Top 10 Most Beautiful Book Covers

Hi everyone! I love a good book cover. I know you can't judge a book by its cover, but it doesn't stop me from doing it. Thanks to Goodreads and their rating system, buying beautiful books that turn out to be awful has been kept to a minimum lately. But the list below are beautiful books that are good on the outside AND inside!



10. Deathless (Deathless #1) by Catherynne M. Valente

I love the simplicity of the cover. The silhouettes are so beautiful. And Koschei's form is intriguing, especially after reading the synopsis, "a menacing, evil figure, the villain of countless stories." The cover makes him look like a fairy tale Prince. Wonderful.



9. A Darker Shade of Magic (A Darker Shade of Magic #1) by V.E. Schwab

This cover is so unique! Kell- in the red coat- is shown walking from London to London, his mysterious, magical, many-sided coat floating out behind him. I love the colors of the cover art- especially because color is such a big part of the story line.



8. Fables graphic novel series by Bill Willingham and Mark Buckingham

I love ALL of the artwork for this series of graphic novels, but the cover art is over-the-top amazing. Woven together in a dream-like tapestry are all of the characters in the Fables world- Snow White, Boy Blue, Bigby Wolf. My favorite cover is from the deluxe edition #2 (shown here), but they are all beautiful.



7. Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys

This cover always caught my eye when I worked at the bookstore. It's so bare, but so colorful. And once I read about what the book was actually about (the madwoman from Jane Eyre), I HAD to read it. I learned what the 'vast ocean' from the cover symbolized. Such a good book under this intriguing cover.



6, East by Edith Pattou

I am a sucker for covers that even remotely look like they may be associated with a fairy tale. Amazing retelling of 'East of the Sun, West of the Moon'? Yes, please. And Pattou's cover art is just as beautiful as the story.



5. The Assassin's Curse (The Assassin's Curse #1) by Cassandra Rose Clarke

Okay, so I became OBSESSED with this series after reading book number one, and then realizing that they were going out of print. I tracked number two down with a fevered passion that is actually kind of embarrassing to think about. :) But come on! A strong, female main character who is a runaway pirate Princess who meets an assassin, and after being cursed, has to complete three tasks to be set free? The cover is beautiful, the story is amazing, please read this! I need people to talk about it with!



4. I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith

I picked this book up a long, long time ago based SOLELY on the cover. It was one of those frustrating paperback copies that don't actually give a description of the book. But it was so beautiful, I bought it anyway. (This was in the years before Goodreads, btw.) And I was surprised by how good it was! After reading the first line, "I write this sitting in the kitchen sink", I was hooked. The story follows the journal entries of Cassandra and her family, who live in a run-down castle in Suffolk. So good! There are many covers to this book, but the one above is my favorite. It's the copy I own, the one that introduced me (luckily) to this amazing book!



3. Fairy Tales from Around the World by Andrew Lang

Omg, I am also a complete sucker for leather-bound collections. This one is so beautiful! It has an intricate cover, inside illustrations, and A SILK BOOKMARK. What more do you need when reading fairy tales? I feel like the book could be IN a fairy tale, it's so pretty. And inside the cover? Owls. Cute owls.



2. Graceling (Graceling Realm #1) by Kristin Cashore

I looked at this book on the shelf for YEARS before I finally broke down and bought it. It is such a striking cover. And after I read the beginning of the synopsis, there was no turning back, "Katsa has been able to kill a man with her bare hands since she was eight-" I mean. Really, I HAD to buy it. Just to find out what that was all about! And funny thing is, my best friend had been looking at the book for a long time, too. We had never talked about liking it, but we both bought it the same week, read it, and LOVED it. We are book-soulmates btw. And this book is the first in a companion series that is amazing, and all three books have beautiful, colorful covers.



1. Wildwood Dancing (Wildwood #1) by Juliet Marillier

This. Cover. This is one of those covers that is not only beautiful when you buy it, with it's intricate magical artwork, but it's even MORE beautiful after you read it. After I read it, I was looking over the cover art again, and realized that the pictures on the cover ARE the story. It goes through all of the major events, and all of my favorite characters are right there! You don't know that before you read, but now, every time I look at the book, I remember, OH YES I loved this story.

Thanks for reading!

-Sarah