Monday 3 January 2011

Coverlicious: Beautiful Cover Dresses #1 - The Luxe and Rumours by Anna Godbersen


Coverlicious is a feature that I post here spontaneously where I feature anything to do with covers from covers I love and cover trends to look-a-like covers and cover reveals. I haven't done a Coverlicious post for a while but now Christmas is over and it is the start of 2011, I wan

Over the past few months I have noticed some beautiful dresses on the covers of books, so I thought would feature some over a couple of weeks in several different posts here.
Today's spotlight:


                 The Luxe and Rumours by Anna Godbersen

I adore these covers- they are just simply gorgeous! Anna Godbersen is so lucky to have such amazing cover art as I have known many fans of the series to have originally picked them up because the covers are so eye catching. I would just love to try on one of these dresses and go to a ball in it for one night. Wouldn't you just feel like a princess in one of them? I have to admit that they would be pretty hard to walk in though let alone dance in but a girl can have her dreams!
I have since found out that the dresses are actually inaccurate to the time but even though I think it historical detail is important, especially inside the book, their beauty gives it a good excuse.

Summary of the Luxe series (from the publisher's (Penguin) blog: 

 Glittering with jewels, brimming with secrets and loaded with eligible young men, The Luxe is the most delicious, tantalising and completely addictive read. Think The O.C. meets 19th century New York. High society, beautiful debutantes, buckets of scandal – in short, it’s just completely irresistible!

I read the series very quickly around Easter time and the divine covers didn't disappoint me. The summary above describes it very well, it really is addictive with characters that I grew to care about. It might not be historically accurate but it's a fun romp in the past and I really enjoyed it.

The Luxe-  To the left is a full picture of the cover without the back blurb and you can really see how large the dress really is. This dress is my favourite because I'm quite a big girly girl and I love the soft pink colour. The way the lace ruffles over each layer and the dainty rosebuds sewn subtly between give it a very feminine and pretty look but the massive size of the dress makes it more of a statement. The dress also tells you a lot about the character of Elizabeth in the book who it is supposed to be depicting as that is the type of character she is. If you look at the top picture, you can see that there are a lot of swirls and some writing at the top. Whilst I usually love these on covers, I think that they are a bit much on this cover and detract from the impact of the dress. I love the shiny gold writing though.

Whilst searching for cover photos I discovered some photos that the publisher used to promote it of seventeen year old Faye Edwards, who won a competition in a similar replica  dress reading the book around London. The dress she is wearing looks much easier to walk in than the one on the cover!  She is a very lucky girl! I also found out that the dress was on display at the Foyle's Department of Selfridges in London.

The LuxeLuxe2_2


Rumours- This dress is distinctly different to the one on the cover of Luxe. It's deep, rich ruby red colour made of plain satin silk is simple but that is what makes it so bold and eye catching.  Again, it suits the character of Penelope Hayes as she is a very bold, stylish but backstabbing social queen. I prefer the swirls on the top cover picture on this one because the dress is simpler and so it makes it look less busy than it did on the Luxe.

Look out for my next Coverlicious post about the other cover dresses of of Envy and Splendour coming soon:)

I'd love to hear what you think in the comments!

 If you've read the books, did you like them as much as the cover or was the story disappointing? If not, would you pick them up because of the covers?

10 comments:

  1. They are beautiful dresses! Great post =)

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  2. I do pick up books just for the covers, I think everyone does, no matter what they might say! I prefer the red dress, it makes that book look a bit less fluffy than the first one.

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  3. LOVE the covers and dresses on these books and love the series too :) My favourite is the dress on Envy SO pretty!

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  4. When asked what my favorite covers are, these books always come to mind. I definitely picked them up because of the covers, but I loved these books - I'm a nut for historical fiction, and then if you add a little romance, well....

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  5. Those covers are so bloody gorgeous! I would die to wear any of them! :)

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  6. Thanks for your lovly comments everyone- I really appreciate them!

    @Books For Company- Thank you, I'm so glad you liked it :)

    Sam- I completely agree with you- I think it is human nature to pick up the books with pretty covers first but we have to remember to give the ones with less appealing covers a chance too. I see what you mean about the red dress!

    Jess- The Envy cover takes a very close second favourite for me an the more I think about it, the more it threatens to take over. It's just so pretty and elegant but without being extremely girly.

    Annett- I agree, what better genre combination could there be! Anna Godbersen is a great author for fun historical romances!

    Melissa- Haha, same! :)

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  7. Ohhh! Pretty!!
    Hahaha. When I say these in the shop I was just like O.O LOL. I hear that this series is a really, really good historical fiction one, and I love Historical fiction. Have you read these? Are they good? Anyway, my favorite cover is the purple one as that is my favorite colour! However I dont really like the posistion the girl is in on that one... I think the girl On Envy look sooo elegant!
    Okay, I'm like, rambling.
    Please if you have time, check out my blog. It would mean so much!
    Thanks! :D

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  8. woops! Forgot the link! ;/
    http://lovelylilbookworm.blogspot.com/
    Thanks, angain!

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  9. I can't decide which dress I like best...I think either the Rumours or the Envy one.

    Glad that you like the idea of my Read Outside Your Comfort Zone challenge! It would be fantastic if you joined in :)

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  10. I love these covers. The first one (the pink one) is my favorite dress of the four. They do all look very difficult to walk around in, but I would love to dress up in one and have my picture taken. :)

    I read the first book and liked it ok, but not enough to finish the series. For me, the dress on the cover was the best part. I liked the plot synopsis, but to be honest it was that dress that really sold me on reading the book.

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Stephanie x