Tag: Covers

#5 on my TBR: Pastel covers

Rach @ Anxious Nachos1 Comment

#5OnMyTBR is a bookish meme hosted by E. @ Local Bee Hunter’s Nook and you can learn more about it here or in the post announcing it. It occurs every Monday when we post about 5 books on our TBR. Thank you E. for the awesome graphic for these posts as well!

Hi everyone,

After a very busy Pride month, I am back joining in with the bookish meme #5 on my TBR! And what a week to return: this week’s theme is another cover colour theme and these are my absolute favourite to do because I love looking at pretty covers for hours. This week the theme is pastels! So here’s 5 books with pastel covers I’m hoping to read in the near future.

By Any Means Necessary by Candice Montgomery

First up is the gorgeous By Any Means Necessary, a book recommended to me by LGBTQReads for my June subscription! On Torrey’s first day as a college freshman, he gets a call that his uncle’s bee farm is foreclosing and he must decide whether to save the farm or escape his neighbourhood. As well as being a reflection of class, culture and gentrification, this book also has a BEE FARM and as I love bees, I am so keen to get to this asap.

The Surprising Power of a Good Dumpling by Wai Chim

I have been meaning to read this book for so long, it’s been on my TBR for a year and I still haven’t got to it: I am the worst. The Surprising Power of a Good Dumpling is all about exploring family, culture and mental illness as Anna’s mother’s depression worsens.

Transcendent Kingdom by Yaa Gyasi

This cover is half pastel, that counts right? Yaa Gyasi is the author of Homegoing which has seen a ton of praise and I’m so ashamed to say I still haven’t read. Her second novel is about a Ghanian family in Alabama. It follows Gifty, who is studying neuroscience and researching depression and addiction. She’s trying to find an answer to the suffering in her family: her brother overdosed on heroin, and her mother is suicidal. But as she delves into the hard sciences for an answer, she also looks to her childhood faith.

Watch Over Me by Nina Lacour

We have a new Nina Lacour book coming later this year and I’m rather excited, especially when the cover looks that good. Watch Over Me is another Lacour book diving deep into lonliness, as Mila ages out of the foster care system and is offered a job on a farm where she and the other residents learn to overcome their past trauma.

The Republic of Birds by Jessica Miller

My only middle grade on the list, this is a genre I really haven’t explored at all. But The Republic of Birds looks really fun and the cover is so stunningly detailed I need to read it. This is a fantasy inspired by Russian folklore about a girl who can use magic to see into maps and has to travel to the Republic of Birds after her sister is kidnapped by the bird army.

That’s it for this week. Have you read any of these books? Let me know what you thought of them in the comments!

Five on my TBR: Blue covers

Rach @ Anxious Nachos2 Comments

#5OnMyTBR is a bookish meme hosted by E. @ Local Bee Hunter’s Nook and you can learn more about it here or in the post announcing it. It occurs every Monday when we post about 5 books on our TBR. Thank you E. for the awesome graphic for these posts as well!

Hi everyone,

I LOVE weekly book memes with cover themes because I love celebrating all the beautiful artwork out there, especially the past few years with so many fantastic YA illustrated covers! They give me so much joy. But this week, we’re looking at five books on my TBR with blue covers!

Steel Crow Saga by Paul Krueger

Steel Crow Saga is a huge, epic fantasy novel that I plan to read next month. It’s a story where four different destinies collide in the aftermath of war. It’s loosely based on the conflicts between Japan, China, Korea, the Phillipines and India, and has MAGICAL ANIMAL COMPANIONS who help fight alongside you in battle. It sounds pretty damn epic.

The Silence of Bones by Jane Hur

This is a historical mystery set in Joseon, Korea in 1800, about a girl, Seol, indentured to the police department. She is assisting an inspector in the death of a noble, but when the inspector becomes the prime suspect in the case, Seol’s loyalty is tested as she becomes the only one who can find out what really happened.

Architects of Memory by Karen Osborne

This sounds like a super intriguing science fiction which releases in August this year. It’s about a terminally ill pilot who wants to find a way out of corporate indenture and then find a cure. But then her crew finds a genocidal weapon in the a starship wreckage and she is embroiled in a web of intrigue and betrayal!

I Killed Zoe Spanos by Kit Frick

Another mystery (apparently myseries have blue covers this year), this one inspired by Rebecca, I Killed Zoe Spanos follows Anna, who moves to a new town for a fresh start, but when she arrives, finds out she looks very similar to a missing girl. She investigates the case, and two months later, Zoe’s body is discovered in the lake and Anna is charged with manslaughter. But Anna’s confession is full of holes and so local podcaster, Martina, begins to try uncover the truth about who killed Zoe Spanos.

The Deep by Alma Katsu

The Deep is a fascinating sounding historical horror, set on the Titanic. The Deep follows two different timelines, one on the Titanic’s maiden voyage which ended in disaster, the other years later on the Titanic’s sister ship, the Britannic. This timeline follows a Titanic survivor who meets a young man who definitely could not have survived the fatal night from years ago…

That’s this week’s five beautiful blue covers on my TBR! I think The Silence of Bones cover is my favourite on this list, it’s just gorgeous! What’s your favourite book with a blue cover?

Spooktober: Spring Covers

Rach @ Anxious NachosLeave a comment

Hi everyone,

Day 5 of Spooktober may seem a little weird for many of my readers – and that’s because I’m talking about Spring! Here in Australia we don’t get spooky, moody Autumn weather around Halloween. Instead, we are graced with rapidly alternating weather (literally 9 degrees in Melbourne when I left for work, and over 30 by the time I finished….) and the growth of new plants! So for all my Southern Hemisphere readers, here’s a post for you, with some of my favourite Spring-like covers! For me, Spring represents freshness and growth and lightness. And flowers! So hopefully these beautiful covers capture that idea…

Published

This Time Will Be Different – Misa Sugiura

Don’t Date Rosa Santos – Nina Moreno

100 Days of Sunlight – Abbie Emmons

I Wanna Be Where You Are – Kristina Forest

By Any Means Necessary – Candice Montgomery

All the Bad Apples – Moira Fowley-Doyle

A Thousand Years to Wait – L.Ryan Storms

The Meaning of Birds – Jaye Robin Brown

The Ten Thousand Doors of January – Alex E. Harro

Queen of the Conquered – Kacen Callender

Tell Me How You Really Feel – Aminah Mae Safi

Going off Script – Jen Wilde

2020 releases

The Seep – Chana Porter

Felix Ever After – Kacen Callender

Harley in the Sky – Akemi Dawn Bowman

The Merices – Kiran Millwood Hargrave

The Language of Cherries – Jen Marie Hawkins

The Midnight Lie – Marie Rutkoski

***

Now, rather embarassingly, I have read not a single one of these Spring cover books…I guess that explains why my bookshelves are so moody and dark. If you’ve read any of these, let me know which one I should first, and why, in the comments below! Happy Springtime!

Paws out,
Rach + Draco

Spooktober: Autumn Covers

Rach @ Anxious Nachos1 Comment

Hi everyone,

Welcome to Day 2 of my Spooktober week! Autumn is such a beautiful season – pretty much every time I see a leaf, I am tempted to pick it up and try preserve it so that when I one day buy a house I can paint myself, I can pick up said leaf and say ‘I want THIS colour!’ I adore all the reds and purples and oranges associated with this season, and I can’t wait to show you some gorgeous Autumny book covers! Some are from books already published, quite a few are 2020 releases, because red and gold really seems to be the theme of 2020 publishing!

Published titles

Ziggy, Stardust & Me – James Brandon

I can’t believe I still haven’t bought a copy of this, but it is TOP of my list in my next order! Set in the 70s when homosexuality is still a crime, this is a coming of age story about Jonathon as he undergoes conversion therapy to “cure” him. But then he meets Web, who turns his life around and shows him how to accept himself.

Like a Love Story – Abdi Nazemian

This is one of my favourite books of the year. It is absolutely astoundingly beautiful and emotional. Set in the 1980s AIDS crisis in the US, it follows three teens as they fall in love and learn how to be true to themselves. There is far too much to say about this book, so all I’m going to do is direct you to my full review of this title (here!) and beg you to pick up a copy of this book, because it is magnificent!

We Set the Dark on Fire – Tehlor Kay Mejia

Dahlia at LGBTQReads helped pick this book out recently, as part of her patreon subscription offer, after my request for “either a political fantasy like Descendent of the Crane or a fantasy with enemies to lovers’ to which she replied ‘How about something with both?’ Whilst I haven’t had a chance to read this book yet, I can’t wait to start!

The Deathless Girls – Kiran Millwood Hargrave

This is one of my favourite covers ever. It’s even more stunning in real life!! I was lucky enough to catch one of the special edition Waterstones editions (even if I did have to spend more on shipping it to Australia than on the book itself…), where it comes with stunning blood red sprayed edges. Brides of Dracula retelling – need I say more?!

The Poet X – Elizabeth Acevedo

I haven’t actually read this one yet, but I did read Acevedo’s second book With the Fire on High and really enjoyed it, so I’m keen to get to The Poet X soon! The way these colours all blend together is just gorgeous. I imagine this book is so so different to anything I’ve read before, as I haven’t read much poetry, but from all the reviews I’ve seen, this book sounds so powerful.

Before Mars – Emma Newman

So this one is here because of that glorious red. I love the image of the planet sort of slowly disintegrating on the cover. This was one of the books which really helped me get into science fiction this year. Emma Newman has a phenomenal way of blending discussions around mental illness into her work. Before Mars follows Anna, who has been sent to Mars to create artwork for her very rich boss. However, when she lands, she finds a note in her room warning her about the psychologist at the base. But the note is in her own handwriting… This book is part science fiction, part thriller/mystery, and I absolutely love it!

The Stars and the Blackness Between them – Junauda Petrus

A story about two girls in love. That’s it, that’s my pitch to make you go read this. Audre has been sent to America, from Trinidad, after her mother caught her with her girlfriend, the daughter of the local pastor. There she meets Mabel, a girl suffering from an illness she doesn’t know about. Together “they conjure a love that is stronger than hatred, prison, and death and as vast as the blackness between the stars.”

Empire of Light – Alex Harrow

How stunning is that cover?! The colour, the detail, it looks so dystopian and sci-fi. This book is about revolutions and magic and assassins and falling for the person you’re meant to kill.

Caster – Elsie Chapman

I’ve heard a lot of great things from a lot of book people on Twitter about Caster – and I think the cover is just amazing. There is dangerous (and illegal!) magic, gangs, tournaments, and murder mystery!

2020 titles

2020 looks like it’s going to be killing it with dark and moody Autumn covers. So here’s a selection of some of the goregous Autumnal covers for some of the books I’m looking foward to reading next year!

***

I hope you enjoyed checking out all these gorgeous covers in what I really feel is like my most beautiful blog post yet, thank you all cover designers. Let me know what your favourite Autumn cover is in the comments below!

Paws out,
Rach + Draco

Top 5 Tuesday: 2019 Covers

Rach @ Anxious Nachos6 Comments

Top 5 Tuesday is created and run by Shanah at Bionic Book Worm. You can join the fun by checking out the topics for the month here.

I think this week’s topic might be my favourite topic since I joined in with this weekly feature! Thank you Shanah for giving me the opportunity to scroll though Goodreads and look at all the pretty covers and then absolutely panic because I had so many tabs open and I couldn’t decide on five! So this week I’m giving you my EIGHT favourite covers of 2019!

Crier’s War by Nina Varela

This is one of my most anticipated releases of the 2019. I adore this cover – it’s so intricate, everytime you look you see something different. It also reflects different colours in the light which is just so beautiful!

The Deathless Girls by Kiran Millwood Hargrave

Need I explain why I find this so beautiful? Oh it’s just so pretty – the colours, the snake, the mushrooms, the hands, it is just stunning. I also here there are some INCREDIBLE

Like a Love Story by Abdi Nazemian

This is one of those covers which is absolutely stunning in person – careful spot gloss and embossing make this book an absolute joy to hold! I love the yellow and pink, it’s so warm against the intricate grey cityscape.

Gideon the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir

This cover just screams necromancy and will go down as one of THE most iconic book cosplays (I predict). The mask, the power in the stance, the daggers, the gauntlet GAH this cover is just so sexy.

Wilder Girls by Rory Power

This cover is just so beautiful – the softness interposed with the hard, haunting body horror, is so impactful! I also love the colour of this book, it’s so soft and mysterious.

Descendant of the Crane – Joan He

Another gorgeous fantasy cover – I just adore this. I find it very peaceful and calming. The colours are so relaxing, the font is lovely and the crane and the way the beak comes over the title, it’s stunning!!

I Wish You All the Best by Mason Deaver

This is one of the few books that sit face out on my shelf currently, and it’s because I find it so so beautiful. It’s beautiful in it’s simplicity. The way Ben leans against Nathan as if pulling strength is just gorgeous.

Slay by Brittney Morris

How powerful is the cover?! The way the model stares directly at you, her glasses, the strength in her gaze! I love the graphic effect on the right side, it really gives the gamer vibe, and the bright pink is awesome!

And that’s my choices this week – sorry I couldn’t narrow it further….And I won’t lie, you could ask me again next week and I’d have another 8 stunning covers I adore. 2019 has been so awesome for gorgeous covers and I can’t wait to see what 2020 brings! Link me your Top 5 covers post in the comments below so I can check out some more lovely covers ❤️

Paws out,
Rach + Draco