My Top Ten Favorite Book Covers

I don't judge books by their covers. I'm more likely to pick up a book by its title than by its cover, and even a cover that takes my breath away won't make me take a book home unless its premise intrigues me, too. But I do appreciate a beautiful cover and it was an interesting exercise, scrolling through my Goodreads lists looking just at covers for today's Top Ten listing.

Top Ten Tuesday is an original feature/weekly meme created at The Broke and the Bookish blog with a different top ten list theme (all related to books) every Tuesday (see the full list here).

1. A Million Suns, by Beth Revis. There are so many things about this cover that I love: the stars, colors, the shimmer, the curve of the window, the body language, the question of whether or not they're holding hands. Why have I not read this book yet?? I loved Across the Universe and this is definitely a sequel I'm planning to read.

2. Pegasus, by Robin McKinley. The winged horse, the light, the clouds, the girl looking up, so so so dreamy. And I love that the pegasus is black and not white as you usually think of them. This book I've read, parts of it twice, and it's on my short absolute favorites list.

3. Starcrossed, by Josephine Angelini. The stormy sky and the light water, the girl's blowing white robes with the violet shading and the girl's darkly shadowed skin. Also love the title font and embellishments. The book is pretty good to read, too.

4. The Binding Stone, by Lisa Gail Green. The blue-red-orange color scheme; the desert background; the overlaid lacy pattern; the light trailing off the opal; the Djinn's red silky wrap; love, love, love. I just read this book and  I'll be sharing my review tomorrow and probably raving more about this book in the future, too.

5. For Darkness Shows the Stars, by Diana Peterfreund. Okay, maybe a pattern here: stars! It's star pattern overlaid on the dress that really made me fall in love with this one, what a cool idea. Also, this is the prettiest title font I've ever seen, complete with those lovely encircling touches and shifting colors.

6. Shiver, by Maggie Stiefvator. I love all the shades of blue with intertwining branches, the odd-shaped leaves, and the wolf half-hidden in the background. All of this juxtaposed with a brilliant red drop of blood. Such a good book, too, my favorite of the series.

7. The Summer Prince, by Alaya Dawn Johnson.  This book sort of has a starry effect going on too and I love the green and gold shimmer fading out to black. The glowing tree pattern on the girl's arm; the pattern on the back of her dress; the subtle lighting on her hair make a perfect combination. This book had amazing world building and difficult, challenging, hard-to-forget characters.

8. The Clockwork Princess, by Cassandra Clare. The shining book - it looks almost ethereal in the girl's hands. The architecture is breathtaking, too - that bridge! The dome! All the background details overlaid with subtle clockwork patterns. I do love an old-fashioned dress, and it has such a pretty color and texture. Alas, I haven't read this book yet, but I certainly plan to.

9. Firelight, by Sophie Jordan. I don't usually like close-ups of faces, but the girl's unusual but not overstated pupils, and the subtle scales around her eyes have made the cover stick in my mind even several years after I read it. Not to mention I think that's the prettiest hair I've ever seen, and a Mona Lisa kind of secret smile. It's an entertaining, fast-paced book, too, with some interesting twin sister dynamics.

10. Ride a Wild Dream, by Lynn Hall (1982). Sorry this is the best picture I could find of this cover, but it doesn't do it justice!  This was a childhood favorite of mine - I had to include it for sentimental reasons because I spent hours as a kid looking at the ethereal golden horse on this cover (I was insanely horse crazy as a kid) and daydreaming about having a horse like that. I probably read the book at least 5 times, like all of Lynn Hall's wonderful horse and dog books.

There was one more cover I searched long and hard for to include here; I wished I'd added it to my Goodreads lists because in addition to the gorgeous cover, it also had an interesting premise. It's a recent YA, dystopian I think, and the cover has a skyscraper city background with a sort of shimmery waterfall effect superimposed over it. If that rings any bells, please let me know!!!

Do you have a favorite book cover?