I’ve Got You Covered (2)
posted at Wednesday, September 26th, 2018 at 8:00 AM | I've Got You Covered, Other Bloggishness
I’ve Got You Covered is a monthly post about beautiful, swoonworthy cover art set to be released in the coming months. This feature replaces my prior Cover Snark feature. Here, I’m only talking favorites, thought there will definitely be the occasional friendly snark or pun here and there. Covers are broken up into age groups, so skip to the ones that interest you if you want. YA is obviously my focus, but I check certain adult/middle grade imprints as well. Obviously, it’s all about my personal tastes. 😛
Tell me your favorites when you’re done, but for now relax and enjoy the beauty.
Middle Grade:
1. Goldeline – Jimmy Cajoleas
Thoughts: I swoon.
2. Up for Air – Laurie Morrison
Thoughts: Super cute obvs, but what I really love about this is that there’s something stubborn in her face that meshes perfectly with the tagline.
3. A Monster Like Me – Wendy S. Swore
Thoughts: I don’t know anything about Shadow Mountain, but keep up the covers like this and maybe I will?
4. Aru Shah and the Song of Death (Pandava Quartet #2) – Roshani Chokshi
Thoughts: Really thrilled the crab from Moana was able to find more work.
5. The Carnival of Wishes and Dreams – Jenny Lundquist
Thoughts: Captures every bit of the joy and magic and hope of the title.
6. This Was Our Pact – Ryan Andrews
Thoughts: Blue covers are the best covers.
7. Charlie Hernández and the League of Shadows – Ryan Calejo
Thoughts: The central section is distracting, but the more I look past that at the details, the more I love this cover.
8. In the Vanisher’s Palace – Aliette de Bodard
Thoughts: My favorite thing is that I loved this before I even SPOTTED the DRAGON.
Young Adult:
1. The Raven’s Tale – Cat Winters
Thoughts: The hair transforming into a raven and the blood spatter aren’t as well done as they could be, but I find it difficult to look away from this cover. Very much eye-catching.
2. The Curses – Laura Eve
Thoughts: These covers are so lovely, though they also make me even more frustrated that The Diviners designers didn’t stick with the original cover style.
3. This Train Is Being Held – Ismée Williams
Thoughts: The pink hue was an interesting choice, but it does make this cover feel truly unique, and the art’s adorable.
4. Night Music – Jenn Marie Thorne
Thoughts: There’s some stuff I could nitpick but he has such an engaging smile that I can’t help but love this cover.
5. If I’m Being Honest – Emily Wibberley & Austin Siegemund-Broka
Thoughts: This cover’s totally on point with the Instagram flair, down to the completely unrealistic pose against a cool wall that looks completely casual but you know took tons of shots to get perfect.
6. The Beauty That Remains – Ashley Woodfolk
Thoughts: Maybe pink is in for covers this season. Here for it. Also, way to paperback redesign, because I was only marginally interested in this book and now I have grabby hands.
7. Realm of Ruins (The Nissera Chronicles #2) – Hannah West
Thoughts: Damn, Holiday House. I liked the cover for book one, but this is ridiculously pretty. Only weakness is the title font, but I don’t even mind it too much in the context of that badassness.
8. Voices: The Final Hours of Joan of Arc – David Elliott
Thoughts: Modern appeal but using classic iconography to great effect.
9. The Cerulean (Untitled, #1) – Amy Ewing
Thoughts: Aside from the person, this cover is stunning.
10. The Black Coats – Colleen Oakes
Thoughts: TBH I don’t get the butterfly (maybe it’s from the book?) but the golddddd.
11. The Vanishing Stair (Truly Devious #2) – Maureen Johnson
Thoughts: So very Escher in the best way.
12. Witch Born – Nicholas Bowling
Thoughts: All the individual elements have been done a million times before, but I love the way they’re combined here.
13. White Rose – Kip Wilson
Thoughts: Lovely, and I super approve of when WWII covers don’t have to lean on Nazi symbols to convey their subject matter.
14. The Epic Crush of Genie Lo (Genie Lo #1) – F.C. Yee
Thoughts: I think this maaaaay be my favorite of all the covers in this post. I mean, JUST LOOK AT IT. I mean, people are going to be annoyed but mismatching covers, and that’s legit but I’m in love and don’t want to hear it LALALALA.
15. The Traitor’s Kingdom (The Traitor’s Circle #3) – Erin Beaty
Thoughts: I’ve always really liked these covers, despite a couple of nitpicks, and this one’s easily my favorite of the three. The kerning on the title looks slightly pained, but I think the crown works, and I love the floral on this one.
16. An Affair of Poisons – Addie Thorley
Thoughts: Killer cover.
17. The Fever King (Feverwake #1) – Victoria Lee
Thoughts: Slightly horrific but also super gorgeous.
18. The Dark Vault (The Archived #1-2) – Victoria Schwab
Thoughts: Sooooo much better than the US covers. Even our bind-up is unfortunate. Sometimes I want to move to the UK for the book covers tbqh.
19. War of the Bastards (Royal Bastards #3)- Andrew Shvarts
Thoughts: I wonder if men will do stupid things and need to be saved by a level-headed woman in this battle of the bastards too? Also, all the covers for this series have been good, but this one is the absolute best.
20. To Best the Boys – Mary Weber
Thoughts: AMAZEING
21. The Hummingbird Dagger – Cindy Anstey
Thoughts: I keep telling myself I’m going to stop reading Anstey, but her covers keep looking like this, so apparently I will read every single one of her books ever.
22. Descendant of the Crane – Joan He
Thoughts: Almost too damn fabulous. I would definitely crane my neck to look at this one in the bookstore.
23. The Girl King – Mimi Yu (UK)
Thoughts: Number of fucks they have to give for men who mansplain that a girl king is a queen: less than zero.
24. The Girl King – Mimi Yu (US)
Thoughts: So different, but also glorious. This book better be as boss as the covers or my heart shall break.
25. Red, White, & Royal Blue – Casey McQuiston
Thoughts: *explodes from the cute*
23. We Hunt the Flame (We Hunt the Flame #1) – Hafsah Faizal
Thoughts: *cheers that Hafsah got such a cool cover*
27. Deathcaster (Shattered Realms #4) – Cinda Williams Chima
Thoughts: Damn but I can’t stop loving the hell out of these SJM-copycat covers.
28. A Question of Holmes (Charlotte Holmes #4) – Brittany Cavallaro
Thoughts: I fucking love this color combo.
29. We Set the Dark on Fire (We Set the Dark on Fire #1) – Tehlor Kay Mejia
Thoughts: UNNNF
30. An Anatomy of Beasts (Faloiv #2) – Olivia A. Cole
Thoughts: I don’t love everything about this, but they had me at that weird skull. I want to read this book to find out if this animal is in there, so to me that’s a job well done.
31. Let’s Go Swimming on Doomsday – Natalie C. Anderson
Thoughts: This cover makes me uncomfortable because this could looks like he’s in SO MUCH DANGER and I want to help and I CANNOT. But on a less serious note, I thought this said “Let’s Go Swimming on Natalie C. Anderson at first, which made me lol.
32. Since We Last Spoke – Brenda Rufener
Thoughts: Freaking adorable, and there’s a bit of subtlety to the heart shape, for which I am grateful.
33. Circle of Shadows (Circle of Shadows #1) – Evelyn Skye
Thoughts: Update: They made changes to this cover, and it only got better! Still loving the Renegades-y bottom half, but I love all of the aspects separately, and I’m super glad than Skye got a good cover this time around.
34. The Field Guide to the North American Teenager – Ben Philippe
Thoughts: Really well put-together, and that shade of yellow looks amazing on that grey background.
35. How to Be Luminous – Harriet Reuter Hapgood
Thoughts: Though I have absolutely no clue what this cover means, I found myself staring at it and really wanting to understand. It’s unique and intriguing, so it gets the stamp of Christina-approval.
36. The Severed Moon: A Year-Long Journal of Magic – Leigh Bardugo
Thoughts: Very disappointed this is just a journal but oh well the cover is still pretty. And it will probably be textured IRL.
37. The Beast Player – Nahoko Uehashi
Thoughts: I would one hundred percent believe someone if they’d told me this was the cover of a Miyazaki film.
Adult:
1. Off The Rails: A Train Trip Through Life – Beppe Severgnini
Thoughts: One thing I love is color combos you don’t usually see but which totally work, and this blue and orange cover is a great example. The font, the art, the map: all getting me going. I choo choo choose this cover.
2. The Golden Tresses of the Dead (Flavia DeLuce #10 – Alan Bradley
Thoughts: Amazing cake toppers.
3. The Winter Witch (Winternight Trilogy #3) – Katherine Arden
Thoughts: One hundred percent here for that phoenix.
4. Oksana, Behave! – Maria Kuznetsova
Thoughts: Flippin’ fantastic.
5. Underground: A Human History of the Worlds Beneath Our Feet – Will Hunt
Thoughts: Yessss, just because a book is nonfiction doesn’t mean it’s cover can’t have a touch of whimsy!
6. Professor Chandra Follows His Bliss – Rajeev Balasubramanyam
Thoughts: I swoon for a well-done font-focused cover.
7. All the Lives We Ever Lived: Seeking Solace in Virginia Woolf – Katharine Smyth
Thoughts: The waves in the font and the lighthouse! zomg. I don’t even care about Virginia Woolf, and I kind of want this.
8. What Doesn’t Kill You Makes You Blacker: A Memoir in Essays – Damon Young
Thoughts: Powerful and effective.
9. The Mortal Word (Invisible Library #5) – Genevieve Cogman
Thoughts: Though it doesn’t match the prior books, I can’t help loving the style of this cover, from the palette to the black kitten.
10. The Familiars – Stacey Halls (UK)
Thoughts: It’s all cute and stuff and then you notice that there’s a noose.
11. The Familiars – Stacey Halls (US)
Thoughts: For reasons of which I’m uncertain, I have a mild preference for the UK cover, but omg the US one is fabulous too. I particularly love the fox!
12. The Impossible Girl – Lydia Kang
Thoughts: This book’s actually already out, but I missed it in my previous roundup, and I love this cover so dang much. When you can make a literal heart look gorgeous, you’re doing something right.
13. The Conviction of Cora Burns – Carolyn Kirby
Thoughts: Everyone has their weaknesses, and mine include silhouette portrait covers.
14. The Parting Glass – Gina Marie Guadagnino
Thoughts: The simplicity of the font combined with the lushness of the art is *kisses fingertips*
15. Bluff – Jane Stanton Hitchcock
Thoughts: I love the implication that she can kill people and come out still full Audrey Hepburn perfection.
16. The True Queen (Sorcerer Royal #2) – Zen Cho
Thoughts: I smell a redesign to book one, but UNPOPULAR OPINION bring it on if the new look is like THIS.
17. The Haunting of Tram Car 015 – P Djèlà Clark
Thoughts: Tor.com covers are the best covers. Like, they have the best illustrators.
18. Creatures of Want and Ruin – Molly Tanzer
Thoughts: Creepy af but, like, they know what they’re doing.
19. Bedfellow – Jeremy C. Shipp
Thoughts: Congratulations on the most horrifying cover ever. MI hate this, but I had to include it because it WANTS me to hate it and be scared of it. You win, Tor. YOU WIN.
20. Storm of Locusts (The Sixth World #2) – Rebecca Roanhorse
Thoughts: My favorite part is the woman who’s dressed like a fairy princess but still ready to kick ass and not bother with names.
21. Veins of Gold – Charlie N. Holmberg
Thoughts: I am total trash for this fairy-tale-esque cover style. Holmberg’s covers are always such Christina traps.
22. Middlegame – Seanan McGuire
Thoughts: I feel like the middle finger should be up, but I’ve got to hand it to them: it’s a handsome cover.
23. How Long ‘Til Black Future Month? – N. K. Jemisin
Thoughts: Obviously that’s the coolest hairstyle ever, but I also love the over-it-ness of her expression with that title.
24. The House on Vesper Sands – Paraic O’Donnell
Thoughts: A SILHOUETTE THAT IS BLUE AND ALSO SHINY. THIS IS THE MOST CHRISTINA OF COVERS.
0mg I want them all! The Epic Crush of Genie Lo cover is really pretty.
Gaby recently posted…WoW: Kingdom of Ash (Throne of Glass #7) by Sarah J. Maas
There are entirely too many beauties in this list to even try and choose just one. And I sure as heck added a heck of a lot of new ones to my epicly huge TBR. Love this, and thank you!
Yup, these posts are going to be my doom. LOL.