Cover Contest

So, I spent part of the morning bitching about the lack of variety in the covers at the Cover Cafe contest (bitching aside, the ladies on the committee do an amazing job each year putting this contest together — it always looks fantastic, voting is easy, and reading the results a blast). Although a few stand out, for the most part, they all run into a “okay that’s pretty…and boring” blur, or a “how do I choose between one landscape and another” conundrum, followed by the “but…aren’t there any different *good* covers?” Was there not a single category featuring two prominent models that was good enough to make the final cut? A lot of readers buy those covers; isn’t there one that could be considered the best?

Then I thought: maybe enough people aren’t nominating their favorites? I nominated a few over the last year, but my taste is notoriously cheesy, so I can see why they didn’t show up (I’m probably just lucky they didn’t show up in the “worst” category.) So here’s what I’m going to do:

Every month (or as often as I remember) I’ll put up a post saying, “remember to nominate your favorite covers from this month!”

Here are the rules, stolen from Cover Cafe:

Nominations for romance covers issued in 2009 open!

You may nominate as many different covers as you like. However, nominating the same cover several times is not necessary. All nominated covers will receive the same consideration.

Readers, authors and artists are all welcome to nominate their covers.

International covers are acceptable but it must be a cover that is available for purchase by someone in the US. The cover image and necessary information must also be available.

The underlying novel could have been published previously, but the cover has to be new to 2009.
E-Book cover nominations must include the date of first publication in order to be eligible for consideration.

It says romance novel covers, but since women’s fiction with romantic elements like Kristin Hannah’s FIREFLY LANE was a finalist this year, along with Jeaniene Frost’s AT GRAVE’S END (urban fantasy with romantic elements) it looks like it actually just has to have a romantic element to be eligible.

So, it’s mid-May. Have there been any romance novel covers from books published this year that knocked your socks off?

If so, go forth and nominate.

ETA: I just nominated

Jory Strong’s GHOSTLAND
Alison Sinclair’s DARKBORN
Nora Roberts’s VISION IN WHITE
Larissa Ione’s DESIRE UNCHAINED
Merline Lovelace’s THE HELLO GIRL

and a Worst one, but *cough cough* the royal we aren’t going to say what it was