Kindle Romance Covers of the Week - 27th May 2013

That's right, the weekly Kindle cover roundup has found a new home! Welcome to the NEW Romance Covers of the Week blog, where it's all about romance covers, all the time.

And just as before, I've taken a leisurely lope through the love-stories released over the past week on Kindle UK in the 'Romance' category and made my personal picks.

NEW REVIEWING CRITERIA

Up until now I've employed the entirely unscientific approach of seeing something I like, squealing, "...it's SO PRETTY!!", and sticking it in the blog. Yeah. Time to grow up a little. So I'll now be churning out ratings out of 5 for my Pick of the Week , and the best performers will eventually end up in my Top 20 list! Where I have time, I'll also list some of my other favourite covers from that week.

But first...

A LESSON IN HISTORICAL ROMANCE ILLUSTRATIONS

Both of these covers caught my eye this week, but for rather opposite reasons. One, because it was a glowing example of how you can bring a historical novel to life with gorgeous illustrated cover. The other, because it honesty did disturb me deeply on a several different levels. I'll let you figure out which one is which...

Okay, here are some of my favourites from this week...

LADIES IN RED

Perhaps it's me being a silly sentimentalist, but there was a time when I'd have given anything to be that girl in a red dress, dancing with that dashing man to the crooning strains of Chris de Burgh's, 'The Lady in Red'. Okay, maybe that would STILL be rather swoon-worthy! Here are a few ladies in red that I loved...

Title: The Affair
Author: Gill Paul
Publisher: Harper Collins Avon
Cover Artist: n/a (let me know so I can credit!)
Genre: Historical Romance

Title: My Name is Noir
Author: Morgan Jane Mitchell
Publisher: Morgan Jane Mitchell
Cover Artist: W. Solomon Mitchell
Genre: Fantasy/Paranormal Romance

Title: Redeeming Love
Author: Francine Rivers
Publisher: Lion Fiction; 2nd Revised edition edition
Cover Artist: Unknown (let me know so I can credit!)
Genre: Historical Romance

LOST YOUR HEAD BLUES

The musical theme for these covers is brought to you by Bessie Smith and her 'Lost Your Head Blues'! Actually, these covers prove it's not such a bad thing to lose your head!

Title: All In
Author: Marta Brown
Publisher: VP Publishing House
Cover Artist: Videre Productions
Genre: Contemporary Romance

Title: Her Mother's Shadow
Author: Diane Chamberlain
Publisher: MIRA
Cover Artist: Unknown (and covers on her site are different than this one!)
Genre: Contemporary Romance

Title: Miss Goldsleigh's Secret
Author: Amylynn Bright
Publisher: Amazon/Self-published
Cover Artist: Jaycee DeLorenzo of Sweet 'n Spicy Designs
Genre: Historical/Regency Romance

Title: Sleeping in Eden
Author: Nicole Baart
Publisher: Howard Books
Cover Artist: Unknown
Genre: Contemporary Romance

PICK OF THE WEEK

This was actually a tough job this week - as you can see there were so many to choose from, and I couldn't even get around to featuring all my favourites on the blog. But here we go...my pick of the week is:

Title: Pride's Prejudice
Author: Misty Dawn Pulsipher
Publisher: Amazon/Self-Published
Cover Artist: Cindy Canizales
Genre: Contemporary Romance

SCORES OUT OF 5

Thumbnail-ability: 4
Font & Text: 4
Genre-fit: 3
Overall Composition: 4
Overall Concept: 4

OVERALL SCORE: 3.8

So let's talk about this cover. Is it the most finely balanced of all the covers I picked out this week? The most polished? Not really, but either by accident or design, it was this cover that stuck in my memory as I scrolled through hundreds of covers. With the contrast, deep green mixed against the black & white background, this stands out for me in it's thumbnail strength. In the world of online shopping, your book cover MUST work as a thumbnail just as well as it does full-size.

I liked the choice of fonts for this, the plain, serifed font contrasting nicely with the script-style of the title and author's name. In terms of composition, the placing of the text was fresh and contemporary, against what looks like a historically-themed cover.

This brings me around to the lower score on the genre-fit, and the overall concept, which I must admit I was a little torn about. I'd actually typed into the details that this was a Regency Romance, then went back to the blurb on Amazon to double-check. Nope, it's a modern-day retelling of Pride & Prejudice. So why the regency gown? Well, the story appears to begin at a charity ball, so that might account for it as well as the stately rooms beyond? Either way, there was not enough of a clue that this was a modern day romance, and the twist towards the story's Regency roots was a little too strong for me.

What I do love about this cover is the boldness of colour and contrast, the photograph and cropping choices, and the mood that's been captured. If a cover leaves me wondering what that woman on the cover is thinking just now...that's a good cover.

What do you think?


Thank you for reading, an be sure to join me soon for more random romance cover rompings!

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