Sunday, April 30, 2017

Shelf Candy Saturday No. 210: Ever the Brave, by Erin Summerill



Welcome to Shelf Candy Saturday!



*Late Edition*
This is my weekly feature
showcasing beautiful covers!
It also provides information, 
if available, on their 
very talented creators!


Here's my choice for this week!




Ever the Brave
(Clash of Kingdoms, Book 2)
Erin Summerill
Hardcover, 464  pages
HMH Books for Young Readers 
December 5, 2017
   Fantasy, Young Adult Fiction


https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/33413892-ever-the-brave?ac=1&from_search=true




My Thoughts About This Cover

It was love at first sight when I saw this cover! It's elegant, it's totally GORGEOUS.....and there's one predominant color all over it! You would think this would make this cover boring to look at, but that's not the case at all! Instead, it's very visually exciting!

When I first came across this cover, it was on the blog Brittany's Book Rambles, run, of course, by Brittany. She featured this book on her latest "Waiting On Wednesday" post, right along with The Language of Thorns, whose equally beautiful cover I featured last week. You can check out the post HERE. This is a BEAUTIFUL blog, by the way, and Brittany features a LOT of Young Adult Fiction on it, so be sure to take a look at it!

Although my favorite color is, and has always been, blue, I can certainly appreciate other colors. This particular one is a shade known as "burnt sienna" in oil and acrylic paints. It's a a beautiful combination of red and brown. When I was a college art student, I fell in love with this color, for some reason, and used it profusely in several paintings I created at the time. So I'm very happy to see it displayed on this STUNNING book cover!

The background picture makes this cover even more interesting! I LOVE that castle, as well as the corner decorations! They combine to give this cover a definitely medieval feel!

And now for the BEST part of this cover....that AMAZING, BREATHTAKINGLY GORGEOUS calligraphy!! New life has been breathed into a typically classical font, with those graceful flourishes on letters that frame the title, especially the "B" and the "E" of the word "Brave". These flourishes give this font a slightly Arabic look, as well. 

The way the font's golden tone gradually shifts to darker and lighter shades is also incredibly beautiful! The letters along the middle, vertically, stand out, while the others have darker shades. A less talented designer would have made the entire title all one shade, but not this one! 

Last but definitely NOT least, I love the small crown at the bottom, right above the author's name. It, too, has gradated shades. This crown ties in very well with the castle in the upper half of the cover.

I do have one small quibble about this cover, in spite of all my fangirling, and that is that I wish the author's name had been made a bit larger. It does tend to get lost in all the other great cover elements. Overall, though, I absolutely ADORE this cover!

Alas.....this is one of those cases in which I have been unable to find out who the ultra talented artist for this cover is.... The cover can only be seen on Goodreads. Amazon doesn't have it posted yet. Perhaps that's because this novel is due to be released in December of this year, and it's just too early for the cover image to be widely available. Since there's no cover on Amazon, there's also no preview, so I couldn't get any information that way. A Google search likewise led nowhere. 

Meanwhile.....just enjoy this BEAUTIFUL specimen of the cover designer's art! Come December, we will all know who was responsible for this masterpiece! 


What do you think of this 
week's cover?
Please leave a comment
and let me know!









4 comments:

  1. Hey Maria.

    This is great cover for all the reasons that you mentioned.

    There is something about red and gold too. I am not sure why, but the two colors work so very well together.

    I agree that the author's name is too small. This seems unusual. With that, I like the curved text at the bottom and the top of the picture.

    Have a great Sunday!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hey, Brian!

      Yes, it is! Glad you like it, too!!

      Of course! That's why these are traditional Christmas colors. Although I see this color as containing some brown, as well. I think these colors go so well together because they're both warm colors, which is probably why they are Christmas colors. The warmth of this holiday is very well symbolized in this beautiful color combination.

      I'm also glad you agree that the author's name is too small. You know, on some covers, the author's name is actually BIGGER than the title itself! This is the opposite extreme, and it looks ridiculous, IMHO. As you know, I detest extremes. For me, this is true aesthetically as well as politically. Lol!

      I had not mentioned the curved text at the top and bottom of this cover image. It does add to this cover's appeal!

      Thanks for another insightful comment!! I am indeed having a great Sunday so far! I'm sitting here at my laptop, enjoying a cup of java while I catch up with all the comments on each of my blog posts!

      Hope you're having a great Sunday, as well!! <3 :)

      Delete
  2. Yesss I absolutely adore this cover, it's so beautiful! The designer is definitely a very skilled and talented person :) Lovely post!

    Brittany @ Brittany's Book Rambles

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi, Brittany!

      Isn't it GORGEOUS? Thanks to your "Waiting On Wednesday" post, I saw this cover for the very first time! <3 <3

      The designer is a very talented person indeed, and I'm so disappointed not to have found any information on this person....

      Thanks for commenting, and for the sweet compliment!! <3 <3 :) :)

      Delete

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