The Good, the Bad and the Are-You-Kidding-Me?

Filed in Book Covers , The Geeky Lover , The HEA Lover Posted on July 9, 2012 @ 3:00 pm 38 comments

Welcome back to our biweekly cover talk. This week we decided to talk about comic-like covers. Usually we both don’t tend to buy those because we have the prejudice to shelf them as chiclit and well that’s not our kind of genre. But author’s like Molly Harper proved us wrong so well here we are.
Don’t forget we don’t know all the books we talk about and our judgement is only concerning the cover not the books content.
Don’t forget to tell us what you think in the comments!


Caro: When I look at these 3 covers I’m expecting some chick-lit. Silly story. It’s hard not to think that when I see ‘comic-like’ covers. High Stakes is funny because it played with the Bat/vampire cliché but I’m not loving the rest.

And One Last Thing’s cover actually works for me. It’s not playing on the silly factor and it’s simple. I even like the colors. The cover looks even better in real.
When I look at Romancing the Dead my first concern is how unrealistic that woman looks. At least on the other 2 covers the women looks normal this one is just not realistic. I mean silhouette-wise. So freaking thin. O_o O_o. Otherwise it’s a cute cover. I love the ‘life’s a Witch’ part on the cover. It’s…yeah cute. But again hard to take it seriously.

Susi: I do agree- when I see these comic like covers I do expect a funny book. Not chiclit per sé but at least funny. I don’t really like the High Stakes cover. It does fit the book and well I bought it and enjoyed it. But the bats are just too much. LOL
I adore the And One Last Thing cover. It’s pretty and classy and I adore Molly Harper so I’m totally biased. So funny and witty.
Romancing the Dead looks scary and I want to feed the woman. Me not likey. l do like the subtitle Life’s a with. Made me giggle- I’m easy that way.

Caro: I really don’t like the Barely Bewitched. I can’t look at her face without wincing. Well and that cat O_o. Nope not working for me. You see by now that most of these silly covers are witchy books LOL.
Surprisingly I find Annette Blair’s cover funny and interesting. Well once again you can’t really expect something serious with such a silly cover but I find it fun. .
The Accidental Genie is pretty cool. I like the colors and she looks mischievous. I like that. Dakota Cassidy always gets very pretty comic-like covers.
Susi: I so agree about Barely Bewitched. Her face is all weird and I don’t liek the color of her dress.
The Scot, the With and the Wardrobe is weird. I’m more of a pretty drawing person and this one looks off. And well a unicorn- barf. Yes, I’m prejudiced and I do only know one unicorn I liked (know as in I read about it- I do not talk to unicorns in real life- they are too much like horses).
I was a bit disappointed by The Accidental Genie cover. I loved the other ones but this one is just too pink/blue for me. Makes my eyes hurt.

Caro: Mary Janice Davidson’s covers don’t do it for me. I think it’s the covers that always prevented me from ever trying the series. Like I said you expect chick-lit with these covers. I’m really not her fan of her covers.
Ah, the Sookies covers. Well, I used to HATE them. Seriously I thought they were just too fugly. But at some point I started getting used to them and there’s a certain charm to these covers. I find Definitely Dead funny. He’s grabbing the tiger by the tail! LOL Yes I’m easily amused.
Again another witchy book. HP Mallory’s cover is not bad. I love her witchy look and she kinda looks badass. I like this cover but once again, I’m expecting chicklit.
As a conclusion I’d say that I’m not a huge fan of these kinds of covers. Some works for me like every Molly Harper covers but most of the time it trivialized the book and I’m having a hard time taking it seriously.

Susi: The Undead and Unappreciated wants too much and too aggressively for me. The colors are too much, the woman too thin and well there are the bats again. Jeeesh! I really wonder if all those vamp books really have bats in it.
I think I don’t like any of the Sookie covers. The artist is just not my style. Looks like weird hand-painted-by-kids art. And the vamp dude makes me roll my eyes.
The H.P Mallory cover looks nice. I will even forgive the thin girl. It works cuz it looks like a unit. Everything fits- the colors are great together. It looks mysterious and it tempts me to buy it so well all thumbs up for this one.

 

What do you think of these comic-style covers?
Which do you like ,which do you hate?
What exactly do you like/dislike about this kind of covers?
If you don’t like them, would this kind of cover make you second guess picking it up?
And last but not least, do you expect the book to be funny? Or can you imagine the book might be dark? (I mean it’s hard to take these covers seriously)

About Caro The HEA Lover


Caroline is a HEA loving, yarn addicted French who's desperately hoping to get a HEA of her own. If she's not reading then she can be found knitting while listening to Audiobooks or watching Tv shows. Her secret addiction is reading websites that make fun at other people's expense (DYAC, Failbook)! Caroline also blogs at the Secret HEA Society with Susi.

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38 Comments

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  • aurian July 9, 2012 at 3:18 pm

    I agree, I do expect a high account of funny. Which the Sookie Stackhouse books really don’t have.
    I absolutely love the Annette Blair series, I recommend them. And the unicorn is not a real one if you are worried about that, but a part of a merry-go-round. “Draaimolen”.
    I would like to read the HP Mallory books, and the Molly Harper books. I tried the first Kimberly Frost book, really could not get into it. And yes, the Mary Janice Davidson books, I stopped reading them after book 6 or so. Only read the ones about Fred the Mermaid, really funny and original.

    • pattepoilue July 9, 2012 at 4:27 pm

      Ohh the Molly harper books are really good. Her vampire book are HILARIOUS. The werewolf books are very funny and cute and sexy. Love!
      And the contemp was really nice too. I highly recommend her books.
      Yeah I agree about the Sookie covers not matching the atmosphere of the books. Well book 1 was kinda funny.
      I’ll check out the Annette Blair books I’d never heard of them till we made the post!

    • Susi July 10, 2012 at 4:29 am

      As Caro says Molly’s books rock. I want the H.P. ones too. LOL Looks like fun!

  • blodeuedd July 9, 2012 at 3:47 pm

    I love the comic style covers 😀 Well except for the Sookie ones which I despise cos fugly

    • pattepoilue July 9, 2012 at 4:29 pm

      LOL I think I started liking the Sookie covers when they started having these generic covers with a girl with blood on her face for this series. I mean the UK and French Sookie covers are like that and they are so …generic…I started enjoying the original covers more =P

    • Susi July 10, 2012 at 4:29 am

      Word sweety!

  • draconismoi July 9, 2012 at 4:03 pm

    I actually like the Sookie covers….though I’m not a fan of the books. It’s folk-art. I like folk-art.

    As for the Queen Betsy books. Well they are chick-lit, so the cartooney nature of them has never bothered me. I like the new covers in the series better. Not enough to start reading the series – but they are better. The author explained the switch in style from cartoon to urban fantasy as a response to getting fanmail from 11 year olds. She felt her covers were too cartoonish based on all the sex and were appealing to the wrong crowd.

    Which is pretty much the main reason I don’t like the cartoon-style covers. They look like kid book covers. And kid book covers should be way-better than that because kids have artistic expectations.

    • pattepoilue July 9, 2012 at 4:31 pm

      Wow 11yo reading them? O_o I get how parents who do not read these kinds of books could get fooled by cartoonish covers. :/ it sucks!
      I don’t really like the new Queen Betsy covers but now that I know the reason of the change it makes more sense

    • Susi July 10, 2012 at 4:31 am

      It seems folk art is not for me then. LOL And oh my about the kids reading those. But those really look a bit for a younger audience even tho’ it mostly isn’t the case.

  • Irene Jackson July 9, 2012 at 4:17 pm

    I don’t like these covers at all. They make me feel old ! Even for chick lit they wouldn’t work for me as I just can’t equate these covers with grown up books.
    The only exception I would make is for Molly Harper, I like her books so much usually I would just pretend the cover picture was invisible 🙂

    • pattepoilue July 9, 2012 at 4:33 pm

      *g* I felt the same about the Molly Harper books. i could accept any cover for her books and still pick them up 😉
      When preparing the post I looked at my shelves to find cartoonish covers and I admit there are few of them LOL Apart from the Sookie and the Molly I don’t own many of these. It’s hard to relate to this kind of covers

    • Susi July 10, 2012 at 4:31 am

      I so ditto that! I would buy Molly’s books no matter which cover they got. Just fabulous!

  • Donna/BLHmistress July 9, 2012 at 5:45 pm

    I love HP’s covers, but Sookie’s I never have liked. When browsing the Kindle store I have seen some strange looking covers. Most I bypass because of that.

    • pattepoilue July 10, 2012 at 3:05 am

      Yeah I’ve seen some strange cartoonish covers too on Amazon/Goodreads, most were M/M stories. Now I remember that I DO have a few M/M romances with cartoonish covers. I try not to look at them too closely though lol

    • Susi July 10, 2012 at 4:32 am

      Oh yes, the Kindle store really has some gems for our laugh muscles!

  • LSUReader July 9, 2012 at 6:58 pm

    I like the covers for the Charlaine Harris books. I always have. I think artist Lisa Desimini does a good job of depicting the series in an eye-catching, light-hearted way. And come one…That’s a TIGER, for goodness sakes. Of course I love it!

    • draconismoi July 9, 2012 at 7:10 pm

      Brilliant! If only Charlaine would incorporate dragons into the next Sookie book, I’d start reading them again. 🙂

      Well maybe not. The last Dragonriders of Pern book was just released and I realized it’s been YEARS since I read one. Dragons are awesome, but those were some crap-tastic books. Sigh.

      • Susan July 9, 2012 at 7:53 pm

        Someday/somewhere (even if not here), you’ll need to give us your Best Dragon Stories list. 🙂

        • Susi July 10, 2012 at 4:34 am

          I’m sure we can work something out about the dragon book list.

          • Draconismoi July 10, 2012 at 12:03 pm

            Argh! Why did I agree so quickly? I’m already having trouble. How do I rate my dragons? The nice ones will have their feelings hurt, and the evil ones will reduce my life to a smoking ruin.

      • pattepoilue July 10, 2012 at 3:09 am

        Ohh you love dragons? *g* Well I don’t have much experience with them but there was an awesome one in a Kathryne Kennedy book that made me laugh a lot.

        • Draconismoi July 10, 2012 at 11:58 am

          I suspect you are taunting me. I went to her website and saw only period sex books and elf sex books. No dragons. HUGE letdown. Vengeance will be mine!

    • pattepoilue July 10, 2012 at 3:07 am

      @Draconismoi Yep that’s why I like this one, the Tiger looks awesome. *g*
      But I can’t remember which Sookie it was maybe one of the firsts , it had a close-up of Sokie with i’m guessing Bill…and he looked SO fugly. Gave me nightmares!

    • Susi July 10, 2012 at 4:33 am

      Okay well yes it has a tiger- point for you! 😉

  • Susan July 9, 2012 at 7:51 pm

    With one exception*, I don’t care for any of these covers. They’re silly and childish looking and lead me to think that what’s inside would be like literary cotton candy–overly sweet and soon gone without a lasting memory. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve read some of these books/authors but I just don’t think the cartoon covers do them justice. (Or maybe I’m just old. Sigh.) But I don’t hate all cartoon covers–the Nicole Peeler/Jane True covers are amazing.

    *My exception is the Harris book. I agree 100% with Caro about the Sookie covers. Didn’t care for them at first, but came to love them wildly. The covers are unique and perfectly match that black comedy aspect of the stories, as well as the small town/rural Southern setting.

    • pattepoilue July 10, 2012 at 3:17 am

      *g* I knew I couldn’t be the only one who came to love these Sookie covers! I admit I haven’t read the last 3 books so I don’t know how the covers match the story. But it’s still fun to look at =)

      Oh I LOVED the first Peeler book cover! Loved it! 2nd cover was a bit less interesting but still cool…and then it just looked more and more silly. I’m not a huge fan of the last one.

    • Susi July 10, 2012 at 4:36 am

      Perhaps I don’t like the Sookie covers that much because I don’t have any love for the books? I never was able to finish the first one.

      • Draconismoi July 10, 2012 at 11:59 am

        Very real possibility. Even gorgeous covers can’t help awful books.

        • Susan July 10, 2012 at 5:41 pm

          OK, kinda but not really.

          I never expected to like this series but someone (a guy, at that) put me onto all of Charlaine Harris’s books, and the Sookie series in particular. I was surprised at how much I liked them. To me, the supernatural stuff is not the draw with these books. I love the dialog, but especially Sookie’s internal dialog–her thoughts about life, the people she interacts with, her small town, etc. In some ways, Sookie has grown so much during the course of the books, but in other ways she remains essentially unchanged and unaffected.

          I know these books have flaws–some entire books are plot tar pits, there are continuity errors galore, the pacing is inconsistent (within books and throughout the series as a whole), etc–but I’m really going to miss Sookie and Bon Temps when the ride is over.

          • Susan July 10, 2012 at 9:54 pm

            I had a glare in there at the beginning of my previous post, but it didn’t show up. You will just have to imagine my squinty-eyed look.

          • pattepoilue July 11, 2012 at 3:33 am

            I did love the early books. I completely fell in love with them and read them in a row. But at some point it became too dark and too hopeless. And the characters started becoming too annoying. I am waiting for the last book to come out and if it is good I’ll read the rest of the series =P

  • Tamsyn July 10, 2012 at 3:05 am

    Comic-style covers do give the impression that the story within is funny and light but sometimes the story is exactly that – lighthearted with a touch of comedy romance so I think it all depends. Don’t think it will work for a historical romance though!

    • pattepoilue July 10, 2012 at 3:13 am

      I had to think hard (well I just woke up LOL) but I do know a few Historical romances with this type of covers. http://cache1.bdcdn.net/assets/images/book/large/9780/7499/9780749941994.jpg Julia Quinn’s UK books are all like that. At first I thought it was silly but I’m getting used to them. And well her books are funny and cute so it works

      • Susi July 10, 2012 at 4:37 am

        Ohh I like that cover. As Tamsyn I thought it would never work for historicals.

        • Tamsyn July 10, 2012 at 9:26 am

          You are right. It does look pretty.

    • Susan July 10, 2012 at 5:22 pm

      For awhile, Kasey Michaels’s Regencies (in what I refer to as the alphabet series because of the alliterative titles) had cartoon doodle covers.

      http://www.amazon.com/Enterprising-Lord-Edward-Kasey-Michaels/dp/0373512171/ref=sr_1_6?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1341954673&sr=1-6

      Between the titles (such as The Lurid Miss Lockport and The Ruthless Lord Rule) and the cover art, I expected them to be full of madcap hijinks, but they were standard Regencies (IIRC). I don’t think the covers worked, and both the older and newer versions seem to be more standard.

      • pattepoilue July 11, 2012 at 3:30 am

        O_o indeed I would expect something else with such a cover. That wouldn’t fit a normal regency book in my mind either.
        Sometimes I wonder what passes through the publisher’s head when they decided on the covers LOL

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