Top Ten Covers I Wish I Could Re-Design

Top 10 Tuesday is a post hosted by The Broke and the Bookish and this week's topic is Top Ten Covers I Wish I Could Re-Design.

So I'm no design guru or anything like that. As a matter of fact, I think I stink at most things visual. But I know what I like and what I don't like. These are the ones I'd change...

1) Frigid by J Lynn - Who has their shirt off in a snow storm? (review coming soon)

2) Pushing the Limits by Katie McGarry - I'm all sentimental when it comes to this book, but the cover is not my favorite.

3) The Power of a Praying Kid by Stormie Omartian - I get that this is probably designed and marketed to kids, but the mustard yellow is not an attractive color.

4) The Forever of Ella and Micha by Jessica Sorensen - In a way I like the simplicity and the cleanness of these new covers, but this one doesn't reflect what's on the inside of this book at all IMO. Plus I was a fan of the red of the original covers.

5) The Eternity Cure by Julie Kagawa - I liked the first cover for The Immortal Rules, but when they released The Eternity Cure they did a new version of the cover for The Immortal Rules...well not my favorites.

6) Origin by Jennifer L Armentrout - It's not a bad cover, but it just doesn't fit with the rest of the series. Books 0.5 - 3 are very dark. Origin is very bright. There are some things that tie them together--like the cover model who thankfully is the same on each book--but I would have gone darker is all. (review coming soon)

7) The Sea of Tranquility by Katja Millay - I LOVE this book. But I don't really like silhouettes too much, and while the cover KIND OF makes sense for the book, I just don't really love it.

8) The entire Stephanie Plum series by Janet Evanovich - BORING!

9) What I Didn't Say by Keary Taylor - This was a cute read. The cover is just a little too "homemade" looking to me. Plus the cover models are cheesing it up.

10) The Scorpio Races by Maggie Stiefvater - Kind of boring.

What I Didn't Say - Review

What I Didn’t Say

By: Keary Taylor

Published: April 30th 2012 by CreateSpace

326 pages

Source: Publisher via NetGalley

Genre: Young Adult, Contemporary

( Goodreads | Amazon | Book Depository )

*Note: The above links to Amazon and Book Depository are affiliate links. Affiliate links support giveaways for Somewhere Only We Know readers.

Goodreads description—Getting drunk homecoming night your senior year is never a good idea, but Jake Hayes never expected it all to end with a car crash and a t-post embedded in his throat.

His biggest regret about it all? What he never said to Samantha Shay. He’s been in love with her for years and never had the guts to tell her. Now it’s too late. Because after that night, Jake will never be able to talk again.

When Jake returns to his small island home, population 5,000, he’ll have to learn how to deal with being mute. He also finds that his family isn’t limited to his six brothers and sisters, that sometimes an entire island is watching out for you. And when he gets the chance to spend more time with Samantha, she’ll help him learn that not being able to talk isn’t the worst thing that could ever happen to you. Maybe if she’ll let him, Jake will finally tell her what he didn’t say before, even if he can’t actually say it.

What I Didn't Say was a good read. It was one of those books that I was expecting to be nothing more than what it sounded like. But it was. I was expecting things to go exaclty like the blurb was leading...Jake has accident. Results are he can no longer speak. The girl spends time with him. They fall in love. Happily ever after. And while I won't say that's a wrong depiction, the story was just a good bit more than that. Now, it wasn't earth shattering either, but it was more than I expected.

Sam ended up adding more to the story than I was expecting. Jake wasn't so much of a surprise, but together they were more.

I don't know, I'm having a hard time coming up with more to say about it. I enjoyed the actual presence of Jake's parents and siblings. A lot of times in YA lit, the stories focus so much on the main character, usually female, and the love interest, that they exclude the main character's family. So not only was it refreshing to have the main character's family, and parents specifically, be so present in the story, it was also refreshing to have the main character be male.

Again, What I Didn't Say was much more than I expected, and it wasn't a book I really had any thoughts about putting down once I got started. This is one of those times when I feel my rating system is inadequate. I don't feel like this is on the same level as some of the other 3 Star books that I've read and enjoyed much less, but I don't find that it's really up to 4 Star level either. So I'm feeling along the lines of 3.7 Stars.

Updated: July 8, 2018