Let’s Talk Bookish: Flowery Book Covers

Let’s Talk Bookish is a weekly meme that was originally created and hosted by Rukky @ Eternity Books starting in August 2019, and was then cohosted with Dani @ Literary Lion from May 2020 to March 2022. Book Nook Bits has hosted since April 2022.

This one is coming out a little late, but it’s such a fun topic I knew I had to do it! I love book covers, and I know ‘you can’t judge a book by its cover’, but really, we all do, don’t we? ‘Flowery’, fittingly for this year, conjures up images of bright colours and a springtime feel, – doesn’t it? – fitting for this time of the year, even if the weather is…not quite like spring yet! But that doesn’t mean darker books can’t use flowers to great effect…quite the opposite, in fact!

Let’s Talk Bookish May 3rd
Flowery Book Covers

Prompts: April showers bring May flowers, and it’s May! What are some of your favorite book covers with flowers on them? Are there any more generally spring-themed covers you like?

Let’s start off on the lighter side, shall we? One flowery cover that springs to mind is She Gets the Girl by Rachael Lippincott – the cover shows two hands, brushing together, both with vines, flowers and leaves entwined around their wrists and hands. It’s showing an instant connection, and although it’s got some autumn shades, it feels representative of spring, too, bringing to mind ‘spring flings’ and soft, warm sunshine.

Flowers can be used really well when it comes to fantasy, too. The Rose Daughter has a cover with a single red rose blooming, with shades of watery green and blue in the background. It’s really fitting with the book, too, where Dreckly Jones is almost caught between multiple worlds and multiple times, trying to stay hidden and remaining cut off due to events in her past, but her powers mean she has the chance to do something truly unique. Through the book, Dreckly almost rediscovers herself, and is able to move forward because of it.

Sticking with fantasy, The Foxglove King has flowers on the cover’s border, drawing your attention not to them, but to the crown right in the centre. It’s an intriguing cover, and pairs well with the title, giving you the sense that though there are flowers here, they are not pretty or safe. It’s a lovely cover, that does a great job of conveying the darker elements of the book itself.

Lastly, we have flowers on horror covers. Again, they give a great indication of what you’re about to read, as they’re usually used to signal folk or gothic horror. Tori Bovalino’s My Throat an Open Grave sees the MC entering the local woods to retrieve her baby brother. The flowers – innocence, perhaps, youth – are scattered over youngish looking hands, possibly feminine. Are the hands picking the flowers, or, considering this is horror, has something happened to these youths?

Then we have The House of Good Bones by T. Kingfisher. The roses shown here have a significant role in the story itself, and the classic, pale pink colour combined with the brass skull give us a strong sense of the gothic, drawing the eye and making us wonder if this is a door, and what awaits the MC behind it?

This last cover hasn’t got flowers on it, but it does make me think of spring. I really enjoyed Alexis Hall’s A Lady for a Duke, specifically the cover that puts Viola front and centre. With the way she’s looking over her shoulder, she really draws you in, creating a sense of needing to know more about her and her story. The soft, light colours give the impression of spring, and with it new beginnings.