Work has pretty much steam-rolled my brain and the only working things in my entire body are my eyes, and yet I’m feeling a need to write a post, hence this.
Left: the US edition / Right: the UK edition
Jeannie Lin’s The Dragon and the Pearl
It’s interesting to note that there’s no cover quote on the UK edition. And of course, the bloke’s head is no longer cropped and the font for title and author name is different.
Meljean Brook’s The Iron Duke
It’s still unusual to see a bare-chested bloke on a Penguin cover so it came as a surprise. No clue whatsoever that it’s a romance novel. Probably a good thing because it’s not a typical romance novel. It’s more of a romantic adventure novel if we were to ignore ‘steampunk romance’, which it is. Again, no cover quote and no acknowledgement of Brook’s previous books, which isn’t a surprise because – as far as I know – the Guardian series still hasn’t been published in the UK.
Meljean Brook’s Heart of Steel
Heh! My first reaction? “Man, she looks like Jordan during her brunette phase.” 
Now this time we have a cover quote. From Ilona Andrews: “Smart, sexy, breathtaking, and downright addicting” — argh! Addicting?! Should be ‘addictive’! I quite like that little jacket thingy because I think it’s a nice hint to her past. I’m wondering how the hell she keep her boobs from falling out of that top, though.
Haruki Murakami’s 1Q84
Note: like the Japanese edition, the UK edition is split into two volumes (Book 1 and Book 2 in Volume 1, and Book 3 in Volume 2). The US edition consists all three books in one volume.
In this case, I prefer the US edition but without the woman’s face. For some reason, the US edition reminds me of the UK hardback edition of The Andy Warhol Diaries. I have no idea why I thought that as – from what I could remember – there’s nothing in common between those.
Yikes. I couldn’t find the original UK edition. It was massive and, if I remember right, the cover was blue with a black print of Warhol in the centre of yellow and red splashes. I was interested in learning more about Edie Sedgwick (because of The Cult’s song Edie, Ciao Baby), so I was given this book as a present, but I wasn’t that interested in it. Not surprisingly as I was (roughly) fourteen and self-centred enough to be more interested in my own diary than someone else’s. 
Holly Black’s Curse Worker series:
I definitely prefer the UK edition. Much less cluttered and, having been conditioned to UK covers of this genre, a good clue that both UK editions are contemporary fantasy novels.