New on NetGalley
Like the cover?
Hey! Hey you! I’m going to let you in on a little secret: you are a book influencer. Yes, you! And if you have a Goodreads account, a book club, a partner, a pal, or any audience with which you like to chat about the written word, you can get yourself a NetGalley account. NetGalley is an online digital platform where you can request advanced reader copies (ARCs) or galleys of books not yet published. (Sidebar: I really love it when businesses still have “net” in the name, because it’s a throwback to a simpler time were we called the internet “the net.” I’ll describe those days to my children someday and tell them it was a magical land of Geocities and Neopets).
ANYWAY! When I need a break from scrolling in the bad way, I scroll in a good way through NetGalley’s recently added titles. This is a fun exercise as a designer, because I’m reacting to the cover without context. There’s no fancy reel from a publisher teasing the cover, there are no stickers from Reese, Jenna or Oprah. I don’t know the designer or often even the author. There is just a sea of new covers, and underneath each one, two little white thumbs, awaiting my verdict like I’m Emperor Commodus:
Here are a few new-to-me covers from NetGalley that I heartily gave one big thumb up. The downside to sharing still-to-be-published titles here is that information on the cover design is even more limited and difficult to source. Most of them are unknown, but as always, I’ll update if I can sleuth out a designer credit. Let the gladiator games begin!
So many things that caught my eye on this debut cover! I love the oval text arrangement, the colour palette, and the mix media collage - it’s harmonious and intriguing. Here’s the summary if you’d like to request an ARC of your own before the 2026 pub date:
For readers of Elizabeth Strout and Sigrid Nunez, a darkly funny and moving debut novel about the unforgettable Agatha, whose devotion to a widow with dementia (and an inconvenient attachment to her daughter’s grave) sparks a radical reckoning with life, loss, and love’s aftermath.
Next! Listen, we’ve all heard the jokes about the “woman walking away” trope often used on historical fiction cover designs. In fact, anyone who follows me on Instagram has heard ME make jokes about the “woman walking away” cover design trope (…still one of my most-watched reels). I have lovingly ribbed that cover design trend, I have used that cover trend in my own work, and I also really appreciate when a designer takes a step away from that cover trend. The cover for Penny Haw’s new historical fiction novel boldly asks: “what if the woman…lies down?” I’m joking, but I’m not joking when I say I think this cover is beautiful. It effectively communicates the plot, the era, and the tone as well as any woman walking away would, while introducing new elements that really make it shine. From the publisher:
For fans of Her Hidden Genius and The Engineer’s Wife comes the awe-inspiring true story of Caroline Herschel, an 18th century astronomer who lived in the shadow of her brother, but learned to pave her own path among the stars.
At last! A cover credit! I’m absolutely in love with Beth Steidle’s cover for Lucky Girl by Allie Tagle-Dokus. It’s pink. There’s a parrot. It’s perfect! And with advance praise from Annie Hartnett and Kiley Reid, I will elbow all of you out of the way for an ARC:
Amid the chaos of her Massachusetts upbringing—her loving, erratic brothers; her overburdened mother—twelve-year-old Lucy is discovered and cast on a new dance reality show. When its popstar judge, Bruise, takes an obsessive interest in Lucy’s raw talent, Lucy’s life suddenly becomes what she’s always wanted—or has it? In the whirlwind of talk shows, movie sets, and extravagant Hollywood parties of her teenage years, Lucy slowly grows more alienated from her family. And when a series of youthful mistakes comes back to haunt her, she finds she must free herself from Bruise’s world of fame and all its trappings, and decide where her home truly is.
At the moment, this cover’s “like” score on NetGalley is split right down the middle. Which just tells me you either get it, or you don’t. This yellow-centric cover calls to mind one of my favourite covers from last year, Blob. Like Blob, it’s weird and a little off-putting, and I think that’s exactly what’s intended. If you have NetGalley, go give it a like so we get more weird blobby yellow covers next year:
Twelve women confront the mounting existential terrors of modernity—climate change, unbridled capitalism and greed, an entertainment industry that will go to surreal lengths to stay relevant—in this debut story collection set in a slightly off-kilter version of reality.
Let’s end this unintentionally women-themed post with this gorgeous anthology, out November 2025. I could easily do a trend round-up on oil paintings of women paired with hot pink type (done perhaps to greatest effect in Rachel Ake’s cover design of Dissapoint Me last year). The cover design for The Book of Women’s Friendship shows us this approach still has legs (pun intended), because while the Disappoint Me cover is acerbic and dripping in irony, this cover is wistful and warm. I can think of many women for whom this would be a wonderful Christmas gift:
With excerpts from Jane Austen to Edith Wharton and Virginia Woolf, from Dolly Alderton to Sarah Waters, and from Zadie Smith to Meg Wolitzer, The Book of Women’s Friendship celebrates and investigates friendship between women, from first encounters to final farewells, from falling out to making up again.
As always, thanks for reading, friends! May your ARCs be plentiful and your Neopets well fed,
-Julie