The Evolution of a Cover - The Choice

I'm so excited to be able to finally talk about the cover for The Choice. I've been waiting to show you for a few months and it's been so hard to keep it to myself, but now I can finally let you see the stunning cover Orion has designed for me.

I have to admit that the cover is nothing like I expected. I thought there would be some cakes or maybe some sugar somewhere in the design, but that would fit more with one of the earlier drafts of The Choice/The Box/The Shame Box/Class A Cake/Working Title. The book has gone through an evolution process much deeper than just the name.

Since working with my fabulous editor Victoria, the story has developed in ways I never anticipated. It's moved further away from my original baking novel idea to become something more powerful.

The cover shows that not just to the readers but also to me. I had worked so intensely on it that I didn't realise the full extent of the story I had written. I was completely oblivious until I saw my cover and it took my breath away.

It also intimidated me because it wasn't what I was expecting.

The colours and design set it amongst some of the biggest names in feminist fiction, a place I had never intended to go, but it's where I ended up and I couldn't deny it any more. The Choice has a lot of different elements to it, including baking, female friendship, the love between a mother and her children, it's also feminist dystopia.

​That took some adjusting to, but now I have, I love the cover. It's so striking and I feel very lucky that it will be wrapped around my story.

Read the Blurb...

Imagine a world where…
Everything you ate was monitored by the government.
Every step you took was counted.
Your children were weighed every day at school.
Neighbours reported on neighbours and no one was safe from judgement.
Sugar was illegal, and baking was a crime.
 
Imagine if that world was here… What would you do?
Toe the line or fight for your freedom…

Want more? Read an extract from my competition entry.

You can read my competition entry and the extract that appeared in Good Housekeeping here.. The story has changed a lot during the editing process, but the first page has stayed almost exactly the same.

Are you hooked?

You can pre-order your copy of The Choice as a paperback, ebook or audiobook from all good booksellers.  Amazon UK, Waterstones and Book Depository ​