Here are my Top Covers for this year starting with the beautiful April Martinez cover for Forbidden. #2 is Anne Cain’s cover for Fireflies. #3 is the gorgeous cover for Wicked Gentlemen by Dawn Kimberling who was one of only 2 cover artists to break the stranglehold April and Anne had over me this year. #4 is the Slave Boy cover by April Martinez. Following right behind are #5 Dark Elves TAKEN, #6 Sleight of Hand both by Anne Cain, #7 Adrien English Mysteries by Croco Designs and #8 Jaci’s Experiment by Anne Cain. #9 is another Anne Cain cover of one of my favourite books this year – My Fair Captain and rounding out the top ten is Anne Cain’s outstanding cover for Here be Dragons.
I read a lot of books from Loose-id, Samhain and Liquid Silver and consequently I’m exposed to their cover artists more than any other publishers’. These are my personal favourite covers and the list in no way is meant to imply that other cover artists do not produce wonderful work. I hope that next year my list will expand to include many more talented artists.
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There were so many more covers that I loved this year and I’m including a few of them, in no particular order. What are your favourites? Post a comment on the blog.
Those are all great. I always find it a bit of a double-take moment when I see a guy on the cover for one book that was on the cover of another. The Slave Boy guy is one who’s on two other covers and it always kind of throws me off for a second. Like “Hey, that’s Cade!” LOL Doesn’t bother me, I know there are tons of pics of the same guy out there but it always catches my eye right off the bat. I’ve got the Brindisi Bedfellows guy on another cover as well. The Twilight cover is great I really like that. I tend to like covers with people on them more than drawings although I do love that Dark Elves cover and its what attracted me to that book in the first place. So I’m not sure I have a “favorite”. I like the ones you posted.
On a side note, I got to craving some new books (bad me) and bought Snow Bound (and several others … sigh) that you reviewed last week (or so). I really enjoyed it. It was fun and hot. I also got my Soul Mates books from Jourdan Lane. I’m debating whether I can hold off until my trip to Europe again in Feb. so I’ll have tons of time to read and I can savor them, but patience is not my strong point. 🙂 Thanks so much for that Wave, it was one of the best presents I got this year. Thanks to Jourdan too of course.
Tam
Sometimes I’m attracted to a book b/c of the cover and other times I buy a book despite the cover e.g. Captain’s Surrender.
I know what you mean about the same guy appearing on a number of covers but remember these are models who have to make a living too *g*
I’m so happy you enjoyed Snowed In – wasn’t it hot? Jourdan’s books are something else. But remember, whenever you read them you must do so in order or you’ll be hopelessly lost. Also there are two shorts that you should buy (after the second book) one is a Christmas Sip called A Coven Christmas and the other one is part of the Spiked anthology. Jourdan is very generous and she was very happy to donate the books!
Wave,
Great post! I pretty much liked the exact same covers that you liked. I was so glad that you did the April Martinez interview because so many publishers regardless of the genre from small independent press to the bigwigs of NY do not understand the power of a cover. It can make or break sales. Cover artists are often the unsung heroes of publishing.
I’m with O; cover artists are definitely the unsung heroes of the publishing industry. I notice their work more and more now that I read ebooks. I also like the fact that some of the publishers give credit to the artists on the book page. Kudos to those publishers who do so.
My fave cover for the year is Anne Cain’s artwork for ‘Sleight of Hand’. I think she is all kinds of awesome.
I loved the covers for A Hidden Beauty, The Two shall become one and Twilight.
I also think the covers you selected as your best were good, but I want The Two Shall Become one in print just to have that cover in my house!
Kal
Hi Ozakie
Thank you. If publishers don’t realize by now the importance of covers to the business of selling books they have their heads in the sand. I have seen some sleazy, crappy, cheesy covers which make it very difficult for the authors to market their books to readers. Hopefully most of the publishers are getting the message.
Hi Kris
Isn’t that Sleight of Hand cover delicious? When a reader sees that cover he/she would take a second look at the book and maybe even make a purchase. As soon as I saw it, it knocked another cover off its perch in the Top 10. *g*
Hi Kal
Both of us would like to take home a print of the cover for And The Two Shall Become One. *g* I remember how thrilled Mychael Black was when Anne sent it to him.
A Hidden Beauty is just that – beautiful and so is the story, as well as Twilight. Sometimes I love the covers a lot more than the books but not in these cases because the books are great.
I’ve always been a huge Anne Cain fan, as much for her covers as the pretties she pops into my email to torment me. Such a tease.
Your top covers for the year includes books that didn’t come out this year, or even last year. I *know* I read Here Be Dragons over two years ago.
Hi Emmy
You’re right – some of the books might have been released sometime ago but I only *found* them when I set up the blog in April. So even though a few of them might not be new they’re new to me. *g*
Stop boasting about all the freebies you get from Anne – that is so cruel! I saw a few of them that you flaunted on LJ. I don’t think it’s fair that she likes you better than me 🙂
When you check out my Top 10 books you might find an “oldie” among them as well.
Great choices for covers Wave!! The one thing I miss using my e-reader instead of print books is looking at the beautiful book covers.
Hi Lily
I love all the wonderful covers this year. It was really hard to come up with a Top 10, then I cheated by including my other faves *g*
Must not have been easy to come up with that list! Only 10 ( or 25 or so countng the others) out of all the pretty ones you’ve seen in teh course of a full year!!I would never have been able to decide and would eitehr have posted a hundred or nothing at all :-DD.
Fireflies is a big favorite of mine. Nice that the story was every bit a sweet and tender as its cover 😀 The Two Shall become One is in a similar style and I like it just as much. I might have bought it in print for the cover alone, even if I haven’t even read the Prince’s Angel yet 😀 Sleigh of hand, lovely as well. You just look at it and you know you the artist is.
For Josh’s books, as you know I prefer his e-book covers to his prints and the Adrien English ones are particularly nice-looking. My favorite is DOAPK though. I think it’s because of the sailboat in the background :). My Fair Captain made me drool from the second I saw it, although I think I might like the cover for the Englor Affair even more – this time, I think it’s because of the warm colors.
Good thinking on your part for thinking of including Wicked Gentlemen which is very different from the others but no less gorgeous for it. I always thought it looked so elegant. Plus, the book was so nice and shiny. I love shiny things :-DDD Oh, and Lila Dubois’ covers are a beautiful disovery I made thanks to your interview of April Martinez.
I think the only one of my absolute favorites that wasn’t on that list is (duh) you’ll guess, I’ve mentionned it often enough, the print cover for The Assignment. :-DDD Ya know, the one I sleep with?? LOL. Those blues and blacks with the hot, lean and muscled men with low-rise jeans…oooooh. Plus, well, it’s The Assignment. *g* Muahahaha.
Geez, this comment is almost longer than your post. Looooooool.
Mary
I agonized over the covers for weeks. As you said I could have had 100 covers and still not have included all of the ones I loved. I did cheat by adding the second set after the Top 10. *g* When I had settled on my Top 10 and realized that Anne had monopolized my choices I knew then that I needed to try out other publishers. 🙂 That cover for Wicked Gentlemen was incredible and showed great imagination and artistic ability.
I know that The Assignment was a great cover but I couldn’t include any more. As it is, I deleted about 15 from my original list.
Tomorrow I’m posting my Top 10 books and I’m afraid I will probably be cheating a little there as well. I included other books after my 10 favourites, that I really loved. Maybe there will be a favourite of yours in the list so don’t forget to check it out!
Hey, cheating is OK. What’s the point of having your own blog if you can’t do what you want? LOL. And your selections were great. It’s not your fault Anne Cain is such a fabulous artist :).
If I am able to get online tomorrow, I’ll post my top 10 favorite M/M reads, too 😀 T’will probably be an all-time top 10, though – I didn’t read all that many M/M books this year to start with and a lot of them were published in the previous years. Plus, I’m too lazy to take the time to look up the release dates. 😀
(pssst! what were the other 15 covers that were on your list??? :-D)
*wibbles* You guys are filling me with all these warm, happy feelings and I’m getting teary-eyed. Thank you so much for lovin’, cuz it’s made my New Year’s Even frickin’ aweome.
*hugs all around*
Hi Anne
You sweet woman. How are you doing Babe? We just love your work which is unbelievable and wonderful.
Happy New Year to you too. *Hugs*
Anne has been raking in the “best of” kudos left and right. I’m honored to have had her work grace one of my titles, and thrilled to see that title listed here along with those of such esteemed peers of the genre. 🙂
Hi Katrina
I think that Anne outdid herself with the cover for Sleight of Hand. I would have bought the book just for the cover. *g* She’s so talented.