Top Ten Covers That Need A Re-Do
Top Ten Tuesday is a super fun feature hosted by The Broke and The Bookish each Tuesday. This week’s topic is Top Ten Covers You Would Redesign. Oooh, you guys know what a cover whore I am. I pick books by covers all the time. I read a lot of romance, which if rife with bad covers. Thank goodness for my Kindle because I will totally buy and ebook if a cover is particularly heinous. This is all my own opinion, of course, and I do not mean to hurt anyone’s feelings or disparage anyone’s hard work. They just aren’t my thing. In no particular order, here are the books whose covers I wish would get a re-do.
1. Archangel’s Blade by Nalini Singh – Gah, what is up with this cover? Dmitri is supposed to be this super hot vampire but instead looks like a creeper who decided not to wear his shirt during a rainstorm. Just – no.
2. Vampire Academy by Richelle Mead – I love Richelle Mead but she has consistently bad covers. If I was going off of the cover, I never would have picked up this book. The model’s pose is awkward and her face takes up way too much space on this cover. These books are getting a redesign soon (but more on that in a later post).
3. A Casual Vacancy by JK Rowling – There isn’t anything terrible about this. It’s just really boring.
4. Drop Dead Gorgeous by Linda Howard – I love this 2 book series but the covers are super dated and scream “smutty romance,” but not in a good way. Would love to see something a little more modern for this one.
5. On The Edge by Ilona Andrews – Andrews is another author I love whose covers are often disappointing. This one isn’t terrible but I don’t love it. Also, not a huge fan of the love interest looming in the corner with his flowing locks.
6. Half Blood by Jennifer L Armentrout – I know there are people who love these covers but they do nothing for me. I find them to be pretty bland and look like something a self-pubbed author would put out.
7. Wicked After Midnight by Delilah S Dawson – So many things wrong with this. It really looks like some bad photo booth op in an old time Western town tourist trap. Everything about this is super awkward, from the posing to the styling.
8. Caressed By Ice by Nalini Singh – I love, love Nalini Singh but I dislike almost every cover from the Psy-Changeling series. This is one of the worst ones. This angle is not good for anyone and even the font is cheesy.
9. Storm by Brigid Kemmerer – I like that there is a consistent theme with all of these covers (guy in front, one color for each book), but I still find them to be super cheesy looking.
10. Fifty Shades of Gray by EL James – This is the cover that sparked a million other totally generic covers of inanimate objects. I get it. You want to read smut but you don’t want people to call you out for it. But could at least make these covers mildly interesting?
Though I love a well designed cover, lately I have been embracing bad covers for books I love. For example, I bought most of the Kate Daniels series on ebook but have gotten a few of them in paperback recently and am learning to love the cheesiness. This is all personal preference, too. My bad cover might be your work of art and vice versa. Let me know what cover(s) you’d like to re-do in the comments below. :)
