Another post by Sheila - Covers

Greetings all!


I know this is Thursday! The 13 is at Rawiya's today.

My good friend Shelia Gallagher has written a post about covers. Throughout the post, I'll show some of my favorites and hers. One is the cover on the left from Avril Ashton's One Wicked Night sequel from eXtasy books.

Let's read what Sheila has to say!

On blogs and group chats someone is always asking what draws a reader to a book.  Obviously, it is the cover.  It is the first thing a reader sees before moving on to the title, author, and blurb.  This time I’ll focus on the picture on the cover. 

My eye is always caught by color.  The brighter the color, the faster my eye is drawn towards it.  I love color.  I hate when the book cover is a solid color with the title in big letters.  BORING!!!  Yes, I do judge a book by its cover.  I will overlook a book with a boring cover.  With all the books on the market I am going to get one that appeals to my sense of aesthetics.  I want a cover that had a picture that tells me what the book is about.  Too often on romances, especially m/f ones, flowers are put on the cover.  Unless the hero or heroine are gardeners or florists the cover has nothing to do with the book.  Oh, it’s pretty, but unrelated to the storyline.  The cover picture (drawing or photo) has only a few seconds at best to draw me in and let me know something about the story that entices me and makes me want to buy it then read it immediately.

When I review books I mention covers if I think they are outstanding.  Some are beautiful enough to be framed and hung on my walls.  No, I do not cannibalize my covers off my books, but sometimes I want to preserve the cover. 

Today I’m going to pick my top five covers that are outstanding.  I’m choosing only books that I have read.  This list will change as I read more books or as more books are released in the future but for now these are my top five, in no particular order:

 Duet by Eden Winters--Duet is about a violinist who travels to Scotland to teach the laird’s children.  He stays in the castle.  The cover has the violin with the castle inside the opening of the violin’s face.  Beautiful!  I know the story is about a castle and a violin.  Reading the book tells me how the two are related. 

Sebastian’s Wolves by Valentina Heart--This cover is done in black and white with the only color being the golden brown of Sebastian’s eye.  From the title I know the book will have wolves and the color of the eye tells me Sebastian is on the cover and this is his story.

Hard Fall by James Buchanan--This cover shows a buff man climbing a rock.  A lot of the story takes place out doors around rocks with the climbing and a murder.  I know from the cover it will be a book where the knowledge of skills used in climbing will enhance the story as I read the climbing sections.

The Cambridge Fellows Mysteries series by Charlie Cochrane--These books are set at the turn of the 20^th century and are mysteries--sometimes murders, sometimes thefts.  Looking at the sepia color puts me in mind of the old photos taken from the Civil War era through the 1920’s where there were no color photographs that we have today.  These covers evoke a history of the time the stories are set especially with the campus where Jonty and Orlando teach at the bottom of each cover.  Also the covers are similar enough so I know to what series they belong.

The Embrace of Life and Death by Liz Strange--The angel wings of Azrael grab my eye while the blood dipping from Kieran’s lip is subtle.  I see the good of the angel and the bad of the vampire.  Bringing them together will cause me to wonder how do they exist together and what happens when they do get together.

(My pick, Scorpion Alexander Voinov)

There are many more covers that could have made the list and as I read more books (like I don’t have enough on my GoodReads list now) this list will change and I’ll revisit it again.

What books have your favorite covers on them?

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Awesome post Sheila. I just showed a couple of mine. I also am a big fan of the covers you mentioned. I've seen some great ones. I have a couple of my own that stand out as well. 

Thanks for posting again!