspense plot could have been quite good, but somehow they didn’t mesh well in this book.
Totally agree! There was just SO MUCH GOING ON—I’d be trying to keep up in my head, “Oh yeah, this is his ex-wife and she’s now married to this guy who run the department where this other person works….” Reyne is hit-or-miss for me, but I do like that cover.
I love covers which are drawn well. It doesn’t matter if they are cartoon or semi-realistic. Even though I am an Ebook reader, I do judge a book by it’s cover before I buy. If the book is badly drawn, I will pass. If I were an author, and I worked really hard writing a book, I would want my cover to reflect how I felt about that story..
By the way, has anyone other than me noticed the slight uptick of men who look similar to Rege-Jean Page on some covers? Maybe I’m just dreaming.
YES! I swear I see Rege lookalikes a lot now. I’m glad it’s not just me.
It was a thing with Jamie Fraser lookalikes as well. They know it will catch people’s eyes.
Add me to the list of people who began to read more romances thanks to the advent of ebooks! I wasn’t a big romance reader in my long-distant youth (!) anyway – I read more literary classics and historical fiction – but the introduction of ebooks came at around the same time as I had time to read again (my kids were out of the baby/young toddler phase) and I discovered romance in a big way at that time. Bookshops in the UK – at least the ones I had frequented – weren’t big romance stockists (and I’m talking about major shops in the West End) so I didn’t get to browse many covers anyway. Covers aren’t all that important to me, although as Wendy F says, that doesn’t mean I don’t Have Opinions about them!
I agree about the covers for the Will Darling Adventures – they’re perfect; the books are set post WW1 so the Art Deco style works well and the subtle nods to the two leads are really well done. (Also the Off Balance is both incredibly striking and quite unusual.) There are others I will look at and think “that’s nice”, but it’s rare for one to really stand out. Especially as I read exclusively on my Paperwhite these days, so they don’t really register.
Some of the HR covers you’ve added have different covers here – the Balogh and the Chase specifically, and I quite liked the older (pre-revamp) line-drawing covers we had for the Bridgerton books – they were a refreshing change from the man-titty covers or the nondescript flowery ones HR often got!
But in general I don’t pay much attention to covers, and probably notice them more when they’re horrible!!
In Germany I’m able to buy either the UK or the US version of many books. It’s quite interesting to see the difference. Mostly I prefer the UK cover but as I read on my e-reader I buy the version with the lower price, often the US version. But lately I noticed that the UK books that were often very pricey now have the lower price. Brexit?
By the way a few years ago Amazon stopped selling the UK versions! Would be interesting to know why.
I’m reading Subversive by Colleen Cowley. The cover is gorgeous and a good match for the story.
I just looked that up – it’s lovely, as is the cover for the third book in the series.
I loved the cover before I started reading, but as I read the book I appreciate the details in the illustration. The significance of the leaves and the season are evident early in the story, and the dark silhouette of the woman reminds me of the way the heroine and other women in the story struggle to be seen.
I’m another one whose return to reading romances coincided with a move to ebooks! Consequently, I only see the covers as thumbnails in my library and as a larger cover when I start reading a book. I see them most on sites like this, where they figure in the banner on the home page. That doesn’t stop me being very judgey about them though!
The covers that I like best clearly reflect the content of the book – I don’t mind if they’re realistically or non-realistically drawn or photographic, as long as they are aesthetically pleasing to me.
Recent favourites include:
The Will Darling Adventures by KJ Charles. The covers of this trilogy reflect the era in which the books are set, the developing relationship of the two leads, plus Will is holding his knife (a big part of his identity and the plot) in all three.
Off Balance by Jay Hogan. A muscular male body holding an intricate ballet pose, with the hand on the floor reflecting the title and the plot – terrific!
Gregory Ashe’s Borealis: Without A Compass series. Four books with abstract covers, but look closely at them………
I agree with you about that Mary Balogh cover – the cottage and the dog fit the story well. We don’t have that cover in UK. Ours is a head and shoulders, looking-soulful-in -a-bonnet shot. It’s okay but I think the US one is better.