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On Judging a Book by its Cover

I am currently reading The Dark Queen by the same author and enjoying it so far, so I’m really looking forward to reading this sequel. When I perused the Amazon reviews for this book, I found this:

With the cover and placement of this book, you would think this would be a great historical novel, along the lines of Philippa Gregory’s, but it belongs in the bodice-ripping romance section.

And she gave it a 1-star. She was tricked by the cover, y’all, tricked! I don’t get it, man. People have been making fun of romance novel covers for years, but when the publishers slap on a classy cover like this, the haters get pissed, crying “fraud” or something. Aren’t romance novels allowed to have nice covers? I have nothing against man-titty, but it’s really nice to see a cover like this for a change. Honestly, people, that’s why you gotta read the first fifteen pages of a book before you buy it. Don’t commit unless you’re absolutely sure you’re going to like what’s in it. This thing is $13.95, for God’s sake! You wanna spend almost fourteen bucks on something you gonna whine about later?

Besides, I’ve read books by this author. None of them are bodice-rippers in the vein of Rosemary Rogers. Dicks.

This is a public service announcement for assholes who judge books by its cover. And that includes me.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, January 31st, 2006 at 7:06 pm and is filed under Covers. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

6 Responses to “On Judging a Book by its Cover”

  1. Marissa
    Posted: Jan 31st, 2006 at 8:35 pm
    1

    I think this cover is great! We finally get a beautiful cover and people get stupid. It’s their own damned fault for not reading the first chapter in the store before buying!! “Tricked” into buying the book? Puuuulease, spare me!!

  2. Robyn
    Posted: Jan 31st, 2006 at 9:16 pm
    2

    Grrr. Ever notice how almost all romances get tagged “bodice rippers” when they’re, well, NOT?

  3. Darla
    Posted: Feb 1st, 2006 at 5:22 am
    3

    Argh. That chaps my ass, Bam. Do these people not read what a book’s about before ordering it?

    That’s just as bad as the romance book (the title of which I can’t remember at the moment) someone gave a 1-star review to because it wasn’t a mystery. Hello? I had the book in hand. It clearly said “contemporary romance” on the spine.

    *sigh*

    People are idiots.

    Note: I was going to comment on “bodice rippers” by saying that I’ve never read a romance that actually included the ripping of a bodice. But I’m in the middle of Vickie Taylor’s Flesh and Stone (mmmm… gargoyles…) and I’ll be damned if he didn’t rip her bodice. Shirt. Whatever.

  4. Bookseller Chick
    Posted: Feb 1st, 2006 at 9:41 am
    4

    Delurking to say what cracks me up about this is that Philippa Gregory used to write as Victoria Holt, the romance writer. And from what I’ve been told, she fell heavily back on those romance roots when she wrote the Virgin Queen (which pissed my old roommate off because she was expecting a more historically based portrayal of Elizabeth and not such a wimp).

    People just don’t want to take the time to figure out what they’re buying because their “time is money.” Well, so is mine and returns are a bitch.

    Hope you enjoy the books, at least.

  5. Bam
    Posted: Feb 1st, 2006 at 11:03 am
    5

    Bookseller chick, that is some deliciously ironic shit right there.

    Thanks for making my day!

  6. Marg
    Posted: Feb 2nd, 2006 at 4:25 am
    6

    Ummm…Victoria Holt was also Jean Plaidy, and wrote as Philippa Carr as well. She would be about and would be about 100 if she was still alive today.

    Philippa Gregory, who does write books about the Tudors, is no where near that old!!

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