A Lick of Frost cover

[catskin.livejournal.com]

I was just browsing Amazon UK whilst taking one of my frequent breaks from work and I noticed that the cover art for A Lick of Frost is up.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Lick-Frost-Laurell-K-Hamilton/dp/034549590X/ref=sr_1_2/203-3454033-4567136?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1177078400&sr=1-2

(forgive the crappy linkage - work computers are not reknowned for being helpful)

What does everyone think? Personally I'm underwhelmed; it looks like one of those awful paranormal romance covers that promises nothing but bad sex and overly-muscular men...

Oh, wait...

Comments

[wickedmommy.livejournal.com]

*Yawn* What to boring cover! I guess I could be thankful that there were no actual tongues on the cover.

[cactus-wren.livejournal.com]

Another porn looking cover that I can't take to work. Great.

[catskin.livejournal.com]

Of course not. There wouldn't be room for one of LKH's mens' gigantic schlongs on the cover of an ordinary paperback.

[shadwing.livejournal.com]

Anybody else notice that the '#1' is almost the same size as the font used with her name? Both are also bright white and at the top while the actual title is in a blue (similar shade as the photo) in a smaller font at the bottom?

I wonder where they are trying to draw your eye? /sarcam

[slayra.livejournal.com]

Erm... what's wrong with paranormal romance? I have to say I devour them... they are crappy, but hey I like them! Most paranormal romance writers can write much better sex scenes than LKH!

Except for Christine Feehan. Tried to read that popular book 'Dark Prince' and almost gave myself an aneurysm. Hated, hated, hated. Or strongly disliked it. Ugh. Not because of the sex scenes (though those were nothing special either), but because of the macho-idiot that was the hero and the absolutely vile super-dependent-without-free-will heroine.

But I digress... back to the cover. Too muscled for me, but better than most covers of LKH's books (never liked the covers). Still, I kind of have to wonder if this doesn't mean she is now definitely a bad paranormal romance writer (we all knew it, but LKH didn't. She was under the impression she still wrote contemporary fantasy with a touch of romance). Perhaps her books will appear in the proper section now... ^____^

[spoiled-saint.livejournal.com]

Boring and somewhat weird looking. What an uncomfortable position, with no reason bo be in it. I mean paranormal romances and romances in general have some logic to the pose (mainly: "I'm manly, look at my body/chest, which I'm proudly sticking out"), but this one... why would you stand like that?!

[slayra.livejournal.com]

Lol, perhaps it's the water... it's... icy ('A lick of frost, as in icy-water-trailing-over-my-handsome-back')? I don't really see a point too. :p

[dwg.livejournal.com]

. . . greaaaaaaaaat.

There's something horribly wrong if I prefer the erotic random, abstract bodyparts with female models over this. Maybe it's because chicks are softer on the eyes...

...or maybe it'd help if it didn't look like he's got a broken arm.

All I can think is, "This man is a dentist, so we cannot show you his face on this book cover."*

[pandaemonaeum.livejournal.com]

I don't know about elsewhere, but in the UK it's illegal for a practising doctor, dentist or vet to actively promote a commercial product. Something to do with belief in their level of responsibility, and giving the products enhanced credence, I think.

But you're right. You could just about put a toothbrush in that hand...

[amamelina.livejournal.com]

When I saw that, I thought his hand was broken. It just doesn't look natural to me, for some reason.

[slayra.livejournal.com]

Doesn't have the right lenght for an arm, does it? Looks weird. :p

[cherith.livejournal.com]

Wait, what's with the water? If you're going to have such a stupidly titled book, like A Lick of Frost then why isn't the water frozen? Okay, I get the neat trick with his stupid sideways hand making some frost...but why isn't that just the cover? Do we need the hand to be sideways? Do we even need to see the rest of him? Not really?

What's so hard about a picture of a hand frosting up the cover? *shrugs*

I've given up on trying to understand the covers. I turn my books upside down when I take them to work, so the covers are down, when I put the book away. I should be ashamed of reading LKH, not that the cover is so retarded.

[ladymuttly1.livejournal.com]

If you showed just a hand making frost, then you would get to see all those lovely (sarcasm) muscles bunching up

[artemis-rex.livejournal.com]

Where the hell is all of Frost's "Christmas tinsel" hair? You shouldn't even be able to see his back.

[cicipsychobunny.livejournal.com]

You know, I still cannot actually visualize how his hair is meant to look.

[thesaneminority.livejournal.com]

It looks like his hand is disembodied. It must be bad lighting, because between the wrist and the elbow it's so dark it looks (to me, at least) like his arm is going in the opposite direction, and his hand randomly decided to appear at his back. Am I the only person who sees this?

[dwg.livejournal.com]

No, to me it looks like his arm has been broken because...there's no real way that you can get an arm to bend around like that. I know the pose they were going for, but...no, the forearm is fucked right up.

[windiain.livejournal.com]

Okay, so they have a guy, and he's been backed up against the glass wall of a shower stall with his hand trapped behind his back. He's obviously pressing back as far has he can. Thus, I conclude that Merry is hidden out of shot, trying to rabidly attack his cock, and he's trying to escape. The sound of the power shower spraying water everywhere is drowining out his screams of pure terror.

[amamelina.livejournal.com]

If I were the cover artist, I'd have done it differently.

For starters, he'd be facing the cover. Secondly, the hand would be normal, not in an unnatural position on the front. Thirdly, I'd have the cover covered with lacey frost (so that you can't tell if he's naked or not) with only the hand visible and just a hint of the man's eyes and hair (maybe a small hint of a come-hither smile).

that would have been better.

[delphinapterus.livejournal.com]

It's Austin Powers! No really it looks just like the frozen people in the first Austin Powers movie. This is not really a great connection to have when it's supposed to be an erotic paranormal romance (aka LKH's greastest p0rn fest yet!).

[nightangel486.livejournal.com]

That's just not....natural. I reminds me of Trogdor, like they just decided to stick a big, beefy arm on there for no reason, and made the hand all wonky and backwards, also for no reason. And I'm seeing waaay more of that overly-muscular guy than I'd like to. I think his whole BODY needs to be obscured by frost.

[tonights.livejournal.com]

Let's put one of those beefy arms back on him for good measure. That looks really good. Comin' out of the back of his neck, there.

Anyway, the cover does not have nearly enough consummate Vs. Also, it blows moose and LKH should be flogged for this ridiculous title (and a host of other reasons).

[brandiweed.livejournal.com]

Nothing to do with the actual thread, but catskin's icon makes me smile.

[catskin.livejournal.com]

Vincent Price is my god.

[catskin.livejournal.com]

^-^ Cheers!

[putana.livejournal.com]

A LICK of Frost? That is the new book? EWW! The titles are as bad as the writing!

[freyalorelei.livejournal.com]

Jay-sus. Is it the same as the American cover? Because, damn. That is seriously the ugliest cover within recent memory. Even the Mistral's Kiss cover, in which Merry consisted of a single corset-clad torso and NO ARMS, was preferable to this affront to God.

1. The arm is hideously misshapen. Unless he's suddenly morphed into Frostimodo, there is no reason he should look like that. Hell, NO ONE should look like that, short of some horrible and pitiable birth defect. (Hey, are we even sure this is Frost? It's realistic for a goblin!) His shoulder is too flat, his arm is NONEXISTENT, and his wrist is twisted waaaaaay out of joint. I just tried placing my hand behind my back in that exact same pose, and I nearly snapped my shoulder.

2. I hate the beefcake covers. HATE. I'd actually prefer the weird naked chick poses. I can think of several that would be more aesthetically pleasing AND appropriate to the eye-gouging title. (Snowflakes falling on Merry while she visibly breathes in the cold, for starters.)

3. That said, Frost apparently has one hell of a life-line on his palm, which is amusingly appropriate considering he's, you know, immortal. Anyone better than I am at palm-reading?

Just Checked...

[bluesimplicity.livejournal.com]

I just checked Amazon.com and it looks like the American cover is exactly the same. Excuse me for a moment...

*BARF*

God, that is one fricken ugly cover. I know that they're trying for beefcake, but Frost (I'm assuming that's supposed to be Frost) looks kinda chunky to me. I always imagined him much longer and leaner, and with, you know, arms that actually WORKED.

But Windiain's theory works for me.

How much you want to bet they don't make it to the Seelie Court in this one either?

[kethryvis.livejournal.com]

I just had to comment and say that your icon is full of win.

[brandiweed.livejournal.com]

Quite a few Vincent Price fans here, eh?

[alex-lebeau.livejournal.com]

Maybe it's just me, but that is some seriously shitty "frost." It looks like feathery lightning, not frosty wintery cheer.

And why can't they ever show people in normal poses? I could see him facing forward at a window, wiping his hand across it, but this one looks like he's attempting to write a cry for help behind his back. And failing. Miserably.

[http://users.livejournal.com/belladonna_/]

He's signaling. "Hey! Pssst! You! On the internets! Get me *out* of this lousy book!"

[bleedingsand.livejournal.com]

... okay, I know my own artwork has some funky anatomy in it. That said...

WHAT THE HELL IS THAT? Seriously, there's funky anatomy, and then there's THAT.

[witchwillow.livejournal.com]

So it's not a tongue licking an icicle or a frozen ice covered leaf, which would combine, cold/snow, with nature/life and thus give some sort of Fey/Magic reference.

It's also not a ice-sculpture of a female or male body. It's not a nude body in the snow, or among white sheets or tangled up in clear wrapping somehow.

And it's also not a man holding a woman and tracing a caress on her skin with the path outlined by ice crystals - actual frost.

It's:

Rainy Day Gives Goosepimples To My Ass

aka

Help! I'm Trapped In The Shower With Crazy Nympho!

aka

Don't Drop The Soap!: An Anthology of Prison Sex Short Stories.

Maybe her PR department is just making fun of her now? After all she is responsible for this two toned, body part meme for supernatural romance / supernatural plots. A meme that almost had me missing out on some good authors - Kelly Armstrong for instance.

Maybe someone's cottoned to the fact that they're losing sales for other artists so now hers have to be the most ridiculous there are.

aka

Thunderstorm Carsex!: An Anthology Of Rainy Day Quickies Out Doors.

[freyalorelei.livejournal.com]

Don't Drop The Soap!: An Anthology of Prison Sex Short Stories.

...oh man. I would KILL to see that photoshopped into the title. :)

[saadiira.livejournal.com]

OT, but SQUEEING ICON ADORATION!!!!!

-Dira-

[catskin.livejournal.com]

Lol, thanks ^-^

[cicipsychobunny.livejournal.com]

OH SHIT. I just had a revelation. It's worse than we thought. First she ran out of plot, and now she's running out of original [sic] sex scenes.

Yep, it's going to be another shower-sex-don't-mind-if-I-lube-up-my-Gigantic-Wang-with-liquid-soap scene. RUN. RUN NOW.

[teamlexana.livejournal.com]

Don't you mean RAPE scene that leaves the heroine crying her eyes out? Oh wait, that was Anita.... But seriously! SOAP?! WTF?!

[teamlexana.livejournal.com]

A Lick Of Frost??

So I goes the entire book will be based on how much Merry likes to "lick" Frost. *shudders*