Hello all,
Today I’d like to share with you both the cover and blurb for one of my WIPs, The Fiendish Roses. Since I just made a few minor changes to the cover (me being fussy with fonts again), and I just wrote the third draft of the blurb, I thought it’d be a good idea to hear your thoughts.
This is the cover. Like all of my other covers, this was made on Canva, but I spent one hour, two hours, a lot of hours, more on this than I’d spend on most of my other ones (this thing took me a whole afternoon). But I came back today to change the font on some of the texts to a variant of the exact same font- the other one had ‘fancy’ capitals and it was kind of an eyesore in places. So I’d like to know, was it worth it?
And here’s the blurb:
Her dreams are the only thing driving her insane.
Wanted for possessing a forbidden book on remedying hexes, Felicity Moulin hides in the home of a feline creature, Bête, who could lose his deteriorating humanity at any second. One night, while she sleeps, she meets the charming Lennard. Cursed and abandoned, his imaginary rose gardens are all he has left. Finding herself madly in love, Felicity decides to rescue Lennard, no matter the cost.
His dreams are the only thing keeping him sane.
If he doesn’t find true love before the roses in his garden wilt, Lennard Desrosiers will lose everything: his family, his body, his mind. Changing into a monster, Lennard abandons any hope of his life returning to normal, accepting his mind to be his new reality, when Felicity appears, bringing feelings he believed himself incapable of possessing. Knowing she is his last chance, Lennard needs to hide his affection from everyone else, including Felicity.
Their dream is the only thing keeping them together, and the only thing keeping them apart. As Felicity investigates the château and Lennard faces his past, secrets fester and love blossoms. Where did Felicity’s spellbook originate? What is the true nature of Lennard’s curse? Will they overcome it together, or are they fated for tragedy?
I’m happy with the last two paragraphs, but I’m not entirely convinced on Felicity’s paragraph. I’m not sure if it’s too confusing or if the wording is unnatural, or if it’s just missing something. The blurb is on the longer side, so I’m not sure if I need to cut anything, or if I actually need to add more. I’d appreciate any thoughts you have on the blurb (and the cover too, for that matter).
Thanks in advance and happy writing!
I love the blurb and the cover, but I do have a couple of suggestions. For the cover, I feel like the rose is a little hard to see at first glance--which is great if it's what your going for, but if not than maybe 'lifting' the rose a bit could help? Like adding some shadow behind it, kinda? I think there's an effect that you can apply to text and elements on Canva that does it for you. (don't know if that actually makes sense...) I love that you used Cinzel (or is it Cinzel Decorative? Sometimes it's hard to tell), totally one of my favorite fonts, but I found that the left side of Fiendish was a little hard to read, probably just because the background changes a lot on that side of the word. I don't know if maybe lifting that too could help? (Again, I don't know if this is... actually beneficial advice, but...)
For the blurb, there was only one thing I found confusing: Why is the feline creature potentially going to loose his deteriorating humanity? Why is it deteriorating?
And that's about it from me.