#and yes the cartoony covers are seeping into historicals

[mumblingsage]

Re: cartoony romance covers

The heroine of First Comes Like is the sister of the heroine in Wrong to Need You. I know I’m going to love First Comes Like on the basis of how I loved Wrong to Need You. But do these even look like they’re from the same author? 

They are different series, and Wrong to Need You had some angst to it that I think the shadowy cover suits perfectly -- maybe First Comes Like will go easier on that level and be lighter in tone. But cartoony light? The trade review on my library’s website says of FCL, “The personalities of the couple's families are distinctive, but never so over the top that the novel falls into farce, and the story lands as upbeat, witty, and sincere.”

But this cover looks like a farce. Upbeat, yes, but too simplistic to be witty, too shallow to be sincere. It’s utterly at odds with the story told inside.

My library’s website also informs me that readers consider First Comes Like a ‘steamy’ book, and Wrong to Need You has some amazingly hot (and character-developing) sex scenes. But...that yellow cartoon is not the cover of a book about characters who feel erotic passion for each other. Is it?

So I’m definitely not in the “I will never read a book with this kind of cover” camp, because I know there are good (and, probably not incidentally, diverse) books with these kinds of covers. But I will happily take the chance to complain about it. 

#Talia Hibbert's books are apparently very sexy #as well as amazing and I look forward to catching up with her on my reading list #but I never realized they had sex scenes because the covers are cartoons #it's completely possible to have vibrant and upbeat covers that aren't cartoony! #look at Alyssa Cole's Reluctant Royals series #or Elizabeth Hoyt's Maiden Lane covers #and yes the cartoony covers are seeping into historicals #like Cat Sebastian's new covers #I need to read Marian Hayes if only for the groundbreaking sex scenes but that is not a cover for sex scenes!!!