Saturday, June 2, 2012

Shelf Candy Saturday #22: Switched, by Amanda Hocking




 
This wonderful book meme/blog hop
is hosted by
Stephanie @



The purpose of this feature is to display
a beautiful book cover,
with information, if available,
about the cover illustrator,
photographer, and/or designer.


For all the participation rules,
just click


Here's my choice for this week!


 

 
(Trylle Trilogy #1)
Paperback, 318 pages
St. Martin's Griffin
January 3, 2012
(first published July 12, 2010)
Genre: YA Fantasy, Paranormal Romance



Why do I love this cover?

Although the color red has never been a particular favorite of mine, I think this cover is really gorgeous!  This is really more of an orange-red, though.  It caught my eye at a book fair this Wednesday. 

Needless to say, I bought the book!  Besides, I really couldn't go wrong, with Amanda Hocking as the author.  At her young age, she already has a solid reputation as a writer.

The cover has an obvious Gothic feel to it because of the sinister-looking castle in the background, as well as the colors swirling in the sky.  In the foreground, a young, very innocent-looking girl sits, holding a bright red poppy.  She has a rather melancholy expression on her face, which hints at her uneasiness as she sits there.  She's surrounded by more poppies, too.  This reminds me of the scene in the great movie classic, "The Wizard of Oz", in which Dorothy and her friends start walking through a field of poppies, only to immediately start falling asleep.  This girl, however, is staring, wide-eyed, at the viewer.  So she is immune to the flowers' effect, which hints at her otherworldly origin.

Behind the castle, the whole sky is aflame with shades of turbulent red-orange, along with some purple and even glimpses of pink.  This is a supernatural sky, of course, full of menace and oppressive tension. 

Adding to the strange beauty of this cover is the stunning scrollwork surrounding the title.  It reminds me strongly of the work done by Johanna Basford on the covers of Die For Me and Until I Die, both by Amy Plum.  I don't see her name anywhere on the back cover, though. 


This cover contains a combination
of images from different sources.
The overall design is by
Lisa Marie Pompilio.

You can view her Linkedin profile

You can view her portfolio of covers


The girl was photographed by
Herman Estevez,
whose Linkedin profile you can view

This is another sample of his
cover photography:



Emma McLaughlin and Nicola Kraus
Paperback, 306 pages
St. Martin's Press
March 18, 2003
(first published March 13, 2002
Genre: Chick Lit


The poppies were photographed by
Jitka Saniova.
You can see some of her book covers
HERE.  

The photographer for the castle is
Paul Nicols.
I was unable to find any information
about him, however.

The swirl image for the title
is from




So what do you think
of this cover?
What beautiful cover(s)
are you featuring this week?












8 comments:

  1. Great choice! I like the covers in this series. I love the blood orange background. I've heard mixed reviews of the book, but the covers intrigue me enough to try them!
    Thanks for sharing!
    My shelf candy is: http://www.thewindypages.com/2012/06/shelf-candy-saturday-31.html

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi, Kimberly! So glad you like my choice!! Yes, this is an incredibly GORGEOUS cover!! I fell in love with it the minute I saw it, even though, as I stated in the post, I don't normally go for red (or orange, for that matter).

      You're very welcome for the share, and I'm off to check out your Shelf Candy! Thanks for the nice comment!! :)

      Delete
  2. I adore the Switched cover. That fiery red sky, the poppies, the castle are all hits with me. The Nanny Diaries is a great cover too. It is the extreme opposite of Switched. One is full of detail and the other plays on the simplicity. They both work really well. Thanks for featuring them.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hey, Steph!

      To be honest, I much prefer the cover of "Switched"! I like my covers to be a little intricate, as well as mysterious, full of tension, although simplicity does work, from time to time. In the case of "The Nanny Diaries" I wouldn't have looked at the book twice. I don't like the cover at all. It says nothing to me. However, I included it so as to show a sample of Estevez's work, since I had a VERY hard time coming up with any! Lol. Glad you liked it, though!

      You're more than welcome for the features, and thank you so much for your comment, which as always, was lovely!! <3

      Delete
  3. That "Switched" cover really is awesome! I love it so much!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yes, it's beautiful, isn't it? Glad yo love it! Thank you so much for the comment, as well as the follow!!! <3

      Delete
  4. I love your take on this cover! It's definitely gorgeous!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi, Jen! I'm so glad you like it! Yes, it's absolutely stunning! Thanks for commenting back!! <3

      Delete

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