10 Books I’m Judging by the Cover

Posted July 23, 2014 / Book Lists, Features / 6 Comments

top ten

I won’t lie – I’m obsessed with books that have gorgeous covers. Contrary to the popular saying, the cover is the first thing you see that draws you into the book. The plot summary on the back is what seals the deal for me, of course, but no one has time to read the summary of every single book in the store and ignore the covers completely. It’s just not feasible. I’ve notice lately that the YA genre has been including these indie-esque covers with beautiful typography. Based on their covers, these are the 10 books I’m most looking forward to reading in the near future. Have you read any of these? Which should I start with? Which ones sucked? Comment below!

to all the boys love letters to the deadmuseum of intangible things  everything leads to you infinite moment of us  ava lavenderbeginning of everything nantucket bluedistance between us someone elses life

to all the boysTo All the Boys I’ve Loved Before by Jenny Han
To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before is the story of Lara Jean, who has never openly admitted her crushes, but instead wrote each boy a letter about how she felt, sealed it, and hid it in a box under her bed. But one day Lara Jean discovers that somehow her secret box of letters has been mailed, causing all her crushes from her past to confront her about the letters: her first kiss, the boy from summer camp, even her sister’s ex-boyfriend, Josh. As she learns to deal with her past loves face to face, Lara Jean discovers that something good may come out of these letters after all.

I absolutely love Jenny Han. I’ve heard interesting things about this book. Apparently it ends pretty abruptly and people didn’t realize there was a sequel; it got much better reviews once people heard that.

 

distance between us

The Distance Between Us by Kacie West
Seventeen-year-old Caymen Meyers studies the rich like her own personal science experiment, and after years of observation she’s pretty sure they’re only good for one thing—spending money on useless stuff, like the porcelain dolls in her mother’s shop.
So when Xander Spence walks into the store to pick up a doll for his grandmother, it only takes one glance for Caymen to figure out he’s oozing rich. Despite his charming ways and that he’s one of the first people who actually gets her, she’s smart enough to know his interest won’t last. Because if there’s one thing she’s learned from her mother’s warnings, it’s that the rich have a short attention span. But Xander keeps coming around, despite her best efforts to scare him off. And much to her dismay, she’s beginning to enjoy his company.
She knows her mom can’t find out—she wouldn’t approve. She’d much rather Caymen hang out with the local rocker who hasn’t been raised by money. But just when Xander’s attention and loyalty are about to convince Caymen that being rich isn’t a character flaw, she finds out that money is a much bigger part of their relationship than she’d ever realized. And that Xander’s not the only one she should’ve been worried about.

Despite the fact that the dude’s name is Xander, this book sounds pretty interesting. I’m often drawn to books where a main character is rich (probably because I spend a lot of days spending imaginary money I’ll have when I win the lottery). The cover is cute and the description has intrigued me.

 

everything leads to youEverything Leads To You by Nina LaCour
A wunderkind young set designer, Emi has already started to find her way in the competitive Hollywood film world.
Emi is a film buff and a true romantic, but her real-life relationships are a mess. She has desperately gone back to the same girl too many times to mention. But then a mysterious letter from a silver screen legend leads Emi to Ava. Ava is unlike anyone Emi has ever met. She has a tumultuous, not-so-glamorous past, and lives an unconventional life. She’s enigmatic…. She’s beautiful. And she is about to expand Emi’s understanding of family, acceptance, and true romance.

I was somewhat disappointed the last time I read a YA book with LGBT characters. The storyline was predictable and the main character was whiney as fuck. (For the record, that book was Lies My Girlfriend Told Me by Julie Anne Peters). This one  sounds promising.

 

infinite moment of us

The Infinite Moment of Us by Lauren Myracle
For as long as she can remember, Wren Gray’s goal has been to please her parents. But as high school graduation nears, so does an uncomfortable realization: Pleasing her parents once overlapped with pleasing herself, but now… not so much. Wren needs to honor her own desires, but how can she if she doesn’t even know what they are?
Charlie Parker, on the other hand, is painfully aware of his heart’s desire. A gentle boy with a troubled past, Charlie has loved Wren since the day he first saw her. But a girl like Wren would never fall for a guy like Charlie—at least not the sort of guy Charlie believes himself to be.
And yet certain things are written in the stars. And in the summer after high school, Wren and Charlie’s souls will collide. But souls are complicated, as are the bodies that house them…
Sexy, romantic, and oh-so-true to life, this is an unforgettable look at first love from one of young adult fiction’s greatest writers.

Lauren Myracle was a favorite of mine in my early reading days. This book has a gorgeous cover. I love the fact that the boy is pining over the girl in this one; I feel like it is too often the other way around. Reading this is going to make me miss being in school though, I can feel it.

 

beginning of everythingThe Beginning of Everything by Robyn Schneider
Golden boy Ezra Faulkner believes everyone has a tragedy waiting for them—a single encounter after which everything that really matters will happen. His particular tragedy waited until he was primed to lose it all: in one spectacular night, a reckless driver shatters Ezra’s knee, his athletic career, and his social life.
No longer a front-runner for Homecoming King, Ezra finds himself at the table of misfits, where he encounters new girl Cassidy Thorpe. Cassidy is unlike anyone Ezra’s ever met, achingly effortless, fiercely intelligent, and determined to bring Ezra along on her endless adventures.
But as Ezra dives into his new studies, new friendships, and new love, he learns that some people, like books, are easy to misread. And now he must consider: if one’s singular tragedy has already hit and everything after it has mattered quite a bit, what happens when more misfortune strikes?

I’m a big fan of “everything happens for a reason” plotlines, or the idea that one event can impact the rest of your life. I’m excited to read this because I don’t have too much experience with a male narrator in the YA world. It seems kind of annoying and cliche that the dude loses all of his friends because he can’t play sports anymore. I like to hope people are a little better than that, but what do I know – I’ve been out of high school since ’09.

 

ava lavender

The Strange and Beautiful Sorrows of Ava Lavender by Leslye Walton
Foolish love appears to be the Roux family birthright, an ominous forecast for its most recent progeny, Ava Lavender. Ava—in all other ways a normal girl—is born with the wings of a bird.
In a quest to understand her peculiar disposition and a growing desire to fit in with her peers, sixteen-year old Ava ventures into the wider world, ill-prepared for what she might discover and naïve to the twisted motives of others. Others like the pious Nathaniel Sorrows, who mistakes Ava for an angel and whose obsession with her grows until the night of the Summer Solstice celebration.
That night, the skies open up, rain and feathers fill the air, and Ava’s quest and her family’s saga build to a devastating crescendo.

This sounds like a really unique book. Who hasn’t wanted to have wings before? I’m nervous when I see the words “devastating crescendo” … I bet this book doesn’t have a happy ending.

 

someone elses lifeSomeone Else’s Life by Katie Dale
When seventeen-year-old Rosie’s mother, Trudie, dies from Huntington’s Disease, her pain is intensified by the knowledge that she has a fifty-per-cent chance of inheriting the crippling disease herself. Only when she tells her mum’s best friend, ‘Aunt Sarah’ that she is going to test for the disease does Sarah, a midwife, reveal that Trudie was not her biological mother after all…
Devastated, Rosie decides to trace her real mother, hitching along on her ex-boyfriend’s GAP year to follow her to Los Angeles. But all does not go to plan, and as Rosie discovers yet more of her family’s deeply-buried secrets and lies, she is left with an agonising decision of her own – one which will be the most heart-breaking and far-reaching of all…

What a rough life this girl has. I can’t imagine having my “mom” die, finding out she wasn’t my mom, heading out on a quest to find my real mom, and evidently finding out more awful shit about your family. Sounds like a crapshoot. Definitely looking forward to this one.

 

nantucket blueNantucket Blue by Leila Howland
For Cricket Thompson, a summer like this one will change everything. A summer spent on Nantucket with her best friend, Jules Clayton, and the indomitable Clayton family. A summer when she’ll make the almost unattainable Jay Logan hers. A summer to surpass all dreams.
Some of this turns out to be true. Some of it doesn’t.
When Jules and her family suffer a devastating tragedy that forces the girls apart, Jules becomes a stranger whom Cricket wonders whether she ever really knew. And instead of lying on the beach working on her caramel-colored tan, Cricket is making beds and cleaning bathrooms to support herself in paradise for the summer.
But it’s the things Cricket hadn’t counted on–most of all, falling hard for someone who should be completely off-limits–that turn her dreams into an exhilarating, bittersweet reality.
A beautiful future is within her grasp, and Cricket must find the grace to embrace it. If she does, her life could be the perfect shade of Nantucket blue.

I’ve been pining over this book for a while. This sounds like the typical YA romance novel I love to read in the summertime. I’ve got to make it a point to read this one by the end of the summer for sure.

 

museum of intangible things

The Museum of Intangible Things by Wendy Wunder
Loyalty. Envy. Obligation. Dreams. Disappointment. Fear. Negligence. Coping. Elation. Lust. Nature. Freedom. Heartbreak. Insouciance. Audacity. Gluttony. Belief. God. Karma. Knowing what you want (there is probably a French word for it). Saying Yes. Destiny. Truth. Devotion. Forgiveness. Life. Happiness (ever after).
Hannah and Zoe haven’t had much in their lives, but they’ve always had each other. So when Zoe tells Hannah she needs to get out of their down-and-out New Jersey town, they pile into Hannah’s beat-up old Le Mans and head west, putting everything—their deadbeat parents, their disappointing love lives, their inevitable enrollment at community college—behind them.
As they chase storms and make new friends, Zoe tells Hannah she wants more for her. She wants her to live bigger, dream grander, aim higher. And so Zoe begins teaching Hannah all about life’s intangible things, concepts sadly missing from her existence—things like audacity,insouciance, karma, and even happiness.

I hope this book actually has a climax and some conflict. It kind of just sounds like two girls road trippin’ and having a good time. Is there not going to be some cliche plot point where the girls get into a potentially friendship-ending fight over a misunderstanding and then end up back together in the end? We’ll see.

 

love letters to the deadLove Letters to the Dead by Ava Dellaira
It begins as an assignment for English class: Write a letter to a dead person. Laurel chooses Kurt Cobain because her sister, May, loved him. And he died young, just like May did. Soon, Laurel has a notebook full of letters to people like Janis Joplin, Amy Winehouse, Amelia Earhart, Heath Ledger, and more; though she never gives a single one of them to her teacher. She writes about starting high school, navigating new friendships, falling in love for the first time, learning to live with her splintering family. And, finally, about the abuse she suffered while May was supposed to be looking out for her. Only then, once Laurel has written down the truth about what happened to herself, can she truly begin to accept what happened to May. And only when Laurel has begun to see her sister as the person she was; lovely and amazing and deeply flawed; can she begin to discover her own path.

What is the format of this book? Is it just letters? I guess I could Google it and find out but I think I’ll just wait and see. If my sister died young and I was given an assignment to write to a dead person, I’m pretty sure I would just write to her instead of famous people. Nonetheless, I’m curious about what the style is going to be for this book and how the author mixes in letters with real events.

 

[All book summaries courtesy of Goodreads!]

6 responses to “10 Books I’m Judging by the Cover

  1. These covers are hard to resist! I haven’t read most of these books – most being on my TBR pile but I would recommend The Distance Between Us if you’re looking for something light and sweet. ^_^

  2. thebookheap

    I love that more books are using lovely typography now. I prefer book covers with illustrations/typography for their covers over those with models posing any day

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