In case you missed the news, I’ve Got You Covered has replaced my prior Cover Snark feature. The format’s pretty similar, but this post features a round up of all the new covers I’ve fallen in love with recently. There may occasionally be some snark anyway. 😉

Middle Grade

1. Heroism Begins with Her: Inspiring Stories of Bold, Brave, and Gutsy Women in the U.S. Military – Winifred Conkling

Obviously I love both the feminism and the wordplay of this cover, but it’s also included for being super beautiful even without those elements. Doing these women proud.

2. Tinsey Clover – Chelsea Walker Flagg

If you’re interested, this one’s already released. It’s a self-published title; it always makes me so happy when a self-pub has such a magnificent cover, because these authors truly do have control. I really love the font and flowers and colors used here.

3. Each Tiny Spark – Pablo Cartaya

Hell yeah to this capable little female mechanic. She looks like so much more of a badass than I will ever be, because I would not want to be anywhere near that…soldering thingy?

4. Rise of the Dragon Moon – Gabrielle K. Byrne

Two dragons, an aurora borealis, and a boss middle grade heroine rocking a cape. Could this BE any more awesome? Well, maybe with a unicorn.

5. Swap’d (Code Girls #2) – Tamara Ireland Stone

How freaking cute is this? I also enjoy the internet-ception of the girls on their devices viewed on a laptop.

6. Twinchantment – Elise Allen

The only possible flaw with this cover is that it’s busy, but every single piece of it is absolutely gorgeous, so it’s hard to call that a flaw.

7. What Momma Left Me – Renée Watson

Apparently this book originally came out in 2010, and this redesign will absolutely get it moving again, because WOWZA.

8. The Rambling – Jimmy Cajoleas

I absolutely would never go anywhere if the only way was a small wooden boat above water filled with scary-toothed fishes. Nope nope nope.

9. Little Apocalypse – Katherine Sparrow

A+ side-eye. I also think the framing adds curiosity, because you want to know what happened behind her but also what it is she’s looking at out of the corner of her eye.

10. Emily Out of Focus – Miriam Spitzer-Franklin

This looks magical.

11. Digging Deep (Hoops #4) – Elena Delle Donne

This cover is ballin’.

Young Adult

1. The Grief Keeper – Alexandra Villasante

There are aspects of this art style that honestly don’t work for me, like the way her hair is consuming them both, but it’s so cool and unique that I love it anyway.

2. Wilder Girls – Rory Power

Creepy beautiful.

3. Never-Contented Things – Sarah Porter

She’s never satisfied.

4. His Fair Assassin – Robin LaFevers

These actually came out in October, but I found them shortly thereafter and I’m so pleased with these redesigns. I wasn’t into the original covers, so these redesigns to go along with the release of Courting Darkness are just what the doctor ordered.

5. The Kingdom – Jess Rothenberg

Unsettling but gorgeous is getting to be a really great cover aesthetic. This is awesome, though the feathery dress/shirt thing does end up looking like she’s a giant molting bird.

6. The Kingdom – Jess Rothenberg

Second verse, same as the first. This is the Australian cover, and I may even like it more, but it’s so hard to tell because they take different directions, both of which really hint at the subject of the book.

7. Unter dem Zelt der Sterne – Jenn Bennett

This is the German edition of Jenn Bennett’s Starry Eyes. I saw the cover reveal but couldn’t find a purchase link or Goodreads page for it. I don’t totally get the coffee cup camping aesthetic tbh but I just think this cover is so adorable and I can guarantee I would want to pick it up if I saw it in a store.

8. Forward Me Back to You – Mitali Perkins

The designers made a lot of bold choices on this one, particularly in the use of orange and green as the primary colors, but there’s such a strong sense of time here, as well as a cinematic quality, that just works. Plus, you’d never confuse this cover for any other.

9. Where I End & You Begin – Preston Norton

The fonts, colors, and tagline are all fantastic. I’ve seen covers with this flip technique before, but this one’s done especially well.

10. Patron Saints of Nothing – Randy Ribay

Excellent use of religious iconography isn’t ever something I expected to say about why I think a YA book cover is brilliant, but here we are.

11. The Storm Crow (The Storm Crow #1) – Kalyn Josephson

Fantasy birds ascend to creepy HItchcock-level swarm but our heroine is so fucking fierce she’s not even bothered.

12. Ship of Smoke and Steel (The Wells of Sorcery #1) – Django Wexler

There may come a day when I’m sick of covers with badass heroines looking ready to murder the patriarchy, but I doubt it.

13. The Downstairs Girl – Stacey Lee

*squees and flails* (I love this so much I have nothing to say other than GIRL YOU’RE ROCKING THAT HAT.)

14. The Hearts We Sold – Emily Lloyd-Jones

Me = 😍

15. Hungry Hearts: 13 Tales of Food & Love – Caroline Tung Richman & Elsie Chapman, eds.

Not sure if my heart is hungry but my stomach definitely is now.

16. Love from A to Z – S.K. Ali

They are so adorable, and I already ship it just off of this adorably cheery bright blue cover.

17. Spin the Dawn (The Blood of Stars #1) – Elizabeth Lim

Honestly, I’m not totally sold on this in the long shot but when I zoom in on the details, it’s truly stunning, especially her dress and the fabric she’s working on. At first glance, she looks like a weirdly-formed angel, until you realize it’s the wing of the bird behind her.

18. The Bone Houses – Emily Lloyd-Jones

Thrilled about Yorick’s modeling career. He’s not poor anymore. (Also props to Emily for two amazing covers!)

19. A Match Made in Mehendi – Nandini Bajpai

I love the Instagram feel to this; it feels modern in a way a lot of contemporary doesn’t, and the wall’s lovely. The only thing I don’t love is the font treatment which feels out of place.

20. Prince Charming (Royals #1) – Rachel Hawkins

Though I don’t love the red on pink, every other facet of this is delightful, including their outfits and the sass in her expression. Way more original than the hardcover design.

21. Mera: Tidebreaker – Danielle Paige

I’m sort of mystified how many of this comic book novels the market can apparently support, but I’m here for the awesome covers and greater inclusion of female and diverse superheroes.

22. Girls Made of Snow and Glass – Melissa Bashardoust

That’s so good. I only wish they’d done that for the hardback, but excellent redesign here.

23. You Bring the Distant Near – Mitali Perkins

There are a lot of good redesigns happening here. I loved the original cover for You Bring the Distant Near, but omg this one’s EVEN BETTER.

24. Sparrow Squadron (Aelita’s War #1) – Darius Jung

My favorite part is the blue watercolor cityscape in the background at the bottom, but I feel like all of the elements of this are working together really well.

25. This Is Not a Love Scene – S. C. Megale

Font-based covers are a particular favorite of mine, and the use of the film roll is inspired. The fact that things are slightly off-center bothers me a bit, but I still really enjoy this cover. I’m also wondering how they got David Baldacci to blurb it, because that seems random.

26. The Apocalypse of Elena Mendoza – Shaun David Hutchinson

While I don’t dislike the original cover for this, I do think this one’s weird in a way that’s more likely to make people gravitate to it in a bookstore. Also, more generally, I love that they’re moving in an illustrated direction for his last couple books, because I think Hutchinson’s blend of contemporary and genre fiction elements lends itself well to illustration.

27. I Wanna Be Where You Are – Kristina Forest

The title has The Little Mermaid stuck in my head, but it’s so cute I can’t be mad. Not that having Disney songs stuck in your head is that terrible of a fate anyway.

28. The Modern Faerie Tales: Tithe / Valiant / Ironside (Modern Faerie Tales 1-3) – Holly Black

Super smart to capitalize off of how well The Cruel Prince is doing. This isn’t my favorite cover ever, but I’m including it because it’s worlds better than the originals and that moth is awesome.

29. Stronger Than a Bronze Dragon – Mary Fan

Fan-tastic.

30. Happy Messy Scary Love – Leah Konen

I may not quite be on cloud 9, but I’m at least on cloud 8.

Adult

1. The Woman in the Dark – Vanessa Savage

Serious Haunting of Hill House vibes, amirite?

2. Invitation to Die (Inspector Redfyre #2) – Barbara Cleverly

Mostly I feel like Miss Fisher would approve of this, so I do.

3. The Plus One – Sarah Archer

It’s interesting they took this in a more sombre direction, as in theory there could be something funny about this woman building a man. It hints that the novel may be nuanced. I also love the colors used here.

4. First Cosmic Velocity – Zach Powers

They really hit the nail on the head with the 1960s feeling to this cover. It’s far out.

5. The Philosopher’s War – Tom Miller

There’s a quirkiness to this style I really appreciate, and I always love seeing pink on a book cover by a man, because fuck the gender binary.

6. Polite Society – Mehesh Rao

There are criticisms I could offer here, like how the girl looks so shiny as to not be real and the stiffness of her posture, but those are also what really work effectively in context. This book is being pitched as for fans of Crazy Rich Asians, and you can see that instantly, and the shininess and stiffness really sell that high society attitude. She’s basically trapped in a gilded cage made of flowers.

7. Minimum Wage Magic (DFZ #1) – Rachel Aaron

The title treatment brings this down again, but the art’s gorgeous. I love how realistic the heroine looks, down to being a little bit tired. She basically looks like Cinder all grown up.

8. An Unconditional Freedom (The Loyal League #3) – Alyssa Cole

Hot damn, he looks amazing in that outfit.

9. Bridal Boot Camp (Little Bridge Island #0.5) – Meg Cabot

I’m equally excited about new Meg Cabot and how cute this is.

10. No Judgments (Little Bridge Island #1) – Meg Cabot

Love the foot pop reference to the Princess Diaries movie!

11. The Capital – Robert Menasse

It’s very World’s Fair meets Animal Farm. Not sure if that’s what they were gong for, but it’s certainly eye-catching.

12. Don’t You Forget About Me – Mhairi McFarlane

It kind of looks like the dog is barking out the title, which is adorable.

13. Normal People – Sally Rooney

This Canadian edition captures an air of menace in a scene that ought to look bright and fun using the eerie framing of the chicken fight around the chatting couple. That juxtaposition really works for me. The artwork is also gorgeous, and the simple font treatment is incredibly effective.

14. How Not to Die Alone – Richard Roper

First off, this cover made me chuckle when I first saw it, just from the visual of the flower hitting this guy in the face. BUT it gets even better for me, because, tied to the title, the flowers make me think of that whole he/she/they-love-me thing done with flower petals, and it’s like he’s getting a massive no from the universe.

15. The Rivals of Sherlock Holmes: The Greatest Detective Stories, 1837-1914 – Graeme Davis, ed.

Classic and effective. This cover will absolutely catch the eye of the readers who love mysteries; it even caught mine, and I’m not a mystery reader.

16. Evvie Drake Starts Over – Linda Holmes

Admittedly, it’s a trifle odd that I can’t tell by looking at this cover what the intended audience is (adult, but tbh could have been a middle grade). Mostly, I can’t get over my love of that lobster at the bottom sort of shrugging his claws like, yeah idk why I’m here either.

17. The Soul of Power (The Waking Land #3) – Callie Bates

All of these covers are lovely, but I’m especially thrilled about this one because BLUE.

18. The Flatshare – Beth O’Leary

The US needs to pay for the rights to use this cover ASAP because the US one is tragic (I know I’m trying to be nice now but omg it’s WTF-level hideous PLEASE FIX IT) and this is beauteous.

19. Bad Ideas – Missy Marston

The world just won’t let Ron forget that time he thought it was a great idea to steal a flying car for the trip to school.

20. The Daughters of Temperance Hobbs – Katherine Howe

I’m in love with that shade of blue and also the font treatment.

I received this book for free from Edelweiss in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

The Past and Other Things That Should Stay Buried by Shaun David Hutchinson
Published by Simon Pulse on February 19, 2019
Genres: Contemporary, Science Fiction
Pages: 304
Format: eARC
Source: Edelweiss
Amazon • The Book Depository • Audible
Goodreads

A good friend will bury your body, a best friend will dig you back up.

Dino doesn’t mind spending time with the dead. His parents own a funeral home, and death is literally the family business. He’s just not used to them talking back. Until Dino’s ex-best friend July dies suddenly—and then comes back to life. Except not exactly. Somehow July is not quite alive, and not quite dead.

As Dino and July attempt to figure out what’s happening, they must also confront why and how their friendship ended so badly, and what they have left to understand about themselves, each other, and all those grand mysteries of life.

Shaun David Hutchinson is one of those authors who keeps getting better and better. I’m endlessly impressed with the way that he blurs the line between contemporary and genre fiction in a way that throws realistic issues into sharp relief. They’re odd and unexpected and deeply strange, but everything comes together for this emotional gut punch that really works. His books don’t really feel like anyone else’s, though I would say that if you love A.S. King and aren’t reading Hutchinson, you should be.

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Every year, this statistics post is my favorite year-end wrap up to write. It’s always so interesting to see the breakdown of what I read into numbers. Hopefully you guys enjoy it too. 😉

High-Level Reading Stats

In 2018, I finished a grand total of 310 books. On top of that I tried and DNFed 160 titles during 2018. That’s a lot, I know, but it means I liked more of what I read, so I’ll take it. 39 of the books I finished were rereads. And apparently I only read 11 2018 debuts?!?!

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The Help by Kathryn Stockett
Published by Amy Einhorn on February 10, 2009
Genres: Historical
Pages: 465
Format: Hardcover
Source: Purchased
Amazon • The Book Depository • Audible
Goodreads

Be prepared to meet three unforgettable women:

Twenty-two-year-old Skeeter has just returned home after graduating from Ole Miss. She may have a degree, but it is 1962, Mississippi, and her mother will not be happy till Skeeter has a ring on her finger. Skeeter would normally find solace with her beloved maid Constantine, the woman who raised her, but Constantine has disappeared and no one will tell Skeeter where she has gone.

Aibileen is a black maid, a wise, regal woman raising her seventeenth white child. Something has shifted inside her after the loss of her own son, who died while his bosses looked the other way. She is devoted to the little girl she looks after, though she knows both their hearts may be broken.

Minny, Aibileen’s best friend, is short, fat, and perhaps the sassiest woman in Mississippi. She can cook like nobody’s business, but she can’t mind her tongue, so she’s lost yet another job. Minny finally finds a position working for someone too new to town to know her reputation. But her new boss has secrets of her own.

Seemingly as different from one another as can be, these women will nonetheless come together for a clandestine project that will put them all at risk. And why? Because they are suffocating within the lines that define their town and their times. And sometimes lines are made to be crossed.

In pitch-perfect voices, Kathryn Stockett creates three extraordinary women whose determination to start a movement of their own forever changes a town, and the way women — mothers, daughters, caregivers, friends — view one another. A deeply moving novel filled with poignancy, humor, and hope, The Help is a timeless and universal story about the lines we abide by, and the ones we don't.

This year, one of my goals is to read more of the books that have been collecting dust (unfortunately literally) on my shelves. I’ve pretty much got as many bookshelves as my house can support, and they’re packed. If I want to buy more books I’ve read and loved, I have to make the space. The Help has been taking up space on my shelves for years now, since I picked up the hardcover at Goodwill. It’s one of those books that I felt I had to own but didn’t feel a strong impulse to actually read. But, because it’s such a large book, it was an early candidate for reading. It’s not going to make any space on my shelves, though, because it was so good I’m keeping it.

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One of my goals over the last few years has been to finish more series, rather than just starting them. It’s a tough goal. For me, finishing a series often means rereading the first books because I don’t have great recall and don’t really remember what was happening. That’s a time investment. I’m doing more backlist run-throughs but I do still start more series than I finish, which is a problem.

In 2018, I finished 31 series and started 79, so, yeah, I’m not winning this battle. Given that I probably will not continue in several of those, it’s more balanced than it sounds. But still I wanted to do a post about the ones I finished, as encouragement for me to keep going and to hype the good ones. Keep in mind, though, that I am sometimes guessing that a series is over, as publishers often don’t announce the number of books and some authors (like Meg Cabot) go back and do sequels years later.

I’m just going to do these in the order I finished them broken down month by month. Remember that I didn’t necessarily read them all this year; the dates are for when I finished the last book of the series.

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