Judging by the Cover

We've all heard that you shouldn't judge a book by its cover, and sure it shouldn't only be judged by its cover, but we all judge a book by its cover, we just do. In most cases, we have to. Unless a book has been recommended by a friend or you follow the author, the cover is the first thing you know about a book. And cover artists and designers are so skilled that it can tell you a lot at a glance. In a lot of ways, the cover is the first and biggest marketing campaign for the book.

I decided to collect some books who's covers caught my attention in a big way and then their insides made me fall the rest of the way in love.

First up is one is a duology that you've probably seen because the covers are just that incredible. Fable by Adrienne Young caught my eye immediately and I hardly hesitated before buying it (which is big for me, because I am frugal at my core and like to make sure I really want something before I spend money). Then I saw the cover of the then-upcoming sequel Namesake. Woah. Major props to Kerri Resnick who designed them.

Fable is the story of a girl raised at sea, only to be abandoned on a dangerous island by her father after her mother dies. With the aim of finding her way back to him and claiming her inheritance as a member of his crew, Fable talks her way on to the ship of a young crew, with a few secrets of their own. Namesake continues Fable's tale.

This next one took me by surprise. The cover for With the Fire on High by Elizabeth Acevedo drew me in every time I passed it in the book store for months. The description didn't really do much for me, so I let it go each time. After repeating this ad nauseum, I finally dove in, knowing that it would continue to haunt me if I didn't. It was my first Acevedo and her unique style pulled me along and the aspect of the description that I'd been less interested in (teenage motherhood) was handled in a different and refreshing way than I'd encountered before. Erick Davila also designed Acevedo's Clap When You Land cover.

With the Fire on High follows high school senior Emoni as she is faced with what she should do, to take care of her daughter and abuela, and what she really wants, to work in a professional kitchen. Although she isn't sure she has the time or money for her school's culinary arts class, there's no denying that she is something magical in the kitchen.

House of Salt and Sorrows by Erin A. Craig is another on that called to me from a bookstore table. Craig has created such a rich world for this Twelve Dancing Princesses retelling and the cover gives a sense of it, as well as the stormy, twisty nature of the book. This book kept me guessing throughout and is definitely not what I expected from a retelling. Designer Alison Impey fully embraces the power of typography and the patina on these letters fully embody the atmosphere of the book.

When House of Salt and Sorrows begins, four of the twelve sisters have already died in tragic accidents, but Annaleigh is becoming increasingly suspicious that they weren't accidents at all. Is their family cursed, or is there something more to the midnight escapades the girls sneak out to join? And what about the handsome stranger Annaleigh just met? She'll have to figure it out before the next of her sisters is taken.

Up next is another cover that centers on typography, and another Kerri Resnick, The Gilded Wolves by Roshani Chokshi. This cover has all the dark decadence of the fin de siècle Paris setting and the secrets that Séverin and his assembled team stumble upon. The sequel The Silvered Serpents and the yet-unreleased The Bronzed Beasts promise to take the crew to new, and dangerous, glittering cities.

Séverin Montagnet-Alarie is a treasure hunter, among other things, but hunting down an artifact for the manipulative Order of Babel will require a team of experts. Each has their own skills, and their own motivation, but all of them will end up in over their heads as the true nature of their mission comes to light.

In a different fantastical Paris, Gita Trelease's All That Glitters (formerly Enchantée) explores the glamour of the city and Versailles and the corrosive magic beneath it. This cover communicates so much in a single image, in particular the book's proximity to the French Revolution. I have a slight preference for the original title and this cover over the cover of the sequel, Everything That Burns, but that doesn't make me any less eager to get my hands on it.

After the death of their parents and the unreliability of their brother, Camille is scraping by with the little magic she knows to keep her and her younger sister alive. Driven to desperation, Camille begins to court a darker magic, one she uses to infiltrate the courts of Versailles, spinning a dangerous double life that puts her even more at risk when Paris starts to burn.

This has a European bent as well; Mackenzi Lee's The Gentleman's Guide to Vice and Virtue is probably the most fun on the list. The cover pairs a broody dandy with playful hand lettering and illustrations, perfectly capturing the book's humor, protagonist, and setting. The other Montague Siblings books share the aesthetic, but this one remains my favorite.

Monty is supposed to be a gentleman, but he's always been a bit of a disappointment, choosing gambling, liquor, and lovers over propriety. Taking off on his Grand Tour his best friend/crush Percy and little sister Felicity, feels like Monty's last chance to live before he's forced to fall in line. But of course, nothing with Monty involved could go according to plan.

Lastly, The Inheritance Games by Jennifer Lynn Barnes is probably another you've seen adorning shelves recently along with a billing that compares it to Knives Out. Well, it got me. Katt Phatt's cover is a practical I-Spy of objects and clues from the book that can be sorted through like Avery has to when she ends up at Hawthorne House, full of secret passages, clues, mysterious rooms and boys.

Avery was barely scraping by when she is swept up into the whims of a billionaire who just left her his entire fortune, including a house where she has to live with the family he just snubbed. Among its occupants are the billionaire's enigmatic grandsons, each with their own motives and own suspicions about Avery.

To wrap up, here are four books on my TBR that got there, in part, with their stunning covers: Nocturna by Maya Montayne, Lore by Alexandra Bracken, Opium and Absinthe by Lydia Kang, and House of Hollow by Krystal Sutherland.

What covers made you fall in love? Which ones are you looking forward to?