I just finished Love on the Brain (thank you for the copy!) and had my mind WRECKED by Ling Ma's Severance.
I have to say, the contemporary romances all feel like they have a similar cover design (or are all fitting a market trend). Is there a particular book or books that started that?
Yeah those cover designs are called "cartoon covers" which were largely a trend (from what I understand) to basically replace the classic "painting or photo of two half dressed people clinging to each other" ones that many people (new readers and men, especially) find embarrassing. Found a good article about the trend that might be worth a read: https://bookriot.com/illustrated-romance-book-covers/
Interesting. Several books you've read/recommended feel more inclined to read because of the cartoon cover. I didn't directly link it to YA, but I can see myself liking the trade paperback more than the "hyper real stock photo" cover in a mass market paperback.
I hear you about cartoon covers! There have been a few books I declined to read until I saw a cartoon cover version and didn't realize it was the same title as before! But I also see the frustration many authors have with them kind of taking the sex out of things and making everything feel a little more childish and generic. Marketing and distribution is always gonna be something to argue about, so I'm largely staying out of the discussion for now until I think on it further :)
I primarily use Libby (the library app) with my library card to read books for this newsletter! When I was reading 5-10 books a year I just bought them on iBooks, but at this volume I can't keep up financially haha (though I'll still purchase a copy of books I really loved reading for free, especially if I see them on sale!). Only a handful of the books I've reviewed couldn't be found through my library card! I can put up to 15 ebooks/audiobooks on hold at a time and have up to 15 borrowed at a time, and when that's not enough for all the books on my to-read list, I'll just keep a running list and when a new book is delivered off hold, I'll add the next on my secondary list. I've also got friends who maintain library cards from multiple places they've lived so they can have lots of hold capacity per card, though I imagine that's not as useful of info to you as it is to me who's lived in four states in the last decade.
Quinn and I also got a Kindle Unlimited subscription (first month's free with Prime) because a lot of romance titles are only available on either the library OR the Kindle, so you'll start to see some of those books come up in the newsletter eventually. Decent selection, slightly more annoying desktop app though (since they obvs want you to use an actual Kindle, which Quinn now has but I don't because I prefer my laptop)
Libby is excellent! My friend also just reminded me that Scribd is a great service. I get lots of physical books from the library, but I use Kanopy and Hoopla as well since they are free for library users (Hoopla especially to read graphic novels or comics)
My favorites of the 13 books I read this year were Seven Days in June, Kindred, and The Haunting of Hill House
I bought my future sister-in-law 7 Days in June for Christmas, it's SO GOOD!
I just finished Love on the Brain (thank you for the copy!) and had my mind WRECKED by Ling Ma's Severance.
I have to say, the contemporary romances all feel like they have a similar cover design (or are all fitting a market trend). Is there a particular book or books that started that?
Yeah those cover designs are called "cartoon covers" which were largely a trend (from what I understand) to basically replace the classic "painting or photo of two half dressed people clinging to each other" ones that many people (new readers and men, especially) find embarrassing. Found a good article about the trend that might be worth a read: https://bookriot.com/illustrated-romance-book-covers/
Interesting. Several books you've read/recommended feel more inclined to read because of the cartoon cover. I didn't directly link it to YA, but I can see myself liking the trade paperback more than the "hyper real stock photo" cover in a mass market paperback.
Bri, how do you source the books you read for this newsletter? Do you buy physical copies, get ebooks, or borrow from the library? (or other methods)?
I hear you about cartoon covers! There have been a few books I declined to read until I saw a cartoon cover version and didn't realize it was the same title as before! But I also see the frustration many authors have with them kind of taking the sex out of things and making everything feel a little more childish and generic. Marketing and distribution is always gonna be something to argue about, so I'm largely staying out of the discussion for now until I think on it further :)
I primarily use Libby (the library app) with my library card to read books for this newsletter! When I was reading 5-10 books a year I just bought them on iBooks, but at this volume I can't keep up financially haha (though I'll still purchase a copy of books I really loved reading for free, especially if I see them on sale!). Only a handful of the books I've reviewed couldn't be found through my library card! I can put up to 15 ebooks/audiobooks on hold at a time and have up to 15 borrowed at a time, and when that's not enough for all the books on my to-read list, I'll just keep a running list and when a new book is delivered off hold, I'll add the next on my secondary list. I've also got friends who maintain library cards from multiple places they've lived so they can have lots of hold capacity per card, though I imagine that's not as useful of info to you as it is to me who's lived in four states in the last decade.
Quinn and I also got a Kindle Unlimited subscription (first month's free with Prime) because a lot of romance titles are only available on either the library OR the Kindle, so you'll start to see some of those books come up in the newsletter eventually. Decent selection, slightly more annoying desktop app though (since they obvs want you to use an actual Kindle, which Quinn now has but I don't because I prefer my laptop)
Libby is excellent! My friend also just reminded me that Scribd is a great service. I get lots of physical books from the library, but I use Kanopy and Hoopla as well since they are free for library users (Hoopla especially to read graphic novels or comics)