First time author seeking bold, eye-catching cover art for collection of essays about motherhood

One Mother to Another

One Mother to Another: This Is Just Between Us
Author: Melissa Mowry
Target audience: New or expecting mothers between the ages of 18-40
Purpose: to candidly discuss the realities of new motherhood and help mothers feel less alone in their experiences with raising young children. I write about motherhood honestly--the good, the bad and everything in between--with a focus on the shared experiences of being a mother that are universally relatable and common to most mothers.

The book is a collection of essays about motherhood in its most honest form. The idea behind the title is that the subject matter within is the kind of thing that's more often whispered between mom friends than admitted right out loud. It tackles some heavy topics like miscarriage and losing one's identity after children and also has some funnier, lighter pieces as well, so it's important to me that the imagery used is "real;" as in not overly cutesy but not too dark or daunting either. If stock photos are used, I'd like them to be more abstract. I don't want people's faces in the designs because they look too posed and that's the opposite of the candid vibe the book puts out. The book talks a lot about letting go of perfection in motherhood and includes a lot of rich detail about toy-cluttered rooms, toddler tantrums and all the minutia of everyday life as a mom.

One of the advance readers described it as being like "swapping stories over a glass of wine with a friend" because the writing is very conversational. It's also really intimately written; it was described by another reader as kind of like reading the diary of a new mother. I am not an expert and the book does not take itself too seriously so I'd like the cover to reflect that.

I don't like traditional "baby" colors like pastel blue, pink or yellow and I'd like to stay away from anything too heavily signifying babies or pregnancy only because the topics are meant to appeal to a wide range of mothers with children of different ages. I'm really open to anything--even something very simple without an actual image--as long as the style and fonts are eye catching. I'm most attracted to clean, bold and modern designs. The author name doesn't have to be overly prominent. I'll need front cover, back cover and spine. I do not have the back cover copy/bio yet though, so I'll need placeholder text until I can provide that. The front cover will need placeholder text for a blurb, which I should have in the next week or two.

My blog uses very consistent branding throughout the site, social channels and print marketing but it's not really the direction I want to go in for this book cover because it's a little too cartoonish for the subject matter. (I could be persuaded if the designer really worked it in well.) If some of the colors in my brand can be incorporated, that would be great, but it's not a requirement. I've uploaded the color palette for reference. The other picture kind of relates to the image I described above. I've also attached the synopsis and first few chapters if any of the designers wanted further info.