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Welcome, holiday masochists, to the seasonal bonfire of design sins that is Kindling the Flame: A Second Chance Christmas Collection. Nothing says “romance” quite like a man looking half-possessed, a woman staring wistfully at the ceiling, and a mistletoe prop that...
Let’s take a moment to honor the bold, the baffling, and the completely bedazzled: A Suitable Brat, where fantasy meets fanfic… and then gets mugged by a Renaissance Faire. From the moment your eyes meet this cover, they immediately scream, “I’ve seen better cohesion...
When a book cover makes you long for the clarity of a highway billboard, you know we’ve arrived at another tragic design crossroads. Too Forward barrels into the court with all the finesse of a half-deflated dodgeball — and yes, we’re naming this the MVP of misplaced...
Defender of the Pack takes every supernatural romance cliché, slathers it in red dye, sprinkles it with glitter, and calls it a day. The result? A crimson mess that looks like a Twilight knockoff crashed into a cheap Valentine's Day card. Let’s begin with the overkill...
The cover tries for divine spectacle and ends up feeling like Mount Olympus collapsed under the weight of its own Photoshop layers. The ambition is loud and the execution is louder, and every element seems to be fighting for its own reality. The architecture alone...
This cover was summoned from the depths of design purgatory by someone who clearly rolled a natural 1 on their Photoshop skill check. The Shadow Sorceress wants to scream “urban fantasy power,” but instead it quietly mumbles “I just discovered PicMonkey and I’m not...
Welcome to Sushi Scandal, where the real mystery is how this cover made it out of the design kitchen without being sent back for serious seasoning. At first glance, you might think this is a children’s board game called “Chopstick Detectives,” or perhaps the rejected...
If you’ve ever wondered what would happen if a history teacher discovered Photoshop and tried to summon a gothic mood using only cut-and-paste magic and one crow… well, here we are. “Dark Witch” doesn’t so much whisper of eldritch secrets and ancient curses as it...
Somewhere in a dark alley between James Bond and Twilight, this cover stumbled out of the shadows, dropped its genre card, picked up a handgun, and said, “Close enough.” Welcome to A Vampire’s Heart — where love hungers... and design logic goes completely unfed. Let’s...
Oh look — it’s Crazy About You, the romance novel cover that feels like someone accidentally spilled a vanilla latte on a JCPenney ad and decided, “Yep, that’s our final design.” This isn’t a love triangle. It’s a geometry problem with missing context, awkward...
If you've ever wondered what would happen if you dumped an entire folder of fantasy clip art into a design program and said, “Yeah, that’s the cover,” then allow us to introduce Make a Wish — a cover so overloaded with mystical detritus, it looks like a magical...
Sometimes a book cover promises “hot,” “steamy,” or even “elemental magic,” but what it actually delivers is glamour shot meets dragon-themed clip art explosion. Welcome to Steam, a cover that feels like it was assembled during a caffeine rush inside a stock image...
A Note to Authors Featured Here
The purpose of Horrible Covers is not only to critique but also to highlight how much cover design matters to a book’s success. Many authors set out with the best intentions but end up with covers that don’t reflect the quality of their writing — sometimes because they tried to do it themselves, sometimes because they relied on someone who wasn’t a professional cover designer.
We understand how frustrating that can be.
Our aim is simple: to help writers put their best work forward with cover art that does justice to the story inside. If you’ve been featured here and are ready to level up your presentation, reach out through our contact form and mention “Horrible Covers Author.”