Top Ten Tuesday is hosted by The Broke & The Bookish.
Today's Top Ten Tuesday topic is a cover freebie. It could be anything cover related--books with beachy covers, books with crying people, pink covers, color splash covers, anything you could dream up!
I attempted to reorganize my book shelves this weekend (and by reorganize, I mean take all the books I'd thrown onto the guest bed from my old bookcase and finally put them back into the new one I bought and built about a month ago). As I was trying to put them back in with some semblance of rhyme or reason, I thought about this week's Top Ten Tuesday and started paying more attention to what I was doing.
I do love book covers, and certainly get excited by cover releases. And I used to be super picky about the covers of books I bought, and would hide certain titles just because of their cover. I remember asking for books for Christmas but making the caveat "But NOT if the cover is from the movie!" However, for the past few years, I've bought almost exclusively Kindle books and got away from caring as much about the cover. Now that I'm getting back into buying and reading more physical copies (ah, so many gorgeous books), I'm paying attention again.
Well, sort of. But differently.
My Top Ten Tuesday this week is about romance books with hilarious bearded dudes on the cover. Some of these books I've actually read, some I've just discovered, and some I'd be happy to have on a bookshelf because why the hell not?
I don't quite have 10, but rest assured that are hundreds of these out there. Click on the book cover to check it out on Goodreads!
I read this one, and this cover made the list because it's a cross-stitched bearded guy and because it has a punny title. Grin & Beard It by Penny Reid was part of my February #TBRTakedown (though tbh it didn't end up on my TBR until during the Takedown, so I don't know how much that counts).
It was such a fun read, though, I read it in a single afternoon. I haven't read any of the others in the series, but this one is about a famous comedic actress who goes to film a movie in the Great Smokey Mountains, gets lost, and runs into one of the bearded Winston brothers. His name is Jethro, and he's the oldest brother with a bit of a rocky past that may threaten their romance! God, it's good.
I've read this one too. I think I've read all the others in this series, but this is the only one that I remember. It's another story of rugged bearded mountain man, but this time with sports! The hero here is a virginal NFL player.
I haven't read this one, but I couldn't resist including it. Everything about this cover is kind of incredible. Because Beards is an anthology. All the heroes have just one thing in common, and I bet you can't guess what! It's such a you-asked-for-it-and-we-delivered premise that I can't quite get over it. I'm about literally tickled to death. I love everything about this, right down to the fact that proceeds for this go to charity.
You can read my review for The Silent Waters here. A couple of the books in this series feature a bearded fellow, but this cover's probably the best, because hello. This book's a super angsty one where both characters go through super traumatic experiences and have to help each other through them.
Y'all, I haven't read this one either but it's called The Lost Slipper and it's the third in the Fairytale Shifter series by Alexa Riley, and almost all of her covers have huge bearded men on them. And this one is basically like a paranormal Cinderella-inspired erotica with a female bear shapeshifter heroine. I haven't read a single one of these and generally have about .05% interest in shapeshifting erotica, but I think I somehow just sold myself on this one at least.
I can't help it. I love these covers so much. I want them all on my bookshelf and I want blown up copies of them to hang up in my kitchen or hallway. I love how the titles just shove "Beard" in wherever they want to. Like it could have been called "Beard or Dare" and I'm sure it would have worked just as well. And now I'm just sitting here coming up with other phrases to throw "beard" into for a good story.
This week's Top 10 is more of a Top 6, but I don't think I've ever written or talked about beards, either real beards or fictional beards, for such a long time.
Have you read any of these books whose covers are graced by such bearded beauties? Do you have any others to add? Let me know below, and be sure to include your TTT link, regardless of what your cover-topic was for the week.
Want to check out other Top 10 Tuesday Posts?
Thanks again to The Broke & The Bookish for another Top Ten Tuesday.