I am so excited to be kicking off our Best of 2021 posts today! I can’t believe we are already at the end of the year!

Today we are sharing our Best Covers of 2021! These are pretty subjective, as all such things are, but they are the covers that struck me most over the course of the year. Sometimes it is the beautiful design, sometimes it’s the perfect match of cover to story, and sometimes it is just something intangible about the art that just spoke to me. Just to call out a few highlights from these best of the best covers…

First off, the cover of The Long Past and Other Stories by Ginn Hale. This one struck me, not just for the beautiful artwork, but the way it so perfectly captures the scene and atmosphere from my favorite story in the collection. It is definitely not a traditional romance cover, but nor is this a traditional romance novel (a mix of dinosaurs, magic, alternate reality, and steampunk). This is a cover that has had me thinking about it for months.

I also want to shout out to Dar Albert who created the amazing covers for Keira Andrew’s Barbarian Duet. I love the way these covers (and these books) evoke an old-school romance vibe. This is bodice-ripper design at its finest (or breeches ripper in this case) and I love how Albert and Andrews just went for it in these covers. Full on embrace the drama and let everyone know exactly what they are going to get with these books.

There are also some cover artists that pretty much make it into every single Monthly Favorites list, and I could probably have picked ten covers from each of them, and that is Natasha Snow and Amai Designs. They are doing such lovely work over and over and I just love their style.

Ok, so without further ado, here are my favorite covers of 2021. Let us know what covers you loved this year!

Cover art by Gwen Toevs	Cover art by Natasha Snow	Cover art by AngstyG
Cover art by Bookfly Design	Cover art by Dar Albert	Cover art by 17 Studio Book Design
Cover art by We Got You Covered Book Design	Cover art by Kanaxa	Cover art by Amai Designs
Cover art by Michelle Halket	Cover art by Hang Le