When I was doing research for my top ten Tuesday post on artsy covers back in 2014, I discovered a flood of amazing covers all designed by Will Staehle. From a bold and bright approach to covers to a subtler take, it didn’t take long for me become a fan of Staehle’s work so here are ten covers that I can’t get enough of.
Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo
young adult fantasy published by Henry Holt & Co. on September 29th, 2015
first book in Six of Crows series
Ketterdam: a bustling hub of international trade where anything can be had for the right price—and no one knows that better than criminal prodigy Kaz Brekker. Kaz is offered a chance at a deadly heist that could make him rich beyond his wildest dreams. But he can’t pull it off alone…
A convict with a thirst for revenge.
A sharpshooter who can’t walk away from a wager.
A runaway with a privileged past.
A spy known as the Wraith.
A Heartrender using her magic to survive the slums.
A thief with a gift for unlikely escapes.
Six dangerous outcasts. One impossible heist. Kaz’s crew is the only thing that might stand between the world and destruction—if they don’t kill each other first.
Oh man, is it difficult to weed out the actual underrated books. For instance, me discovering Lock In by John Scalzi in 2015 and being completely blown away by it only to immediately find out that it came second to Andy Weir’s The Martian in 2014 Goodreads Choice Awards (and that Scalzi is an extremely well-known author). So yeah, it seems every book is underrated if you’re the only one you know who have read and loved it.
Anyway as a point of reference, my cut off point was around 6K ratings on Goodreads and I mostly picked books on the basis of wanting to mention them so it’s a top ten list in that way as well.
Although I’ve gotten better at reading books I’m excited about as they release (I tend to save new releases for later so often that they then become backlist titles), last year was definitely the year where I wanted to read so many new releases but couldn’t thanks to my reading slump.
When I started writing this post I was sure I wouldn’t be able to come up with ten debuts since they seem to be a hit or miss for me, but then I found there to be more than ten so I’m going to mention all fourteen of them because why not.