Contemporary Romance Color of the Year: Green?

By / / Books & Literature / 4 minutes of reading


I’ve decided to take a really good look at the Contemporary Romance Colors that are most prevalent on covers this year and attempt to identify what is the CR-COTY, the Contemporary Romance Color of the Year. 

Sidenote: did you know I’m not technically supposed to name things? I’m not good at it. If “CR-COTY” is making your eyelids twitch, I am also responsible for the name DABWAHA, the bracket tournament of romance we used to co-host. So yeah, naming is not my strong suit.

BUT I’m DOING IT ANYWAY. Con Rom COTY!

As I mentioned in the first post about my color obsession, there are color schemes that are so closely tied to one genre, like Suspense is Blue and Gold.

An array of six thrillers all with covers featuring blue photographs of night skies with yellow windows and yellow text for the title and /or author. at the top it says Suspense is blue and yellow

I came to find out on BluSky that Librarian Extraordinare Robin Bradford calls it ‘Murder Yellow.’

MURDER. YELLOW. 

So yeah, as I mentioned, I’m not good at naming things but Robin sure is! Murder Yellow. I love it.

The first collection of covers for your voting consideration has arrived, and the folder is called:

Green, Y’all. 

I’m going to share the covers color by color, and at the end we’ll vote on which one is THE color of the year.

Before I show off all my covers that I’ve downloaded over the past few months, I want to cause your blood pressure to go up a little: have you seen ISMY.blue? 

It’s going to test your color perception by showing different colors, and you have to identify if it is blue, or green. This caused a lot of yelling on BluSky, btw. So brace yourself.

In the event you spot a cover and think, ‘No, wait, that’s blue,’ I hear you. I spent too much time looking at shades of blue/green/blueish green/greenish blue for the past 10 minutes and am no longer sure what colors even are anymore.

All of these covers are linked should you want to learn more – shop that green wave, y’all!  NB: our buy links contain affiliate codes that send a portion of your purchase back to us at no cost to you.

Shall we get started?

one big happy family by susan mallery an illustration of a car with a christmas tree on top on a light green background with snow on top The Christmas Crush by Noelle Douglas has an illustration of a couple back to back he is baking and stirring something in a red bowl wearing a green apron while she has a red sweater, long brown hair, and a green plaid skirt. Background: green.

The DM Diaries by Teagan Hunter - a photograph of a young man with brown hair and ab leu shirt against a green background with the title in large white letters First Comes Marriage by Laila Rafi features an illustration of a couple amid brown and pink flowers. She has long brown hair and a red brown dress while he has a white shirt and blue trousers background: GREEN

How to get a life in ten dates by jenny howe features a green background with neon green yellow lettering. At the top is a blonde curvy woman in a pink jumpsuit and in each lower corner are two figures, one in blue shirt and tan pants and the other with a white shirt, blue jacket and dark trousers :background, yup, green Sheila Roberts The Merry Matchmaker is the front of a building with a red door and eight windows like the front of an apartment. The building is green. Extremely green

The Merriest Misters - Timothy Janovsky features two men hanging a wreath on a door. one is wearing a green vest and shirt while the other is wearing a red sweater vest and a santa hat. Around the border are evergreen branches and 60s style ornaments Background: GREEN Name Your Price by Holly James features two peopel standing back to back with the title between them and an image of a house behind them. The figure on the left is wearing a purple dress and the one on the right is wearing a n orange shirt and blue trousers. The ground behind them, and the house are the same shade of green

Pickleballers by Ilana Long features two people illustrated so they're facing off and their pickleball paddles are crossed and the background is very dark green Puppy Love at Mistletoe Junction by Shannon Richard has illustrations of four dogs mostly white with spots and the background is green

Slow Dance by Rainbow Rowell has a shattered or crumpled bouquet in the middle and a green background What she's having by Laura Moher has an illustration of pieces of cherry pie with a lattice top being served with cherries cascading down the front the background is green

yes no maybe by Hessica sherry has an illustration of two people on either side of a hedge. One is wearing pink housecoat, the other in an orange shirt, there's a black cat but the whole background including the hedge is green What if it's you by jilly gagnon features flipped illustrations of two figures walking one upside down on the tip right and the other right side up on the bottom left. one figure is wearing a pink shirt and has long brown hair. The other has lighter brown hair and glasses and a blue shirt. The background, you will NEVER guess, is GREEN.

 

So, there is some GREEN going on in Contemporary Romance, eh? I expected all the holiday and Christmas romances to have green backgrounds, but so many contemporaries have green, teal, light green, dark green, tennis or pickleball court green – it’s a whole thing.

Oh – and there are some historical illustrated covers that are green, too:

Much ado about Margaret by Madeleine Roux features an illutration of two figures in historical garb - one is wearing a red empire waist dress and the other in a blue cutaway coat and brown trousers and boots. The background is green leading back to a house in the distance, with tall green plants growing on either side The Worst Duke in London by Amalie Howard has two illustarted figures seated on a pink chair with a dog and a kitten. One is wearing a purple gown, has blonde hair, and a dog on her lap. The other is wearing a short blue coat, light blue trousers, has tousled hair, and a kitten is climbing up his boot. Background: GREEN AF

These covers are GREEN AF.

So why green? Aside from the obvious green & red Christmas holiday connection, green has a few meanings within color theory. It can represent nature, obvs, alongside related meanings like growth, beginnings, abundance, and possibility. A number of these covers are illustrations of people outside, so the references to nature make sense.

Cameron Chapman wrote an overview of color theory for designers at Smashing Magazine, and collected additional meanings for green in terms of design – and covers are marketing designed to be alluring to readers, so the meanings are important.

According to Chapman, green can also be a calming color, conveying balance or harmony, and, of course, money if you’re in the US. Our money is green (green is even a slang word for money) and that correlates to wealth. “Green” is also a shorthand for environmental awareness.

I know there is/was a very active dark green paint and wallpaper trend on Pinterest for bedrooms (I am looking for a color for my bedroom, which is how I noticed). It’s a popular color within the dark academia aesthetic, too: rich, soothing, invoking dark forests which can be peaceful or menacing or both. NB:  I’m not as fluent in the meaning of the color green within the realm of art history, so if you have knowledge in that area, please share.

Ken Phillips at Hunter Lab notes that green is a sacred color within Islam as it was the prophet Mohammed’s favorite color – I didn’t know that! – and is connected to vitality and peace. Hailey Van Braam at ColorPsychology.org writes that green embodies “harmony, tranquility…stability and endurance,” all qualities that lend themselves well to a romance plotline: a reader expects the HEA will include some if not all of those components.

So in terms of contemporary romance, in addition to the Christmas holiday color scheme and the placement of the illustrated characters outdoors in green fields and yards, the use of green might evoke calm, balance and harmony, wealth, abundance, growth, and possibility. Makes sense!

I’ll have more colors for your perusal soon! Thanks for taking this trip through cover design and color theory with me. I’m having a really good time and I hope you’re enjoying this journey, too!

What do you think the color green conveys for Contemporary Romance? What other green covers have you spotted?

 

 



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About The Author

Avatar of Karyn Fowler
Karyn Fowler is a writer for Ink Plate Press who covers sports, education and technology. She's passionate about helping people understand the world around them through writing. Karyn's hobbies include reading, hiking, biking and dog walking. She lives in Portland with her husband and two cats.

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