Misrepresentation of setting on book covers

12th March 2026

Misrepresentation of setting on book covers. We have noticed lately that a lot of covers mis-represent the location in which they are set. It is a growing phenomenon and some of it is down to AI choices of cover design. Some is perhaps sloppiness in choosing something fitting and perhaps sometimes it’s trying too hard and getting it wrong. Maybe sometimes it’s laziness or ignorance. But with AI covers being churned out (which is how it feels at the moment) there is a distinct lack of attention to detail. Never mind the weird hands on many covers (AI struggles with hands) and the oddly proportioned body shapes, but so many people choose books because of the ‘flavour’ of the cover and where the narrative might transport them. I would imagine they would find it a let down to discover that the setting is misrepresented.

The setting for Julie Houston’s Lessons in Life is set in Yorkshire. Surprised? We were. Including a cloudless sky and Italian cypress trees, it is not an understatement to say this really is not Yorkshire – certainly not as I know the county. As one Team TF member commented: it looks like “Italian formal garden with prosecco”

And once you look at the detail, it feels even more desultory – the woman on the right hasn’t even been given much of a face and I defy you to hold a prosecco glass with a clumsily created AI hand like that.

Authors generally don’t have much authority over the kinds of covers that adorn their work but I do think there is now a case for individuals to stand up for a decent quality that will appeal to audiences. An author entrusts their work to a publisher and it is time to insist on covers that actually have merit and aren’t dumbed down and will pull in readers. I for one would take one look at this AI cover and move on swiftly.

Goodness, Settling the Score by Clare Connelly is a rather grimly interpreted cover. Just look at those hands, no fingers and the blobby figures, with no nuance. The setting to me screams California or Caribbean. It is in fact an Italian Island setting, much to my surprise. Yes, they have palm trees on an Italian island but pristine sand like this would be pretty unusual. The choice of cover feels like “that’ll do”.

It is disappointing for the authors, that after all their hard work creating a story, that the publisher would choose a simplistic and 2-dimensional cover like this.

I recently read Adriana Trigiani’s The View from Lake Como and from the cover one might believe the setting to be largely around the Italian Lake Como. In fact, that gets a look-in of only a couple of pages (although the main character does spend a lot of time in Carrara in Tuscany). But the main setting is Lake Como in New Jersey. Do you see how this might lure readers in, believing they might be hanging out around the beautiful lake for the duration of the narrative (especially given the title) and then disappointingly discover there is another eponymous lake in America?

How To Cheat Your Own Death by Kristen Perrin is clearly set in Amsterdam. No, wait, it’s actually set in London. Now, we highlighted the cover and perhaps the publisher took our comments to heart (grandiose thinking, but one can but hope) and changed the cover to a more generic crime cover. This, however, is still the cover available in the USA and perhaps it doesn’t matter so much there. But I would definitely pick this up believing that it is set in the Netherlands and no way anywhere in England.

Maybe this can serve as a little nudge to remind the publishing industry that many potential readers pick up books because of the cover (in fact, most readers) and I would either steer clear of some of the covers featured here or I would be quite disappointed that the intimated location turns out to be somewhere different.

Can you think of any book covers that you have come across that misrepresent the setting?

Tina for the TripFiction Team

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