Five Favorite Book Covers

I'm tired of just writing endless reviews, so I'm changing up the game a little bit today. I'm going to pick five book covers I adore - maybe not my top five ever, because I dunno if I could pick that - and list them here with a little description of why I like them, because why not?

So:

photo cred here, since someone took the time to stitch them together

What kind of list would this be if I didn't include the Harry Potter books? I'm specifically including the original US covers, because they're my covers. All of these new redesigns are just not acceptable. (Well, I do like how the spines make Hogwarts on the new ones. But I like the actual front cover images from the original covers best.)

I think I love these covers out of the nostalgia aspect more than anything else, but the artwork is still fabulous and there are elements of continuity that I like - same font, Harry doing something dangerous and stupid on most of them. Whoever realized that this series should not be recovered midway through is a genius and deserves a medal, by the way. I hate when series get redesigned midway through, keeping my covers from matching.

This cover of Les Mis also earns a spot on my list. Again, it's the cover of my edition, so there's some bias, but I like how it's got some color on it, and not the colors of the French flag. There's also no sad little Cosette from the musical's poster, so it's two for two on the creativity front.

I also like how the candlestick on the front can be representative of so much of the story. Valjean stealing the bishop's candlesticks, the fact that much of the story seems to take place in the dark, the smoke wafting that looks like it could also be the souls of the dead. Seriously, good work, cover designer.

Photo cred here

To the surprise of no one, I'm including the covers of Stephanie Perkins' novels here. I deliberately chose the recovers, too, because as you'll well know if you've read my reviews of Anna and Lola, I hated the originals with a burning passion. They looked cheap and childish, but these ones feel more dynamic and correct for the actual ages of the characters/intended audience.

I also love how each girl has a little symbol to go with her name - Anna and a heart, Lola and a star, and Isla and a rose. I understand how the symbols go with Anna and Lola, and I'm so excited to find out how Isla's works with her story and personality. Wasn't she or Josh mentioned doodling roses like that in Anna's book, too?

It's an ammo band made out of tubes of lipstick. How could I not like this cover, you guys?

I also like how this cover really fits the story. The characters are all pageant contestants, a lot of whom are blonde, but they have to figure out how to use their beauty-queen traits as weapons, making the ammo band (I know there's a real word for that) relevant as well. The cover girl even looks a little haggard, at least to me, which is also pretty true to form. Someone did a really good job creating this.

Photo credit ME! I saw no stitched ones online.

Rounding out the list with the TLOS covers, but I could easily add more. Maybe in the future?

Anyways, I legitimately love these covers, even without the Chris Colfer factor. They're all very similar in layout and font, which appeases my inner continuity freak, and they're gorgeously illustrated. All the little drawings on the sides and bottom show what the supporting characters look like (and give hints as to who's really important), and the middles have Alex and Conner doing their thing, which is the actual main plot of the novels. If I find out they're recovering these before the fourth one is published, I'm rounding up my pitchfork and torch, because these are already perfect covers.

What are your favorite covers, friends?

Review: Lola and the Boy Next Door

Real talk: I actually procrastinated reading this because I thought it couldn't live up to Anna and the French Kiss. Silly me, I forgot how compelling Cricket Bell is (and also how much I live for the little Anna/Etienne moments sprinkled throughout Lola. I have my loyalties.).

Reading this got me even more excited for Isla and the Happily Ever After, too. I NEED IT.

So in this companion novel to AatFK, we meet sixteen year old Lola Nolan of San Francisco. Lola expresses herself in a manner that almost seems costume-y - wearing a red gingham ex-tablecloth as a dress to go on a picnic, for example. It's fantastic.

Lola's boyfriend at the start of this novel is a twenty-two year old named Max. Lola's dads don't like Max for pretty much that exact reason, so they make him come over for Sunday brunch every week as well as make Lola call every hour on the hour when they're on dates. Lola's willing to deal with these inconveniences, though, because she'll graduate soon enough and then she and Max can go on the road with his band while she designs costumes for a living. She has it all planned out.

And then Cricket Bell moves back to town.

Cricket Bell is Lola's childhood next door neighbor who has always been overshadowed by his figure skating star twin sister Calliope. (Yes, by the way, they're those Bells. As in the phone company.) Cricket and Lola were becoming pretty intense a couple years ago until miscommunications happen and each of them feels betrayed by the other.

Cut to now, when Cricket tells Lola that Calliope played them both out of jealousy and fear that Cricket was picking someone else over her. Oh, and he's still in love with Lola. Hasn't stopped for a second.

Bad time for Max to walk in, isn't it?

Cricket's reappearance into Lola's life makes her rethink a lot of her desires: is Max really the one? Do her costumes hide her or reveal her? And most importantly, can she go to the winter dance in the coolest Marie Antoinette dress possible?

Maybe the moon can help guide her to the answers.

If you're worried, Lola and the Boy Next Door doesn't suffer from the sophomore slump. Though it follows the same sort of will-they-or-won't-they pattern as AatFK, it's not an exact retelling with all the character names find-and-replaced. Lola and Anna are two distinctly different people, which is made apparent when they interact as coworkers at the local movie theater. Etienne and Cricket are also not carbon copies of each other - Cricket's far too tall, for one. (Kidding. They're very much dissimilar.)

Lola's story is also much less ethereal than Anna's can be. While Anna falls in love in Paris, widely regarded as the most romantic city in the world, Lola's story is messier and more colorful, much like San Francisco itself. Her costume-y style also shapes the events that unfold - much of the story wouldn't be possible, for example, without the Marie Antoinette dress Lola wants to make.

Overall, Lola and the French Kiss lives up to the standards Anna and the French Kiss set. It's a whirl of colors and emotions and plans that's centered around creating - both Lola's love of sewing and Cricket's engineering skills form the backbone of this novel. If Anna's the sweet, nerdy older sister, Lola's the wild yet loving middle child who might try to go off the rails sometimes but will ultimately always find her way back home. Four stars and a great desire to up my game clothing-wise.