Four of Cups

In the Two of Cups, we saw love in its purest form glimmering into existence; in the Three of Cups it ripened, becoming radiant and abundant; the Four, however, takes us just beyond the border into sickeningly sweet territory. Imbibing too much of a good thing when we're already giddily enjoying ourselves is practically (unfortunately) second nature, but the disorientation and attendant queasiness that follows can distract us from whatever we were celebrating to begin with.

Oscar Wilde wrote, "Nothing succeeds like excess," and I think this really explains the allure of romance novels. But however entertaining it might be to project oneself into luxuriously wanton scenarios, even devoted readers would probably admit that actually living like those characters would get old pretty fast. One can only tolerate so much intrigue, so many bubble-baths. Eventually you have to come up for air.

The discerning ladies at Cover Cafe know when enough is enough; they've rounded up the very best that 2007 had to offer in the way of romance novel covers -- but also the very worst. How bad are they? Well, I know that technically I should have used the winner in the "Worst" category for the card image above, but I simply could not bring myself to look at the cover of Big Spankable Asses even one more time than necessary. I went with the runner-up, which is less patently offensive but still utterly unsettling. How exactly is this manic Ken doll able to support that giant camera one-handed? And why is everything so... blue?

If anything can be learned from this, it's that the line between indulgence and overindulgence is clearly a pretty fine one -- it's probably best to at least know where it is before sailing past it. [Via]