Let's Discuss: JLA Finale Cover Changes

Do you know what occurred to me recently? It seems like every time Jennifer L. Armentrout's YA series is about to end whichever publisher she is at CHANGES the cover scheme! WHAT IS UP WITH THAT?!

JLA Finale Cover Changes

I know I talked about this earlier and was using Jennifer's book as one example and what basically fueled my rant about changing the cover scheme at the finale book, but have you realized this has happened with nearly EVERY YA series Jennifer has written, minus the Covenant series?

Here we go:

So the cover scheme of The Lux series changed a few times here, we had the look you see above, then what the next book they went with a different look for whatever reason. Then just as we await that final book this happened:

The publisher reprinted the first four books into two compilations then made the final book match that. It was a few years later that they finally gave us a cover to complete the above cover look. But that wasn't the end of things as the series was once again redone:

And oh yeah, the prequel novella and Daemon collection was also changed but I didn't include for sizing purposes but seriously. Wow. So many changes!

Then you look at her Dark Elements series:

We started the trilogy pretty cool! Nice colors, same theme and then of course the BIG DEBATE would be how would book three look like since Layla had a choice to make...but then the publishers did this:

So this looked worked, I guess. You have each guy that was her focus for that book, then the final book you could say was for her...though she did make a love choice. But as always, that wasn't the end of the cover looks...

I'm usually a fan of covers without people on them, but these felt a little meh. Still gorgeous, but in relating to the series I felt meh. Of course, I still own a set, but that's neither here nor there. Lol.

Then of course we have the most recent series cover change, and this one really devastated me:

Honestly, these covers I LOOOOVED! They were so pretty. I love the confetti and how it appears and the shadow and lighting. It was just gorgeous and fresh! I had hoped that maybe the final book would be a purple color because how pretty would that be with the teal and pink? But as we all know, this happened...

To me, this is probably the worst of all her cover changes. I just don't like it for some reason. For one, they don't even look like the same models on the last cover and that bugs me because continuity! I know some authors have had cover models quit before their series ended, but the publisher did their best to find a similar model and it's honestly worked in most cases. This one is just blah. And you know, the fact that the models on book 3 don't match the models on book 1 and 2. ANNNNND I've see this cover before on book 1 and that honestly feels cheapened that the publisher went this route...

One of my favorite self-published authors had this cover on one of her earlier books, so I figured she got it through whatever routes self published authors go for getting covers, I'm honestly not sure how its done, though I ought to look into that for personal reasons. That Tor Teen decided to borrow this cover art instead of creating a third cover to match the ones they previously did just feels cheap for some reason. Another part of the reason why I don't care for this new cover look.

So that makes me wonder...what will be the fate of The Harbringer trilogy:

Honestly, at this point, I feel like there is absolutely NO way the publisher can leave this cover scheme as is. I mean, I know she's had different publishers for her various YA series, but I mean come on. EVERY YA series she's written has had a cover change on the final book. I think I might go into shock if this one doesn't. The only series that didn't have this finale cover change was her Covenant series. That one sort of ran parallel to The Lux series timing wise and besides one cover revamp once Jennifer got the rights back to it, the series remains to be the ONLY YA series that didn't have a series cover change at the final book.

I guess my question is WHY???! WHY does this happen with her YA books every time?! It's almost impossible to have a series from her be the same cover scheme and format because of when these changes happen. I mean now in order to have a matching set of her Origin trilogy, you have to wait for the final book to be in paperback in order to have same cover style and same format. And honestly, there's NOOOOO way I can wait an extra year to get the finale for that one because CLIFFHANGERS! And plus then I'd have 2/3 hardcovers with there never to be a final hardcover. I wish the publishers could offer an alternative dust-jacket for these instances. I mean, talk about a great preorder incentive there!

How do you feel about all these series finale cover changes? Does it bother you when your covers don't match theme wise? Do you end up buying the new look just to have matching covers...even if it means your formats won't match?