It’s that time again for book covers! I think I have fewer than usual this year, believe it it not, since I read fewer books. Still have plenty though!
I’ve said before and will say again that a book doesn’t need an expensive, perfect cover. I would rather something basic or a stock photo than an AI cover. (If you don’t believe me, check out my favorite books post that will come out soon!) (Also, hopefully none of these are AI.) But I do still enjoy a good cover, so I wanted to share these for everyone else to enjoy too!
These are the close up face/portrait covers, and you know what? I really like that on a cover. It grabs my attention, especially when it has cool art like these.
Some romance covers! There are other romances on this list, but these look very romance, you know? Breeze Spells has a fun dynamic between characters and magic and a fun vibe. Kissmas also has a fun vibe and the holiday aesthetics. Reborn is more intense, like, “Damn, these two are gonna kick some ass together.”
More romance! Kind of, one of them less so, but that’s beside the point. These covers look nice together though (and are individually beautiful) and have sorta similar vibes. The stories have sorta similar vibes in a way too, queer YA with some chill moments but also serious things.
Slightly spookier books. I feel like it actually shows in the covers. Smoke and darker colors and creepy hands. All a different style, but all great.
Ok these have no theme lol. They’re all queer with a bit of romance, does that count? The cover for Cursed Cocktails is just fun and cute. Starfire is striking, and I love the fun little detail of the dragon ripping the sign off, it’s just neat. Dreams and Destiny uses fairly simple shapes and silhouettes, but in a pretty, eye-catching way.
These also have no theme, other than queer and have some romance. But that is just mostly what I read lol. All beautiful covers though!
I grouped these together as the “no people” covers. The first two are also sort of busy, but in a way that I love. And I just love the designs on all these.
I put these three together because the colors matched lol. And they’re beautiful. I know the Born of Scourge cover art was done by the author, that’s always cool. I love their art style.
These are so unique to me. They’re just a different style from what I normally see on covers, at least currently, which makes them stand out. And they’re great! The details, the colors, the compositions, the vibes.
A Closer Look:
I wanted to choose my top favorites from the books above based on the whole cover design. Art, text, how it all looks together. But there were still too many lol. (Also I couldn’t find info anywhere about artists for some. I would’ve liked to include that info for all covers in this post, but it is hard to find, and making this post was hard enough with my current health issues, so I wanted to at least include it for these few.) It was impossible to truly choose top favorites, so here are just a few that I think stand out and are the complete package that I wanted to talk about a bit more.
Otherworldly – art by Sam Schechter & design by Rebecca Syracuse
Maybe I’m a little biased in the sense that I own a hardcover copy of this book, and the cover is even prettier in person. Seriously, I don’t know what Simon & Schuster is doing with their books to get this color-changing shine on them, but it’s *chef’s kiss* I really do love this artist’s art style though, and I love a character-focused cover, and the slanted title flows nicely with the art, and the whole thing is well done.
Don’t Let the Forest In – art by Jana Heidersdorf & design by Meg Sayre
There’s just something about this one that draws me in. It’s beautiful, obviously, but also THE VIBES. Surreal, creepy, naturey horror vibes. The planty slashes have little details like the flowers being positioned where the eyes would be. I’m not always a horror fan, but sometimes it works for me, especially in artwork. And though the text isn’t anything super special, it’s unobtrusive with muted colors and nice style that matches the rest of the cover.
Cascade Failure by L.M. Sagas – art by Johnny Dombrowski
Like I said, this cover just really pops, and I love the style. I love the detail of the little crew on top of the building. It’s also really fun how the title and author are so incorporated into the artwork.
Check out my other end of the year posts!
Cover Love: Best Book Covers from Books I Read in 2024
Bookish Musings: Top Ten Characters from Books I Read and Games I Played in 2024
Bookish Musings: Top Ten Books/Series I Read in 2024 + Some Non-Bookish Things
I always like your cover posts. Of your top three, I love Otherwordly and Cascade Failure, but Don’t Let the Forest In creeps me out. I would not read that one on the grounds that I’d probably have nightmares afterwards.
Thanks 🙂 Lol that’s fair, it did have some creepy stuff, so the cover is a good metric for whether someone will enjoy the book.
My favorites are Don’t Let the Forest In and Now, Conjurers. Earth Flown is also really pretty! This is such a great selection of covers😁
It doesn’t surprise me that you like the horror ones 😁 They are great though!
Oh I think Starfire might be my favourite, that is so cool
It’s such an attention-grabbing cover! And who doesn’t love a dragon?
Don’t Let the Forest In and Now, Conjurers are very striking. Cascade Failure is so vibrant and clever! I also like Starfire and Earthflown (the second makes you curious about the content). Let’s hope publishers will continue to employ real people to make covers…😬
They really are striking! And it’s great when a cover can actually make you curious about the content. Yes, please, I’m going to be upset if they start churning out AI.
I always like looking at pretty covers and now I wonder why I didn’t do a cover post for this year, but I already wrote a whole bunch of other top tens so I didn’t really have the time to make more. Breeze Spells is on my to-read list and I like the cover for that one. And Otherworldly first caught my eye because of the cover, I really enjoyed the book too. I like the vibe of the Evergeen cover too. And the no people ones all look great too. There is something kinda creepy and unsettling about that cover for Don’t Let the Forest In, but it sure is one that stands out. And I agree it is really neat how the author and title are incorporated in the artwork for Cascade Failure.
I always look forward to doing a cover post lol. Breeze Spells is really cute, both story and cover.