{"id":19438,"date":"2026-01-01T13:22:04","date_gmt":"2026-01-01T18:22:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/notreally\/?p=19438"},"modified":"2026-03-19T19:49:47","modified_gmt":"2026-03-19T23:49:47","slug":"the-covers-of-2025-romance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/notreally\/archives\/19438","title":{"rendered":"The Covers of 2025: Romance"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>I read a lot of romance this year, but most of it was rereads, so this category is rather thin.<\/p>\n<h4><a href=\"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/25572\"><em>After Hours at Dooryard Books<\/em><\/a> (2025) <a href=\"https:\/\/klishis.com\/Books\/romance\/Sebastian_Cat.php\">Cat Sebastian<\/a><\/h4>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/notreally\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/After-Hours-at-Dooryard-Books.jpg?ssl=1\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"img-right\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/notreally\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/After-Hours-at-Dooryard-Books.jpg?resize=188%2C300&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"After Hours at Dooryard Books\" width=\"188\" height=\"300\" \/><\/a>Self-published<\/p>\n<p>Kelsey Bowman<\/p>\n<p>Cat Sebastian&#8217;s recent self-published books have the best covers, evoking the era in which they are set, while being eye-catching and different from other similar books.<\/p>\n<p>I can&#8217;t quite place what the art reminds me of, which is going to bug me, but I love the line drawings and the font that evokes the late 60s and that yellow lamplight one characters is in and the other is avoiding.<\/p>\n<p><em>Historical, Queer<\/em><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h4><a href=\"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/24953\"><em>The Most Unusual Haunting of Edgar Lovejoy<\/em><\/a> (2025) <a href=\"https:\/\/klishis.com\/Books\/romance\/Parrish_Roan.php\">Roan Parrish<\/a><\/h4>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/notreally\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/The-Most-Unusual-Haunting-of-Edgar-Lovejoy.jpg?ssl=1\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"img-right\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/notreally\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/The-Most-Unusual-Haunting-of-Edgar-Lovejoy.jpg?resize=200%2C300&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"The Most Unusual Haunting of Edgar Lovejoy\" width=\"200\" height=\"300\" \/><\/a>Sourcebooks Casablanca<\/p>\n<p>Cover art by Jillian Goeler<\/p>\n<p>This cover evokes ghosts, but not horror (important). The house looks old and mysteries, but not <em>especially<\/em> haunted.<\/p>\n<p>I don&#8217;t love the color, but that&#8217;s a me thing.<\/p>\n<p>This isn&#8217;t one of my favorite covers of theirs, but it&#8217;s eye-catching.<\/p>\n<p><em>Fantasy, Queer<\/em><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h4>The Lords of Bucknall Club series by <a href=\"https:\/\/klishis.com\/Books\/mystery\/Rock_JA.php\">J.A. Rock<\/a> &amp; <a href=\"https:\/\/klishis.com\/Books\/mystery\/Henry_Lisa.php\">Lisa Henry<\/a><\/h4>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/notreally\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/An-Affair-for-Aumont.jpg?ssl=1\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/notreally\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/An-Affair-for-Aumont.jpg?resize=162%2C250&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"An Affair for Aumont\" width=\"162\" height=\"250\" \/><\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/notreally\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/A-Scandal-for-Stratford.jpg?ssl=1\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/notreally\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/A-Scandal-for-Stratford.jpg?resize=162%2C250&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"A Scandal for Stratford\" width=\"162\" height=\"250\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/24352\"><em>An Affair for Aumont<\/em><\/a> \u00a0(2022)(#5),\u00a0 <em><a href=\"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/24435\">A Scandal for Stratford<\/a><\/em> (2022)(#6)<\/p>\n<p>Cover art by Mitxeran<\/p>\n<p>More minimalist covers that caught my eye while browsing.<\/p>\n<p>I love the attention paid to the clothes. even though they are only minimally depicted.<\/p>\n<p><em>Historical, Queer, Fantasy<\/em><\/p>\n<p>The Lords of Bucknall Club: <em><a href=\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/3v3Vl6g\">A Case for Christmas<\/a><\/em>, <em><a href=\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/3vJUcRW\">A Sanctuary for Soulden<\/a><\/em>, <a href=\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/4jbFCYS\"><em>An Affair for Aumont<\/em><\/a>, <em>A Scandal for Stratford<\/em><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Self-published won out this category, but there wasn&#8217;t much competition.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Self-published: 3<\/li>\n<li>Sourcebooks Casablanca: 1<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/klishis.com\/notreally\/archives\/19382\">The Books of 2025<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I read a lot of romance this year, but most of it was rereads, so this category is rather thin. After Hours at Dooryard Books (2025) Cat Sebastian Self-published Kelsey Bowman Cat Sebastian&#8217;s recent self-published books have the best covers, evoking the era in which they are set, while being eye-catching and different from other [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[2,1090],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-19438","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-books-reading","category-years-favorites"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pefxA-53w","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/notreally\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19438","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/notreally\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/notreally\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/notreally\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/notreally\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19438"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/notreally\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19438\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19574,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/notreally\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19438\/revisions\/19574"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/notreally\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19438"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/notreally\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19438"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/notreally\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19438"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}