Cover Clichés: The Jawbreaker

Sometimes, while browsing the virtual shelves on Amazon and Goodreads, I see an image that gives me an oddly disconcerting sense of deja vu. I could swear I've never read the book, but I know I've seen the jacket image somewhere before.

This phenomenon is what inspired Cover Clichés. Images are often recycled because cover artists are often forced to work from a limited pool of stock images and copyright free material. That said, I find comparing their finished designs quite interesting.  

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Lest we forget…
A poignant new tale from the English Maeve Binchy.

It's 2003 and at over 100 years old, Selma Dixon is the last link to the hidden truth behind her village's refusal to honour its war dead.

1914 saw the Yorkshire village of West Sharland send its men off to fight, including Selma's brothers and her sweetheart Guy. But when Guy is badly wounded and returns home on leave, the horrific reality of war is fully realised in the village. By none more so than Guy's mother, who, in a fit of protective madness, secretly sends Angus, Guy's identical twin brother who was medically unfit to enlist, back to fight in his place. Horrified, Guy tries to reveal the truth about his identity.

Back in France, reckless and naïve Angus is bitterly unprepared for war, and when his actions seal not only his fate but that of Selma's brother, whose name becomes tainted in the village, Selma’s life is changed forever.

Forced to start a new life in America, Selma is oblivious to why her family’s name is mud back at home. Until the past comes back to haunt her and the names of the dead must be spoken once more...

Carlos and Nicole met in the streets of Paris. German troops advanced on strong and determined step, but everyone believed that the French capital was safe from Adolf Hitler's madness. They are deceiving themselves. Within weeks, the Nazi troops were at the gates of Paris and thousands of refugees sought to salvation. Nicole found her in Bordeaux at the hands of Ambassador Aristides de Sousa Mendes who handed him a visa to come to Portugal, where they finally fall in the arms of his beloved. Away from the war, away from danger, away from the stigma of being Jewish, would finally be happy. But there are prejudices that are hard to break and once again the two lovers are required to follow different paths. Carlos is in Lisbon, between his father's business, an influential man in society Salazar and her mother's illness. Nicole part to London, a city that lives dramatic days under the threat of being bombed by German aviation. Participates in the war effort as best you know, wearing a nurse's uniform, risking their lives to help others. Hoping to forget Carlos. Yet amid the rubble of World War II there is a love capable of resisting it.

It is the summer of 1936, the early months of the agonising civil war that engulfs Spain and shakes the rest of the world. In a prison in the pilgrim city of Santiago de Compostela, an artist sketches the famous porch of the cathedral, the Portico da Gloria. He uses a carpenter's pencil. But instead of reproducing the sculptured faces of the prophets and elders, he draws the faces of his fellow Republican prisoners.

Many years later in post-Franco Spain, a survivor of that period, Doctor Daniel da Barca, returns from exile to his native Galicia, and the threads of past memories begin to be woven together. This poetic and moving novel conveys the horror and savagery of the tragedy that divided Spain, and the experiences of the men and women who lived through it. Yet in the process, it also relates one of the most beautiful love stories imaginable.

A stunning debut novel of a young American woman who becomes a spy in Paris during World War II.

May 1940. Fleeing a glamorous Manhattan life built on lies, Claire Harris arrives in Paris with a romantic vision of starting anew. But she didn't anticipate the sight of Nazi soldiers marching under the Arc de Triomphe. Her plans smashed by the German occupation, the once- privileged socialite's only option is to take a job in a flower shop under the tutelage of a sophisticated Parisian florist.

In exchange for false identity papers, Claire agrees to aid the French Resistance. Despite the ever-present danger, she comes to love the enduring beauty of the City of Light, exploring it in the company of Thomas Grey, a mysterious Englishman working with the Resistance. Claire's bravery and intelligence make her a valuable operative, and slowly her values shift as she witnesses the courageous spirit of the Parisians.

But deception and betrayal force her to flee once again-this time to fight for the man she loves and what she knows is right-praying she has the heart and determination to survive long enough to one day see Paris again.

Six months after her husband's sudden death, Leonora Galloway sets off for a holiday in Paris with her daughter Penelope. At last the time has come when secrets can be shared and explanations begin... Their journey starts with an unscheduled stop at the imposing Thiepval Memorial to the dead of the Battle of the Somme near Amiens. Amongst those commemorated is Leonora's father. The date of his death is recorded as 30th April, 1916. But Leonora wasn't born until 14th March 1917. Penelope at once supposes a simple wartime illegitimacy as the clue to her mother's unhappy childhood and the family's sundered connections with her aristocratic heritage, about which she has always known so little. But nothing could have prepared her, or the reader, for the extraordinary story that is about to unfold.

English Title: In Pale Battalions

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Which cover strikes your fancy and why? What colors draw your eye? Do you think the image appropriate next to the jacket description? Leave your comments below!

Have you seen this image elsewhere? Shoot me an email or leave a comment and let me know.