Coverlicious: Beauitful Cover Dresses# #3 The Red Queen's Daughter and The Sweet Disorder by Jaqueline Kosolov

Coverlicious is a feature that I post here sporadically featuring everything to do with covers from lookalikes to reveals and covers I love and cover wars.

This post is part of a series called Beautiful Cover Dresses, featuring gorgeous dresses on covers that I love! Today's picks are:

 Goodreads synopsis: Sixteen-year old Miranda has no idea how much her life is going to change upon hearing the news of her father's death. Left with little dowry to offer, Miranda faces a broken engagement, and is sent to live with her father's cousin, the Count John Hardwood, and his wife whose primary goal is to take her to Court and marry her off to the insufferable Lord Seagrave for their own profit.

At Queen Elizabeth's court, Miranda soon learns that a large part of her survival will depend on her knowing who to trust. All the maidens at Court dream of being one of the Queen's ladies in waiting. When Miranda distinguishes herself from the rest with her exquisite sewing and embroidery skills, she gets the attention of the Queen, much to the anger and jealousy of the courtiers, ladies in waiting, and even a trusted "friend."But how will she reunite with Henry Raleigh, the man to whom she was once promised, and has always loved?

On this cover, you get a full view of the dress, which is nice because often parts are cut off on covers and you don't get to admire it as much. Normally, I don't like subdued and dismal blacks and greys on book covers because they don't stand out but it does work quite well in this example because the rich reds and gold colours of the dress are highlighted and accentuated, drawing your attention to the most prominent feature, the girl's face. The adjusted lighting on the top half of her body also helps with this. I think that the colours in the dress really complement each other and it is beautiful without being bedecked with lots of jewels, fancy flounces or heavy jewellery. I also like the way that the girl is wearing a pearl necklace because it softens the look and represents innocence.



Goodreads synopsis: Orphaned as a young girl because of the imprudent marriage of her mother, Queen Katherine Parr, Mary Seymour vows never to fall in love-and under no circumstances will she marry. Lady Strange, her mysterious guardian, offers the young woman an extraordinary alternative to marriage: Mary is to become a white magician who will join Queen Elizabeth's court and ensure the success of the Virgin Queen's reign.

Accompanied by her magical hound, Perseus, Mary sets out to learn the properties of different stones and the art and precision of natural spells. Soon after her sixteenth birthday, she joins Elizabeth's court as a lady-in-waiting. Upon her arrival, Mary realizes that Elizabeth's court is rife with men and women who are vying for power. The most dangerous of all is Edmund Seymour, Mary's disturbingly handsome cousin. From the moment she meets Edmund, Mary has to fight her growing attraction, especially once she discovers that he is a black magician, the dark mirror of her own self. But, despite the threat Edmund poses to Mary, he seems to be the only one who truly understands her. When Edmund becomes involved in a plot against the Queen, Mary finds her beliefs tested in ways she never could have imagined.

This cover has the same sort of theme as The Sweet Disorder with the dark background and girl in the corner but this time we only get to see half of the dress. I've actually had this one sitting on my bookshelf unread for a while now.  Seeing the cover up close, and in fact in the photo as well, the details of the dress are lovely as the different intricate lace patterns are very clear against the soft creamy and peachy hue of the dress. However, I think that this cover could have done with bolder colour to help it stand out more, perhaps with the gold title made brighter and more embossed. The other version of this cover does this well with the red and I like the way the girl is facing ahead rather than looking down demurely because it makes her look definant and strong. However, the drawback is that the dress can't be seen.

 

What do you think of these covers?

 

 

Previous beauitful cover dresses posts you may like:

#1 The Luxe and Rumours by Anna Godbersen

#2 Envy and Splendour by Anna Godbersen

#3 Bright Young Things by Anna Godbersen

P.S I mentioned this in my Teaser Tuesday post yesterday but incase you missed it, I'm off to Yorkshire for a few days on holiday with my family so I won't have anything posted until Sunday (I don't like scheduling posts very much!) I hope to get lots of reading done whilst I'm away too :)