Today, I thought I’ll do something a little different. You know that saying, ‘Don’t judge a book by its cover’? Well, I’m going to ignore that completely and look at the books I read in August and give my opinion on their covers. Let’s dive in!
Jade City by Fonda Lee.
This was the first book I finished back in August and I loved it. It was an interesting urban fantasy story with a rather unique magic system involving jade. While the story was interesting and grabbed my attention, the cover does not. Sure, the bright green is eye catching but the rest of the cover seems pretty generic and doesn’t hint at magically street gang warfare, family feuds or anything magical at all. Its fortunate that this book is getting a lot of praise and positive reviews, because the cover is probably not drawing people to it alone.
Night’s Master by Tanith Lee.
If you’ve read my Update posts throughout August, you know I struggled with this book. In fact this is a case of actually I should have judged this book by its cover and not even read it, but it was for the Sword and Laser bookclub. I can’t really put my finger on why I don’t like this cover, I don’t know maybe its the lifeless looking woman on the cover. Either way judge this book by its cover and stay away!
Rebel Springs by Morgan Rhodes.
Moving onto a book I did enjoy, we have the cover of Rebel Springs. There does seem to be a running theme with this series of books’ covers, that involve a cloaked person on the front. Confession time, I thought that the cloaked on the front was one of the female character but according to Goodreads, the author says its one of the male characters. Oops. Still, the cover fits nicely with the story and I like that each of the covers have an eagle somewhere on them, its a nice nod to an element of the overall story.
The Novice by Matharu Taran.
The next book continues the theme of hooded individuals, although this time there is no mistaking the main character on the front! I don’t know what it is about this cover but it comes across as a little cartoony, which doesn’t quite match the tone of the story within the covers. Still, I liked the use of the bright, lighter colours for the background, as it really draws your attention to the book. Its just a shame that it feels like the foreground picture of Fletcher doesn’t seem to suit the background.
The Empire of Ashes by Anthony Ryan.
And the final cover is by far my favourite from the books I read in August. Its just a personal preference, but I prefer covers that show some action. It just gives the cover more life and personality. Yes, I’m a bit odd. I also love the use of colour, which draws your eye to the middle of the cover. I also like that the title and authors name are not being obscured for the sake of the cover image but are also given enough space as well. Overall, I can see this cover attracting people to pick up the book off of a bookshop’s shelf and possibly convincing them to pick up the trilogy as a whole.
So those were my opinions on the covers of the books I read in August. I would love to know which ones would encourage you to pick up the book and which ones you dislike; let me know in the comments and I’ll talk to you soon!
All book cover images came from Goodreads.
This is a really nice blog post, I would read another by you.
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