Book Cover Review

Do You See What I See?

I have been reading romance novels a long time. Eventually I see the same models used over an over on different romance book covers. They say don’t judge a book by a cover, but ultimately that’s what I am doing when I am shopping for ebooks online.

Back in the day of the bodice ripper, it was the face of Fabio on most every cover. You couldn’t browse the romance section in a book store without seeing his face plastered on the cover of a book. Many painted him and just changed the color hair, made him look Native American, or Spanish… you name it. Whatever the theme required.

Covers have gotten less artsy, and more about using actual models. Stock photography in many cases, which means that eventually several people will be choosing from the same pool of available stock photos.

Here are some of my observations:

The Telltale Necklace

I noticed this cute guy on a cover for a book by Aiden Bates in his Heaven’s Ballroom series. Imagine my surprise when he kept turning up over and over again! I recognized him by his telltale necklace.

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Brooding Mysterious Hero

This guy owns only one jacket. He seems pretty bummed about it on multiple covers. He was on the Noelle Adams book and later turned up on some M/M covers.

Same Posed Couple

I guess the sideways Spiderman Kiss was a thing for a moment. This couple shows up on a lot of erotica too 😉 I opted to skip those titles here lol

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Dialing it in

Some books probably bank on obscurity to reuse cover art and don’t even bother to really try. These were clearly fill in the blank. I was like, haven’t I seen this before? Sure enough, years ago it was on the book by Gayle Keo. On 2019 Year in Review, My Best Friend was the least popular book I read this year, according to Goodreads.

Beefcake Looking Down

These covers feature the same tattooed guy who apparently sees something really captivating on the floor. Sometimes he’s real troubled by it.

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Tangled Up in Tank Tops

These guys seem to have trouble escaping their tank top. All tangled up on these covers.

I like looking at book covers. Sometimes the models they pick fit the book very well. Sometimes, I am confused by the choices and it detracts from my experience of reading the book.

I may do another book cover review since I had more that I didn’t include here, and the more I read, the more book cover art I come across.