the cover games is a feature here at the twirling pages! i’ll be discussing: miraculous cover changes, battles between the US cover/UK cover, heart-eye-emoji covers, and well all things book cover related! <3
(shameless fact: i will judge a book based on it’s cover.)
for those of you who don’t know, the cover for THE WINNER’S KISS, by marie rutkoski has been dropped!! the winner’s kiss is the third and final book of the winner’s trilogy and i’m beyond excited for the release. if you read the winner’s crime, the second book of the trilogy, you’d know that there was a painful cliffhanger
you can read my review of THE WINNER’S CURSE here! and my review of THE WINNER’S CRIME here!
i fell in love with the winner’s trilogies covers since the moment i laid my eyes on them. it’s gorgeously designed, incorporates with the story, and overall FANTASTIC. take a look at the previous two covers:
and now, the winner’s kiss cover….
personally, i’m not a huge fan of the cover. i like it, but it’s my least favorite of the three. the thing is, i’m not even sure why. kestrel is obviously very vulnerable and afraid in the cover, which is how i assume the story will play out. it makes sense with the story (i think; i haven’t read it yet), but i preferred it when kestrel was continuously staying strong despite the conflicts. however on this cover, it looks like she’s given up. she’s not touching the sword. what does that meaaaaan?????
compared to the other two, we can see kestrel’s image and character more clearly. in the first novel, we only glimpse at the shadow of her face. her eyes are closed, and it’s mostly covered by the title. in the second one, we see her face more clearly, but everything else is mostly covered because of the birdseye view/angle. in the final cover, kestrel is (kinda?) laying down so we see more of her entire self. does that say anything about what the story will entail?
my favorite of three is THE WINNER’S CRIME! what do you think? are you excited for the release of the winner’s kiss? let me know in the comments!
– alexandra
ok i’m far too lazy to capitalize any of my letters so i’m taking after you and being all about that lowercase life today.
also yeah what’s up with that cover? honestly i still love the winner’s curse cover the best. it’s by far BY FAR BY FAR the best cover of this entire trilogy. even the winner’s crime cover doesn’t do it for me. like it’s not horrendous but definitely not as great as the winner’s curse and i feel like they’ve all just gotten progressively worse which is sad because i was so hoping for a great cover to end the series with a BANG.
i just find the placement of the title very very odd and then there’s so much like empty space between the title and the author’s name and it just feels very unbalanced. also her hair bugs me. i dont know if i like all that crimpiness going on at the top and then the braids. but anyway.
i’m still super excited for the winner’s kiss though! im reading the winners crime now although i know what happens because i couldnt wait and just skipped through the entire book to read the ending so now im all alsjdflsjafjasdf even though i still have like maybe 1/3 of the book to read. but yeah lasjdfljsdalfjasd literally arin & kestrel feels straight to the heart. i nearly SOBBED reading the last page
lowercase letters are my life. they’re so aesthetically pleasing and i’m just plain lazy most the time.
i feel like i was expecting so much MORE and was disappointed. there’s such a distinct difference in quality between the first and the last cover. i completely agree with you on the hair and title placement! the more i look at it, the more i want to cringe.
also, the winner’s crime is so frustrating! THE ENTIRE BOOK is just a misunderstanding between kestrel and arin. i was hoping it would be resolved at the end, but nope, things got even more misunderstood and *wails*. i talk much more in dept in my review. i want the next book noooooooow.
yes i was just thinking that the font you chose for your blog makes the lowercase letters look so nice! is it too late to go back and change all of my posts to lowercase letters now??
and FRICK i feel the same way. i still haven’t finished it but yeah i skipped through it and i thought maybe it’s just because i didn’t finish the entire book so i didn’t get the whole picture but the entire time i was like kestrel literally how hard would it be for you to have written that darn letter three hundred pages ago??? like hello!!!! every single time arin approached her and she was like I WANT TO KISS YOU BUT I CANT i screamed. so frustrating. and now arin has closed up his heart and they’ll never be togetherrrrrrr which is really all i want out of the series tbh.
ahahahah i think individually changing all the letters to lowercase would drive me insane. but anyway, WELCOME TO THE LOWERCASE WORLD. ironically, that welcome was in all-caps… anyway..
there are TOO MANY times i wanted to slap kestrel across the face. whyyyy couldn’t she just write the letter or do SOMETHING??? both kestrel and arin are so infuriating in this book. i don’t blame you at all because i mainly want to see them together as well
I love almost everything about the first cover: the orientation and placement of the text, the way her hand grasps the “R,” the subtle color of her dress. I honestly don’t like either of the other covers. The dress colors are garishly bright, Kestrel and the sword look obviously Photoshopped onto the background and the text placement is boring.
I still haven’t read The Winner’s Crime, but I’m looking forward to reading it during the summer when I have more time.
i do love the first cover, especially the way her hand grabs the “R.” to me, the letter looks like an arrow and she’s could use it as a weapon(????). the other two covers are indeed a stark contrast in color, and i wish the text placement had stayed the same as the first. 🙁 i hope you enjoy the winner’s crime once you get to read it!
I AM SO UNBELIEVABLY EXCITED FOR THE WINNER’S KISS I CAN’T.
Even though I’ve only read the first book and the first chapter of the second, lmao. And I love how the covers all match each other but I have to agree that the third one is my least favorite. The dress is gorgeous as usual but idk, like something about the model’s expression seems a bit off? My favorite will forever and ever be the first cover, because I love the funky letter alignment going on there and it’s so cool how she’s grasping the “R” even though that’s such a minor detail. ^^; Your interpretation of the third book’s cover is interesting! Makes me want to read the second book even more now because I NEED TO KNOW WHAT HAPPENS TO MAKE HER GIVE UP. I seriously need to set my priorities right.
ahahaha i’m super excited too! once i finished the winner’s crime i was in a book-hangover for over a week. i like how the covers match as well, but i wish the title placement was the same for all three. why couldn’t they decide on horizontal or vertical all the way through?! *sigh* and yes, i do love that she’s grabbing the “R.” speaking of minor details, did you see that she has a WEDDING RING on the winner’s crime?? that was one of the main reasons as to why i prefer that cover over the first. the details! i hope you enjoy finishing the winner’s crime! 😀
I totally agree with you on the winner’s kiss’ cover. Though I do like it, the other ones are just much, much more beautiful.
I don’t know if its just me, but doesn’t it look like on the cover of the winner’s curse kestrel is holding the letter R with her right hand? Is it just me? Haha, I don’t know. I may be imagining things.
nope, i’m fairly sure that “R” holding was intentional! if you look at it longer, it kinda looks like a bow & arrow.. or is it just me?
this is the first time i’m on your blog and i just wanted to say that i love it so much. like instant follow. can we be friends because i got that whole lowercase thing going on in my comments too and i just love it. i don’t do it in posts because it looks weird with my times new roman font but it’s fun to write like this. also, it helps if you read my comment at a rapid rate because that’s how it feels to type and yes, i don’t like to punctuate because excitement !!!
this cover… damn. i didn’t like the title so i don’t know why i expected a good cover. it almost looks… bland. it’s missing a huge thing in the center where it’s just her. the other covers utilized the space but this one just looks… wrong. heavy disappointment.
thank you! lowercase letters are my favorite!! they look super cute and <33 yeah, this cover was very meh :// i really hope the book will turn out better.
So now the question is…how do you feel about the cover change? I really hate it. The fact that it really has little to do with the book and all. Yeah, not good.
https://booklovingnut.blogspot.com/2015/12/cover-change-rant-winners-kiss.html