I’ve got a tough question for you today. If you’d never heard of any of the authors pictured above (a hard thought-experiment, I know), which of these covers would grab you instantly?
Personally, my favorites are Wind Burn, Grave Visions, and Gifted Thief. Actually, I can tell you that I picked up a copy of Gifted Thief on the basis of the cover alone.
I hope you’ll comment and share your favorites! And, for bonus points, who’s your favorite author in this genre?
They all grab me Patricia Briggs I love I have all of her books so far and I have read a lot of these books.I have all of the Elemental series by Shannon Mayer.
Thanks for taking a look, Patricia! The other Patricia is my favorite too. 🙂
And thanks to Erin who emailed to say that Gifted Thief is the one that jumped out at her. That’s quite some cover!
I am familiar with several authors, but if I can only choose one, I choose Fire by L B Gilbert. Stand out from the crowd. 🙂
sherry @ fundinmental
Sherry — L.B. Gilbert is in the Happily Ever Alpha box set with me, so I can tell you that her air cover is ten times better than the fire one. It’s not out yet, so wasn’t in the top bestsellers chart. But you’ll love it when you see it. 🙂 (I’d share it, but can’t seem to find it!)
Well I’ll take out any authors that I already read regardless (even though the cover art is what drew me to read Moon Called- Patricia Briggs to begin with!). Out of the authors I haven’t heard of before I love the Bitten cover. I may have to look that book up! I also like the Marked and Feverborn cover.
That’s one way to play it safe — take out the covers of authors you already love. 🙂 The Bitten cover is definitely intriguing, although it reads as a little scarier than what I prefer. (I haven’t actually read that one, though, so have no clue if the book matches the cover.) Feverborn definitely snagged my eye, though.
Bitten is the one that catches my eye the most they all look great though and i love most of the authors
Interesting to see a second vote for Bitten! Looks like that illustration style is definitely a hit.
Bitten and Feverborn. I do notice books because of their covers, just like I’ll try wine because of its label.
Yeah, a pretty picture always catches the eye. And it sounds like you’ve got a good eye!
These days I rarely see the cover, as I order online not bookstore browse. I have just come back from the bookstore and bought two, and the covers did catch my eye.
Is the above 16 stories a set? I would like to browse them. Unless I already have that set sans covers as the Paranormal set.
The two I bought were:
Miss Peregrines Home for Peculiar Children
showing a small girl in a b&w photo with her feet inches above the ground. The title interested me too.
Black Wolves
showing a tatooed guy with a bloody sword.
Again the title interested me, and a short read on both showed that the people can write and that I might be interested.
(Too many indy pubs can not write, I have gotten cautious.)
and
I know what you mean. I actually like kindle unlimited to help me wade through the poor and so-so books in search of something great. I have to admit I give up on about 70% of books within the first chapter, but at least some of the books I finally do read really hit the spot!
I just realized I didn’t actually answer your question! No, these aren’t part of any collection. I just browsed the top 100 list in urban fantasy one day, deleted the straight paranormal romance, then made a collage out of what remained. If it were a collection, it would definitely be a high-octane one!
I love Patricia Briggs books. The cover art just speaks volumes of strength and power.
You summed it up well! I think strength and power do always draw me to a cover.
They all look intriguing. Bitten cover will make me take a look at that book but not necessarily buy, Night Owls, Mercenary Magic and Burned by Magic also have me looking at those books. I agree with a previous comment, I need to know the author can write before I invest time in them but the cover will have me reading the sample and taking it from there. Of course Patricia Briggs cover would definitely pull me in but I have already read all of hers.
You’re right — a good cover might just get you to read the sample rather than buy it sight unseen. That’s still a definite success for the cover artist in my book! 🙂
I like the Bitten cover too as I do love the shifter genre. I have read and love Patricia Briggs but I would be choosing that cover on the strength of how much I like the authors books more than the actual cover influencing my decision to buy. I’d have to say the same for Karen Moning too.
The other covers I would “Want to pick up to learn more” are Fire by L.B. Gilbert, Gifted Thief by Helen Harper . . The other book titles cover that caught my eye are Mercenary Magic, and Burned by Magic
It sounds like the glowy-hands covers are definitely hitting the spot for several of you. I wonder if that’s because it so visually confirms there will be magic inside, or because those images really float your boat otherwise?
I prefer FIRE (love the ginger) and MARKED (just something about it). Not so attracted by the subtle or not so subtle “sex sells” covers.
Especially since none of them had bare-chested, 6-pack ab guys on the cover! 🙂
The Avatars doesn’t count…he’s to shadowed!
Ha! I deleted those when I was putting this lineup together. 🙂
too
I have about five books I’d pick up based solely on the cover, however, I will list only three. I did pick up Patricia Briggs for the first time, after seeing the cover of Moon Called, a few years ago. So glad I did.
So the three: Feverborn, Marked, Burned by Magic.
Those three do seem to be reader favorites — I’ve seen at least one vote of each of them already!
I love Patricia Briggs but I think these covers are getting a bit sexist. Lauren Roy’s Night Owl series is excellent. The two covers that caught my eye that I will look into are Marked and Gifted Thief.
I have to admit, I used to hate Briggs’ covers. They just didn’t resemble the Mercy I’d made up in my head — too sexy, too many tattoos. But they’re growing on me, perhaps because I’ve just had such good experiences with the stories inside. 🙂
Thanks for your other votes too! You clearly have a good eye — both Marked and Gifted Thief have been favorites of multiple other readers too.
I know all of the authors on the collage but the ones that catches my eye are Sarah Fine’s Marked and Ella Summers Mercenary Magic and yes I buy books based on their covers a lot with out reading the blurb. An example of that was Lisa Blackwood’s The Avatars that is shown on the collage
Thanks for chiming in! You’re the first vote for The Avatars, I think, and that’s high praise to have bought based on the cover without reading the blurb!
It’s a hard choice because I have read quite a few of these books plus Patricia Briggs,ilona andrews,and Kalama Price are three of my favorite authors, but that being said the Bitten cover really stands out to me. I have definitely bought books before based on the cover alone.
That was supposed to say Kalayna,oops.
I haven’t read Kalayna Price yet, but her book looks intriguing! And interesting to see another vote for Bitten — that cover definitely appears to be a crowd pleaser.
I love flowing fabric so Feverborn would catch my eye first, but I love Dan Dos Santos’s covers for Patricia Briggs’ covers. For authors, I love Ilona Andrews and Patricia Briggs, I would auto-read their books any time (nope, can’t pick just one).
I know what you mean — flowing fabric is definitely eye-catching! And Ilona Andrews and Patricia Briggs are on my auto-read list too. 🙂