The Bodice Rippeth: Pop Culture and Wardrobe Malfunctions

If you’re a BSC regular, you’ve seen this column before.  But I’m going to try shifting it to a weekly column–smaller chunks of laughs, but more frequent.  If you’ve never seen it before, welcome to the modern Romance section. Current market trends have moved away from the discreet markers of roses and silk and toward total transparency of content. I’ve compiled for your amusement the best of the worst covers which I encountered during the last week of visits to my friendly neighborhood bookseller.

Category:  Unfortunate Pop Culture References

I can see the Demotivator now:  “Show and Tell–you’re doing it right.”

Let me guess:  you liked it.

The strangely disturbing alternate universe wherein Dexter was adopted out to Texas. 

A Memoir:  by Toby Keith.

That just sounds like the plot to a 70s adult film.

Hm….is it just me, or does he look like Vampire Bill and Sookie?  I thought that book was already written?

Category:  Sartorial Mishaps

Damn.  I just knew I shouldn’t have stiffed my tailor last time I needed adjustments.

I’m not exactly sure what part of being a weather witch or a storm chaser requires assless chaps, but, you’d know more about it all than I would….

Um.  Why is a pearl necklace involved?  And what are they trying to say by having HIM wearing it?

Unfortunately I know entirely too much about period underwear, and that is a Victorian corset.  Fail.

So…I’m not seeing any black? 

Disclaimer: Please keep in mind, this is all in good fun for the laughs. I am not posting these images to make fun of romance as a genre. I read romance on a regular basis (which is why I’m in this section at the bookstore to begin with), and there are plenty of excellent writers working in the field. But some of the cover art and titles just go too far in their attempts to be “sexy”—regardless of what’s in between the covers. I don’t even have to lampoon them; they mock themselves. Those books are the ones I’m spotlighting.