My Favorite Book Covers

First up is Felix Ever After by Kacen Callender. I mean, come on! Do I even have to elaborate? It’s just so pretty. I love the art style choice and the colors that pop. And then all the little details?! The tattoos on the arms, the paint behind him, the scars from the top surgery?! It’s absolutely gorgeous. Major shoutout to Alex Cabal and Chris Kwon. I don’t have anything else to say other than that if you don’t like this cover, I’m not sure we can be friends.

It has been years since I read The Traitor’s Kiss, so although I enjoyed it at the time, I can’t speak to how good it actually is. HOWEVER. That cover is something else. When I went to write this post I couldn’t believe I didn’t immediately think of it; it’s definitely one of my favorites. I can’t quite articulate why I like it so much, but I do. I think part of it is I really like the contrast of something “soft” like flowers being paired with the knife. I think it does a good job for setting up what you can expect the book to be like.

The We Set the Dark on Fire cover is minimalistic, but effective. I think the cover design revolving around a giant title can kind of be hit or miss, but this one definitely does well. I think what makes it work is the general simplicity of it at first glance: it’s not too busy, our eyes are immediately drawn to the title. But when you look at it for a little longer, you see all these beautiful cutout details. The flowers, the flames, the two birds (each holding a different object in their mouths). The gradient of colors is just gorgeous! Plus just the overall concept of the black background, with the gradient on top, and then giving the illusion of cutting away to the black underneath? It’s very elegant!

I think part of the reason I like the I’ll be the One cover so much is because it perfectly captures how I felt about the book. I’ll be the One tackles a lot of heavy issues like fatphobia and parental abuse, but at the same time it is such a joyful book. At the root of it is Skye’s joy in herself. It is, as the cover quote suggests, an absolute delight. And the cover is right there with it! Usually I don’t love covers with pictures of people (as opposed to illustrations), but I think this one does a really good job. And I think it’s so cool to get to see a happy fat person right on the cover. I also love the pastel color palette; it is bright and peppy without being loud. I just think it’s a really cute cover!

Look, I mentioned my obsession with illustrated romance covers at the start of this post. You show me the cover of an illustrated romance, I immediately want to read it. There were literally so many covers that I could have chosen to fit that (I only wanted to go with one, y’all don’t want an entire post just of illustrated romance covers. Or do you? I would probably rank my favorites if someone asked.) So despite there being plenty of cute illustrated romance covers, I decided to go with Beach Read. I mean, look at it! It’s so cute! Look at that little color swap where they’re each wearing the color of the other person’s towel! Look at the great font pairing! I love this cover almost as much as I love the book (which is a lot).