Top Ten Tuesday was created by The Broke and the Bookish in June of 2010 and was moved to That Artsy Reader Girl in January of 2018. It was born of a love of lists, a love of books, and a desire to bring bookish friends together.
This week is a TTT rewind, so, in celebration of Spring, I decided to do a topic I haven’t done in a couple of years – books with flowers on the cover!
1. Scoundrel of My Heart by Lorraine Heath
Series: Once Upon a Dukedom (Book 1)
Page Length: 368
Publication Date: April 13, 2021
Publisher: Avon
Synopsis: She is desperate to wed a duke…
Lady Kathryn Lambert must marry a titled gentleman to claim her inheritance and has finally gained the attention of a duke. Yet she is unable to forget the scandalous second son who aided in her achievement—or his betrayal.
He wants what he can never possess…
Lord Griffith Stanwick is tormented by the bitter truth that as a “spare,” he will never be able to give Kathryn what she yearns to possess. But when his father is found guilty of treason, Griff detours into the dark and dangerous corners of London, haunted by memories of the woman lost to him forever.
Love not to be denied…
As the duke’s courtship intensifies, Kathryn discovers Griff has become a man to be reckoned with. When old passions flare and new desires ignite, she must decide if sacrificing her legacy is worth a lifetime shared with the scoundrel of her heart.
LINKS: Goodreads | Amazon | Review
2. Secretly Yours by Tessa Bailey
Series: A Vine Mess #1
Page Length: 384
Publication Date: Feb. 7, 2023
Publisher: Avon Books
Synopsis: Hallie Welch fell hard for Julian Vos at fourteen, after they almost kissed in the dark vineyards of his family’s winery. Now the prodigal hottie has returned to their small town. When Hallie is hired to revamp the gardens on the Vos estate, she wonders if she’ll finally get that smooch. But the grumpy professor isn’t the teenager she remembers and their polar opposite personalities clash spectacularly. One wine-fueled girls’ night later, Hallie can’t shake the sense that she did something reckless–and then she remembers the drunken secret admirer letter she left for Julian. Oh shit.
On sabbatical from his ivy league job, Julian plans to write a novel. But having Hallie gardening right outside his window is the ultimate distraction. She’s eccentric, chronically late, often literally covered in dirt–and so unbelievably beautiful, he can’t focus on anything else. Until he finds an anonymous letter sent by a woman from his past. Even as Julian wonders about this admirer, he’s sucked further into Hallie’s orbit. Like the flowers she plants all over town, Hallie is a burst of color in Julian’s gray-scale life. For a man who irons his socks and runs on tight schedules, her sunny chaotic energy makes zero sense. But there’s something so familiar about her… and her very presence is turning his world upside down.
3. The Liar’s Crown by Abigail Owen
Page Length: 448
Publication Date: Aug. 30, 2022
Publisher: Entangled: Teen
Synopsis: Beauty and the Beast meets Snow White in this upper YA fantasy where a black heart is disguised by beauty, the purest soul is hidden within a beast, and a gift of hope is laced with death.
Everything about Meren’s life is a lie. As a hidden twin princess, born second, she has only one purpose—to sacrifice her life for her beloved sister if death comes for her. Meren has lived under the guise of a poor, obscure girl of no standing, slipping into the palace and into the role of the true princess when danger is present.
Now the queen is dead, their dominion under threat of eternal winter, and the sinister King Erebos has sent her sister a flower. The first seen in a thousand years. With that gift, he seeks to wed her. Untrusting, Meren does what she was born to do and secretly takes her sister’s place on the eve of the coronation.
Which is why, when a man made of shadow kidnaps the new queen…he gets Meren by mistake.
As Meren tries to escape, all the lies start to unravel. Not just her lies. The Shadow Ranger who took her has secrets of his own. He struggles to contain the shadows he wields—other faces, hideous faces, that terrify her.
Winter is at the walls. Darkness is looming. And the only way to save them all is to kill Erebos. But to kill the king is to destroy the king, including the only good piece of his soul left—the Shadow Ranger who has stolen Meren’s heart.
4. A Forgery of Roses by Jessica S. Olson
Page Length: 368
Publication Date: March 1, 2021
Publisher: Inkyard Press
Synopsis: Myra Whitlock has a gift. One many would kill for.
She’s an artist whose portraits alter people’s real-life bodies, a talent she must hide from those who would kidnap, blackmail, and worse in order to control it. Guarding that secret is the only way to keep her younger sister safe now that their parents are gone.
But one frigid night, the governor’s wife discovers the truth and threatens to expose Myra if she does not complete a special portrait that would resurrect the governor’s dead son. Desperate, Myra ventures to his legendary stone mansion.
Once she arrives, however, it becomes clear the boy’s death was no accident. Someone dangerous lurks within these glittering halls. Someone harboring a disturbing obsession with portrait magic.
Myra cannot do the painting until she knows what really happened, so she turns to the governor’s older son, a captivating redheaded poet. Together, they delve into the family’s most shadowed affairs, racing to uncover the truth before the secret Myra spent her life concealing makes her the killer’s next victim.
LINKS: Goodreads | Amazon | My Review
5. Violet Made of Thorns by Gina Chen
Page Length: 368
Publication Date: July 26, 2022
Publisher: Delacorte Press
Synopsis: A darkly enchanting fantasy debut about a morally gray witch, a cursed prince, and a prophecy that ignites their fate-twisted destinies—perfect for fans of The Cruel Prince and Serpent & Dove.
Violet is a prophet and a liar, influencing the royal court with her cleverly phrased—and not always true—divinations. Honesty is for suckers, like the oh-so-not charming Prince Cyrus, who plans to strip Violet of her official role once he’s crowned at the end of the summer—unless Violet does something about it.
But when the king asks her to falsely prophesy Cyrus’s love story for an upcoming ball, Violet awakens a dreaded curse, one that will end in either damnation or salvation for the kingdom—all depending on the prince’s choice of future bride. Violet faces her own choice: Seize an opportunity to gain control of her own destiny, no matter the cost, or give in to the ill-fated attraction that’s growing between her and Cyrus.
Violet’s wits may protect her in the cutthroat court, but they can’t change her fate. And as the boundary between hatred and love grows ever thinner with the prince, Violet must untangle a wicked web of deceit in order to save herself and the kingdom—or doom them all.
6. Foul Lady Fortune by Chloe Gong
Series: Foul Lady Fortune #1
Page Length: 528
Publication Date: Sept. 27, 2022
Publisher: Margaret K. McElderry Books
Synopsis: It’s 1931 in Shanghai, and the stage is set for a new decade of intrigue.
Four years ago, Rosalind Lang was brought back from the brink of death, but the strange experiment that saved her also stopped her from sleeping and aging—and allows her to heal from any wound. In short, Rosalind cannot die. Now, desperate for redemption from her traitorous past, she uses her abilities as an assassin for her country.
Code name: Fortune.
But when the Japanese Imperial Army begins its invasion march, Rosalind’s mission pivots. A series of murders is causing unrest in Shanghai, and the Japanese are under suspicion. Rosalind’s new orders are to infiltrate foreign society and identify the culprits behind the terror plot before more of her people are killed.
To reduce suspicion, however, she must pose as the wife of another Nationalist spy, Orion Hong, and though Rosalind finds Orion’s cavalier attitude and playboy demeanor infuriating, she is willing to work with him for the greater good. But Orion has an agenda of his own, and Rosalind has secrets that she wants to keep buried. As they both attempt to unravel the conspiracy, the two spies soon find that there are deeper and more horrifying layers to this mystery than they ever imagined.
7. Girl, Serpent, Thorn by Melissa Basherdoust
Page Length: 336
Publication Date: July 7, 2020
Publisher: Flatiron Books
Synopsis: There was and there was not, as all stories begin, a princess cursed to be poisonous to the touch. But for Soraya, who has lived her life hidden away, apart from her family, safe only in her gardens, it’s not just a story.
As the day of her twin brother’s wedding approaches, Soraya must decide if she’s willing to step outside of the shadows for the first time. Below in the dungeon is a demon who holds knowledge that she craves, the answer to her freedom. And above is a young man who isn’t afraid of her, whose eyes linger not with fear, but with an understanding of who she is beneath the poison.
Soraya thought she knew her place in the world, but when her choices lead to consequences she never imagined, she begins to question who she is and who she is becoming…human or demon. Princess or monster.
8. Together We Burn by Isabel Ibañez
Page Length: 368
Publication Date: May 31, 2022
Publisher: Wednesday Books
Synopsis: An ancient city plagued by dragons. A flamenco dancer determined to save her ancestral home. A dragon hunter refusing to teach her his ways. They don’t want each other, but they need each other, and without him her world will burn.
Eighteen-year-old Zarela Zalvidar is a talented flamenco dancer and daughter of the most famous Dragonador in Hispalia. People come for miles to see him fight in their arena, which will one day be hers.
But disaster strikes during their five hundredth anniversary show, and in the carnage, Zarela’s father is horribly injured. Facing punishment from the Dragon Guild, Zarela must keep the arena—her ancestral home and inheritance —safe from their greedy hands. She has no choice but to take her father’s place as the next Dragonador. When the infuriatingly handsome dragon hunter, Arturo Díaz de Montserrat, withholds his help, she refuses to take no for an answer.
But even if he agrees, there’s someone out to ruin the Zalvidar family, and Zarela will have to do whatever it takes in order to prevent the Dragon Guild from taking away her birthright.
9. A Dawn of Onyx by Kate Golden
Series: The Sacred Stones #1
Page Length: 456
Publication Date: Dec. 15, 2022
Publisher: The Daisy Press
Synopsis: Captured by a king of darkness. Forced to find the light within.
Arwen Valondale never expected to be the brave one, offering her life to save her brother’s. Now she’s been taken prisoner by the most dangerous kingdom on the continent, and made to use her rare magical abilities to heal the soldiers of the vicious Onyx King.
Arwen knows better than to face the ancient, wicked woods that surround the castle on her own, which means working with a fellow prisoner might be her only path to freedom. Unfortunately, he’s as infuriating as he is cunning—and seems to take twisted
pleasure in playing on Arwen’s deepest fears.
But here in Onyx Kingdom, trust is a luxury she can’t afford.
To make it out of enemy territory, she’ll have to navigate back-stabbing royals, dark magic, and dangerous beasts. But untold power lies inside Arwen, dormant and waiting for a spark. If she can harness it, she just might be able to escape with her life—and hopefully, her heart.
10. The Inn on Sweetbriar Lane by Jeannie Chin
Page Length: 459
Publication Date: Sept. 28, 2021
Publisher: Forever
Synopsis: June Wu always has it all together—only now, she’s in over her head. Her family’s inn desperately needs guests, her mother’s medical debts are piling up, and the surly, if sexy, stranger next door is driving away the customers she has left! When he asks for June’s help, though, she can’t say no. After all, his new bar could be just what the upcoming Pumpkin Festival needs to bring in more tourists. But with the fierce attraction between them, will working together be playing with fire?
Ex-soldier Clay Hawthorne prefers being on his own. He’s moved to Blue Cedar Falls for one reason—to carry out his best friend’s dream of opening a bar in the hometown he’ll now never return to. But the town’s business association is trying to stop Clay’s progress. June soon becomes his biggest supporter, and while their partnership is supposed to be only temporary, for the first time Clay wants something permanent—with June. Can two total opposites really learn to meet each other in the middle?
LINKS: Goodreads | Amazon | My Review
Can you think of any other books with flowers on the cover? Comment below!
Such gorgeous covers. It’s quite surprising how many flower covers are on quite dark themed books.
Definitely. And they work so well! I love them all. 🙂
Twins!!! I went with this topic today! I love how we only have one that’s repeating too. 🙂
Oh, thar’s too funny! I have to go check yours out!
Yeah, I thought so too!! haha
These are all so pretty! I love the color contrast on The Liar’s Crown’s cover.
Oooh, that one is great!!
They are all so pretty! Can’t wait to read A Dawn of Onyx.
Ooooh, I hope you like it!
Great choice, Julie. Interesting that there are so many covers with flowers that are fantasy or dark themed books. They are all so eye catching.
I agree – I found that interesting too.
What a brilliant idea! And these covers are totally gorgeous. I love A Forgery of Roses in particular! 😀
Thank you! I like that one too. It’s so eye catching!
That Lorraine Heath cover is one of my faaves 😍 But all of these are gorgeous! Great picks!
I love that one too – it’s so swoon-worthy! lol
So fitting as we’re heading into spring!
Thanks, Ali! I’m ready to get back in my garden.
I love that cover for Liar’s Crown. The flowers are gorgeous.
Me too! Have you seen the cover for book 2? It’s stunning too.!
I love the contrast between dark covers and bright flowers.
I doo too. It definitely draws me in. 🙂
Love the floral theme, love flowers, I could really use some Spring right now! So great choices, there are some really gorgeous books here!
Ugggh, me too! I’m sick of the rain and cold weather. So ready to get back outside in the garden and enjoying the better weather!
Julie – these are such gorgeous book covers, and I love the idea of book covers with flowers on them to welcome spring! Great list and the few I’ve read were awesome from this list.
Thanks, Leah! I’m so ready for Spring – it’s been cold and wet here, and I’m ready for some flowers and sunshine. 🙂
Gorgeous floral covers. I love them all!
Thanks, Tessa!