Hello and a very warm welcome to damppebbles. It’s Tuesday which means it’s time for this week’s Top Ten Tuesday post. I’ve decided to take part in That Artsy Reader Girl’s Top Ten Tuesday meme to mix things up a little here at dp. My original plan was to participate as and when I had the time to put a post together. That then turned into posting ‘weekly without fail’ until I was forced to take a break following surgery to both shoulders (that recovery happened to coincide with a complete and utter loss of reading and blogging mojo 🤷🏻‍♀️). But now I’m back and I’m going to take a much more chilled approach to all things bookish. Which means TTT will return to being a regular feature on damppebbles but a ‘no pressure’ one (that’s the plan anyway!).

The meme was originally created by The Broke and the Bookish but has lived with Jana at That Artsy Reader Girl since January 2018. It was created to encompass a love of books, of lists and to bring readers together. If you would also like to take part then you’re very welcome: the more, the merrier. Just make sure you link back to Jana’s post every week. If you don’t have a blog then no problem, just add your list to the comments below.

This week’s theme is a freebie so I’ve decided to dive into the Top Ten Tuesday archives and go with a topic from 2018 – Books with My Favourite Colour on the Cover which happens to be purple (despite both my children thinking it’s grey because most of the things I buy for the house are indeed grey!). Now, if I put some actual thought into it before declaring my intentions, I probably should have said black is my favourite colour as most of the books I read are dark and foreboding with the cover being predominantly black. But no. I’ve selected purple. PURPLE! Right, let’s see how this is going to go…

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1. Influencer by Adam Cesare
I read Influencer fairly recently so look out for a review coming to the blog in the New Year (when I’m officially back up and running). A great YA thriller about the influence and control one enigmatic individual can have.

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2. All the Colours of the Dark by Chris Whitaker
OMG! This book is so gorgeous. Chris Whitaker is one of my very favourite authors and you need to read everything he’s written. Again, I read this fairly recently so watch out for my review in the New Year. Fair to say, I LOVED it. How scrumptious is that cover?!

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3. The Guests by Nikki Smith
I read this book a few months ago but it was around the time I lost my blogging mojo (which was nothing to do with the book). I love me a good destination thriller and this is a great one! Review to come in the New Year.

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4. Those We Drown by Amy Goldsmith
One of my favourite covers of 2024. I loved this book and I love the cover. A cracking YA sea-based horror which I highly recommend.

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5. Murder Town by Shelley Burr
Murder Town is the follow up to WAKE (which was my book of the year in 2022). I love a small town Australian mystery and this is a GREAT one. Well worth checking out both Murder Town and WAKE if you’re a mystery fan too.

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6. Daphne by Josh Malerman
Look! It is there! There, in the top left corner. A flash of purple. You may call it ‘more pink’ but it definitely darkens to purple! Loved Josh Malerman’s Bird Box so have been keeping an eye out for everything else the author has written since. Enjoyed this one.

[Side note: Really starting to regret choosing purple at this point!]

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7. The Coven by Lizzie Fry
A fabulous witchy, feminist thriller that I read back in 2021. A very enjoyable tale from an excellent writer who deserves more recognition than she gets.

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8. The Forevers by Chris Whitaker
Quite possibly the most purply cover I have included today. Worth also noting that this is a another YA book which leads me to believe that publishers of YA fiction are not afraid to use purple on their covers. Take note crime and mystery publishers! Also worth noting that this is the second book by Chris Whitaker on my list today. 1) Chris is clearly not afraid of a purple cover and 2) he really is the best author out there so please read his books.

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9. Wilderness by B.E. Jones
Full confession, I am cheating a little here. This is another of my all-time favourite books. It’s so good it was snapped up by Amazon Prime Video and made into a series starring Jenna Coleman. With that new series came a new cover so this is the OLD cover, not the new one (which is absolutely fine, but I much prefer this cover). Read it and watch the series. Both are brilliant.

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10. The Date by Louise Jensen
I’m not 100% sure that’s purple. Dark pink perhaps? I’m going to run with it anyway because finding purple crime/mystery/horror covers has turned out to be TOUGH! And if I’m going to give a shoutout to anyone, then I want it to be authors I love and I love Louise Jensen. I’ve read all of her thrillers and recommend them all. Louise also writes as Amelia Henley so if romance with a twist is more your thing then please check out her books.

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Wow! That was much more difficult than I expected it to be. Turns out purple isn’t the ‘go to’ colour when designing a crime cover! Black, grey and white…yes! Yellow seems particularly popular for the title, followed by pink. But purple? Not today, thank you! I went all the way back to 2018 (ironically, the same year this topic was first used in TTT) on my Goodreads shelf and only came up with these 10 books. I’m shocked. So many people love purple, yet it doesn’t seem popular in cover design. Unless it’s popular in another genre

Have you read any of these books? Are there any on my list that take your fancy? Do you have many purple covers on your TBR? Are you taking part in Top Ten Tuesday this week? Let me know in the comments.

So there we have it! If you fancy joining in next week then head on over to That Artsy Reader Girl’s blog to find out what the next topic is!

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