Top Ten Tuesday #327

Hi all! I hope you’ve all had a good week since I last did one of these, I’ve had a very busy weekend of work, I was working Saturday, Sunday and yesterday so I’m happy to have a couple of days off now. I’ve been really enjoying watching some of the equestrian events at the Olympics, I managed to catch some of the cross country in the eventing, and caught up with the eventing showjumping after work yesterday evening, it was so great to see Team GB win the gold! I’m looking forward to seeing the individual showjumping final tomorrow, the GB riders did great in qualifying today, so I’m excited to see how they go tomorrow. It was also amazing to see Keely Hodgkinson get a silver in the 800m, we haven’t had a medal in that one in a while!

Anyway, as it’s Tuesday, I have another Top Ten Tuesday for you all, courtesy of Jana at That Artsy Reader Girl. This week we’re talking Covers/Titles That Made Me Want To Read/Buy The Book and as I do love a good cover post (and often judge books by their covers, shush we all do) I’m going with Covers That Made Me Want To Read/Buy The Book. Here we go:

1. Blanca & Roja-Anna-Marie McLemore

Cover Designer: Daniella Mazzella di Bosco

I have to admit I’m not really a magical realism fan, I’m definitely one of those people that needs magic to have rules. But the cover of Blanca & Roja is so, so pretty that as soon as I saw it, I thought, yes, I have to read this. It doesn’t hurt that I’m also a sucker for sister stories.

2. The Gilded Wolves-Roshani Chokshi

Cover art by James Iacobelli, Design by Kerri Resnick

The designs for The Gilded Wolves trilogy are among the most beautiful covers I’ve ever seen, and whilst I do love heists and found families and the book sounded right up my street anyway, I definitely bought a physical copy of the book rather than getting the audio or e-book because the cover was so beautiful. I really loved the book, so it was definitely worth it!

3. The Language of Thorns-Leigh Bardugo

Cover Designer: Natalie Sousa

I don’t usually read short stories, I’m not the biggest fan of them and I’ll admit, whilst I do love Leigh Bardugo, I wasn’t sure if I was going to get this. Then I saw the beautiful cover and was like “yup, I have to add it to my collection”. I’m glad I did because I really enjoyed the stories (and loved Sara Kipin’s beautiful illustrations) and I definitely have Natalie Sousa’s beautiful cover to thank for that.

4. This Poison Heart-Kalynn Bayron

Cover Designer: Raymond Sebastien

I probably would have read Kalynn Bayron’s second book anyway as I really enjoyed Cinderella Is Dead. But I have to admit, much as the idea of a girl with magic plant powers and a creepy old dilapidated house sounded right up my street, it was seeing the beautiful cover that had me hooked on this book.

5. The Gilded Ones-Namina Forna

Cover Designer: Johnny Tarajosu

I love the colours on this one, so vibrant and it’s been great to see all of these covers with beautiful Black girls coming out over the last few years. I have to admit, I wasn’t massively pulled in by the description, I’ve been finding a lot of YA fantasies kind of samey over the last few years, so the beautiful cover was definitely what convinced me I should give it a try.

6. For A Muse of Fire-Heidi Heilig

Cover Designer: Leo Nickolls

I was already pulled in by the description of this book, it sounded really different from a lot of other YA fantasy I’d been reading, with the main character’s skill at binding souls to shadow puppets and the fact that she was mentally ill which is still something that is super lacking in YA fantasy protagonists. But it was the cover that really had me sold on getting a physical copy, I couldn’t not have it with the incredibly vibrant covers and that really striking dragon.

7. The Fair Botanists-Sara Sheridan

Cover Designer-Charlotte Day

I saw the author tweet the cover reveal for this book, and was instantly obsessed. I loved the little illustration of Edinburgh Castle, and I really love the colours, I think everything is super well balanced, with the brightly coloured flowers and the green leaves. The purple type used for the title is also one of my favourite colours so I loved that.

8. Six Crimson Cranes-Elizabeth Lim

Cover Designer: @_afterblossom_

I actually wasn’t the biggest fan of Spin The Dawn, and wasn’t planning on reading another Elizabeth Lim book, but then I saw the beautiful art for Six Crimson Cranes, and thought I might actually give another of her books a try after all!

9. Night Spinner-Addie Thorley

Cover Designer: Kylie Alexander

This was 100% a cover pick. Sure, the idea of a gender-swapped Hunchback of Notre Dame retelling sounded pretty cool, but it was the gorgeous blues and the way the silhouette forms the night sky, with Orbai (the bird who features in the book) blending into Enebish’s face that made me want to pick up this book. And I’m so glad I did, because I would have missed out on a great story if I hadn’t. Sometimes shameless cover picks do lead to really great stories!

10. Girl, Serpent, Thorn-Melissa Bashardoust

Cover Designer: Sasha Vinogradova

This is one of the better uses of the YA book snake in recent years! I wasn’t a fan of Melissa Bashardoust’s first book, Girls Made of Snow and Glass, so I wasn’t sure about her second one but it was the cover which convinced me. The white and the pink are so lovely together, and I love the combination of beauty & danger with the snake and the roses, it really fits the book.

11. The Scorpio Races-Maggie Stiefvater

Cover Designer: Christopher Stengel

This was actually my first Maggie Stiefvater book, before The Raven Boys. I knew nothing about her work, nothing about this book and literally picked it up and bought it just because of the gorgeous cover. Maggie Stiefvater’s covers are always amazing, but there’s something about the vibrant red of this one, with the heart design and the big black horse that really pops. This is not my favourite Maggie Stiefvater book, I definitely prefer The Raven Cycle, but I’m glad I read it, because it was my introduction to her books.

12. The Priory of The Orange Tree-Samantha Shannon

Cover Designer: Ivan Belikov

This was 1000% a cover buy. I was never going to read the incredibly chunky Priory in physical hardback format, it just would not have been practical, as I’m very much an on the move reader (I read a lot on public transport!) but when I saw how gorgeous the cover for this book was, especially that magnificent dragon, I had to have it for my collection (and I got it as part of a ticket for an event Shannon was doing anyway, so £18 for the event and the book seemed very reasonable considering the hardback by itself would have been I think £25+). No regrets, the book is stunning!

So there we go, those are just 12 covers that made me want to read/buy the book, I could definitely have come up with a lot more! Covers are super important, they’re your first impression of a book and whilst I will still read a book that doesn’t have a great cover if I like the sound of the story, a good cover can make or break things for me if I’m on the fence! How about you? Have you ever bought a book because of the cover? Have you read any of these? Did you enjoy them? Let me know in the comments!

I will be back next week with another Top Ten Tuesday, this time we’ll be talking about Secondary/Minor Characters Who Deserve More Love.