Well, the results are in, and oh boy, there are some predictable winners and then there are surprising ones, at least to me. I’m excited to unveil all the winners.
Around 80+ people voted, and even though it’s not the amount I was looking for, I’m incredibly grateful to everyone who voted and promoted this. This little book cover awards is very close to my heart, since I’m such a book cover nerd at times, so it means the world to be that you took the time to partake in this.
Let’s get revealing and discussing!
CATEGORIES
Best Typography | Best Minimalist | Best Illustrated | Best Use of Colors |
Best Photograph | Best Mixed Media | Best Face/Headshot | Best Hair | Best Dressed | Best Couple | Best Scenery/Landscape | Best Foreign Cover | Biggest Letdown | Best Spine Design |
Best Interior Design | Best Series Covers | Best Overall |
*Click on the covers for a popup of the pie chart + percentages.
Everything Leads to You won best typography cover! YESSSSS. It took 28% of the vote, and I am an incredibly happy camper. It took the lead in the semi-final round, so it’s no surprise it won. Though, I was a bit surprised that House of Ivy & Sorrow had fewer votes because that cover has great typography—the details of the ivy, gorgeous! I didn’t know if I should vote for that or Everything Leads to You, but I ended up voting for the latter.
I’ll Give You the Sun won best minimalist cover with 39% of the vote! Yeeeeeee. It is one of the greatest YA minimalist cover I’ve seen. A beautiful book inside and out! Well-deserved.
I was incredibly conflicted about which minimalist book cover I loved better. It was this or Into the Grey. Have you seen the cover of the latter? How could I not pick it? Silhouette in another silhouette with the lettering connected inside? Speaks to me. ;)
Blue Lily, Lily Blue won best illustrated cover with 39% of the votes! I’m very curious to why people pick this as the best illustrated cover. I’m very partial (a lot so) to Endsinger since that cover is so gorgeous (the details!), so I was deeply sadden it got the least amount of votes.
A Thousand Pieces of You took a giant chunk of the votes in the best use of colors category. 62% guys! More than half the votes! Just wow! It does have a great color palette.
The Winner’s Curse won best photograph cover with 34% of the votes! Personally, not my favorite photograph cover, but you guys seem to love it!
Ignite Me won best mixed media cover with 29% of the votes! I was really surprised that A Thousand Pieces of You didn’t win or had one of the top two spots. When I saw The End as the runner-up, I was literally :O; it’s a great cover, but I didn’t expect it. Who voted for The End? I want to know why that was your favorite.
To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before won best face/headshot cover with 34% of the vote! The model does have a good face. During the semi-final round, it was this and Blue Lily, Lily Blue that had the most votes. I was expecting there to be a tie, but this cover won it.
Rapunzel, Rapunzel, let down your hair because your alter ego Cress won the best hair category with 49% of the votes. That’s nearly half! Hot damn! I am excited that the cover with braids won. It’s a really good-looking braid!
The Winner’s Curse won the best dressed category with 31% of the votes. I really would like to see the dress in all of its glory. It’s hard for me to tell if I like it since it fans around the model. What do you like about this dress?
The Retribution of Mara Dyer won the best couple category with 42% of the votes! I’m personally not a fan of this cover, but I think I get why people chose this as the best couple. Look at that embrace!
Empire of Shadows won the best scenery/landscape cover with 30% of the vote! I’ve never heard of this book, but the scenery in the cover is very vivid and eye-catching.
My True Love Gave To Me (UK) won the best foreign cover with 34% of the votes. Simple, minimalistic. Al you have is a string of Christmas lights and snow hearts. Very adorable.
The Young Elites’s cover won the biggest letdown with 26% of the votes, and I couldn’t agree more. I know it’s a gender neutral cover, but yawnnnnn. The votes didn’t change that much from the semi-finals round in terms of the winner.
Yeeeee, Hexed! Won best spine design with 38% of the votes. It has such a great cover underneath that dust jacket. It looks like an old book of spells. So awesome.
Ruin and Rising won best interior design with 45% of the votes, and such a well-deserved book for this category. Just look at the interior. So gorgeous. I’m glad I own a copy, so I can stare at that gorgeousness.
The Grisha Trilogy won the best series cover with 25% of the votes. It was followed closely by the Lunar Chronicles (which had 24% of the votes) and Shatter Me Trilogy (with 23%). I have to say this was a realllly close one. I expected The Lunar Chronicles to win, but the Grisha Trilogy pulled right into the lead.
With more than half of the votes, A Thousand Pieces of You won best overall cover! Hooray! It is really the best 2014 YA book cover. Look at the pretty! Even though I really disliked this book, I’m so mesmerized by this cover.
I voted for The End for best mixed media… it was its uniqueness that grabbed my attention. I wouldn’t have picked that for best photograph either… it doesn’t do a whole lot for me at all. I also wouldn’t have picked The Winner’s Curse for best dressed. I think Heir of Fire is all around better, I like how bad ass her outfit is. I do love the Grisha trilogy covers!! That font!!
I can 100% see why A Thousand Pieces of You did so well. That cover is gorgeous.
So glad you did this. I had a blast voting and seeing the results was so much fun. :D
Kay @ It’s a Book Life
Haha I’m not surprised My True Love Gave to Me won best foreign :) That cover is GORGEOUS and the pink pages makes it extra beautiful. Empire of Shadows has a fantastic cover! When I saw it, I wanted to read it immediately but I found out that it’s not the first book in the series :'( boo! Lol. I guess I’ll pick up the first book next year (I put myself on a book buying ban for a whole year). I love the cover of The Winner’s Curse! It looks cool how the girl is reaching for the title, and her dress is LOVELY! I wish we could see it better, but I do like how the girl is sitting and not standing up like most of YA covers.
I usually don’t judge a book by its cover, so I really enjoyed taking part in this and reflecting on the covers of the year. There were a lot of covers to look through at one stage and it was handy and thoughtful of you to put together, but overwhelming to get through? I admit I didn’t look through the whole list. I don’t know if it could be condensed for 2015? Maybe have some voting prior or something? I wish I had an idea or suggestion to offer up.
Anyway…thanks so much for running and hosting the awards and sharing the results with us! I bet it took a lot of work and time (especially the Tumblr part) and I really appreciated it. I look forward to next years!
Best typography: I was hoping for Say what you will or Everything leads to you, so I’m happy.
Best minimalist: mwehh. I wasn’t a fan of most of them, so I voted for Falling into place. I’m not feeling I’ll give you the sun for some reason?
Illustrated: YEAY. I haven’t seen Endsinger in real life and while I like it, BLLB got me. I love the colors.
Use of colors: I’m not surprised, great color scheme.
Photograph: good! It was my favorite one from the bunch of covers.
Mixed media: OH. I’m surprised. I’m not a fan of this cover.
Face/head shot: I voted Winterspell, because fairytaaaaales. I don’t like To all the boys I’ve loved before.. (I do love the title)
Best hair: NOT SURPRISED :D
Best dress: I went with Heir of fire, because she looks so kick-ass. I like the dress from The winner’s curse, but like you say, I have no idea what it looks like without the draping across the floor.
Best scenery: yeaaaaay, my voted cover. It’s gorgeous.
Best interior: I was for Unhinged & Ruin and Rising.
Best series: I liked all of the first four series covers.
I’m a little biased, but… I AM SO PROUD RUIN & RISING/THE GRISHA TRILOGY WAS THE WINNER FOR TWO CATEGORIES! That series is one of the best series ever, and I am so happy that people love its covers. Hopefully this will make all the unenlightened ones more interested to check out the books.
And I knowww — I was so torn between I’ll Give You the Sun and Into the Grey for the minimalistic section. But I ended up choosing the former because I thought that it would be a lot more fun to stare at from my shelf, if I’d owned it. No denying that Into the Grey is gorgeous too, though.
I think The Young Elites has the potential of a better cover, but have you seen the book in pictures?? Especially when the filters and editings are just right, the book looks fucking beautiful and badass. Like, stormy gray on a white background or something. *O* So I’m kind of surprised that it was the biggest letdown! I’m hoping that the story isn’t a letdown too.
Thanks so much for putting this together, Cee! I’m sure it was a lot of work but I hope you had fun doing it all! I definitely had fun scrolling through all the beautiful covers for 2014 and voting for them. :D
I AGREE WITH EVERYTHING.
Except for one category though: the best series covers. The Shadow & Bone trilogy just doesn’t bring out my inner cover lust sadly. :l
There are a lot of great covers out there that I never appreciated. Great post!
UMM YES TO ALL OF THESE.
Okay, I wasn’t sure about The Winner’s Curse being the Best Photograph (I LOVE the photo on Since You’ve Been Gone’s cover). Best Scenery/Landscape is definitely a surprise to me. The Young Elites is definitely the Biggest Letdown even though, the dagger appears in the book (which is the only good thing about the cover, really). Sigh.
AND YAY TO THE GRISHA TRILOGY WINNING THE BEST SERIES COVER CATEGORY.
Awesome job, Cee! <3
YAY. I think almost all of the ones I picked won. :D :D I have good taste. Really happy Everything Leads to You, I’ll Give You the Sun, Mara Dyer, My True Love Gave To Me, BLLB, and The Winner’s Curse won their respective categories.
Thanks so much for hosting this! You did a fantastic job. <3
I love the cover for A Thousand Pieces of You so much! That is a seriously gorgeous cover :) I also thought the cover for The Young Elites was disappointing, but I’ve heard great things about the book itself at least. I like Noah’s and Mara’s embrace on the cover for The Retribution of Mara Dyer, too. Thank you so much for hosting this! :)
I’m pretty biased on The Winner’s Curse, so I would have loved it to win a lot of other categories, but I have to agree that A Thousand Pieces of You is undeniably the best cover I’ve seen from 2014. I love the watercolor, and the cover shows what’s the book all about so well.
I have to agree with The Young Elites. I wouldn’t have bought it because I’m hoping for a cover redesign, but she came here for a signing, so I bought it. I just have no idea how they’re going to carry the design through the rest of the series.