In honour of tomorrow’s cover reveal for The Book of Days, I thought it might be fun to have a look at some covers that turn me into a drooling mess.

The Split Worlds: Any Other Name by Emma Newman

This cover has everything: illustration, intrigue, gargoyles.  I love how the branches morph into items that I’m guessing are significant to the story.  Also, those splashes of colour against the silhouetted trees and the deep blue/grey of the background are to die for.

Siege and Storm by Leigh Bardugo

Russia!  If I didn’t know anything else about the book, just one glance at the cover would let me know that this fantasy is going to have flavours of the Motherland.  And that’s exactly what a great cover does – it lets prospective readers know what they’re in for before they even crack open a page.

Plus: fancy typography.  It’s a weakness of mine.  How cool is it how the ends of the letters wrap around the palace and turn into the dragon at the top!  The fierce red of the palace and in the title stands out well against the brooding sky.

All in all, you know something big is about to go down.

Love in the Time of Global Warming by Francesca Lia Block

You’re probably seeing a pattern here with the book covers I go gaga for.  If it’s illustrated, I’m going to want to lick it.  And this is a particularly good example of how effective illustration can be.  From the lovingly detailed waves at the bottom to the butterflies emerging from the silhouetted face, every tiny bit of this book cover just works.

Also, it’s interesting how plain the actual title is.  Because when you have such a gorgeous cover, you don’t need to gild the lily.  Plus how cool is that single eye near the bottom!

The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern

This is a perfect example of how an almost monochrome cover can still pack a hell of a punch.  The beauty comes from its simplicity.  It also lets the red really POP.  I just love how the circus seems to be made out of paper and pasted onto the cover.  And the little curlicues hint at the novel’s Victorian setting.  Also, and this is silly, but including ‘a novel’ lets me know what sort of a read I’m in for.  I may be wrong, but I’ve only ever seen ‘a novel’ on Literary books.  It adds a touch of class that fits in perfectly with the rest of the cover.

Plus I have to love it because it’s got stars on it and so does mine.  Star-covers have to stick together.

And just to prove that I’m not a complete illustration nerd, here’s a couple of examples of covers with models in them that I never want to stop looking at:

Daughter of Smoke & Bone by Laini Taylor

Where do I start?  That unbelievably amazing blue mask?  The two different fonts for the title that somehow manage to work perfectly together?  The way the model looks like she hasn’t made up her mind whether she wants to kill me or eat me?

Stunning.  Just stunning.

The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer by Michelle Hodkin

I have such mixed feelings about it.  I should hate it: the girl is suffering from the all-too-common Decapitated Head Syndrome; the title font is too thin to be perfectly readable over the models’ clothes; the background colour is dingy.

And yet… and yet…

IT’S JUST SO PRETTY.

I don’t know whether it’s the intriguing title, the sense of menace generated by the drab colours, or that gorgeous dress, but something about this cover draws me down into the dark, dark ocean.

EDIT: The indomitable Gretchen shared her favourite covers in the comments and they were so gorgeous I had no choice but to share them:

The Chaos of Stars by Kiersten White

 

The Boundless by Kenneth Oppel

Wow.  Just wow.

Well there it is, as the emperor of Austria said.  I’ve shown you a couple of my favourite book covers and I hope you’ll join me tomorrow when some amazing blogs will be helping me to reveal the cover of The Book of Days.