My Top 10 Book Covers of 2011 (Blog Event)

Day two of our five day event is all about sharing your favorite book covers for 2011. After checking out my list, be sure to check out my event co-hosts - Jessica from Confessions of a Bookaholic,  Rachel from Fiktshun and Jamie & Patricia from Two Chicks on Books and then link up yours with the linky below.

Title: Divergent (Divergent, #1)
Author: Veronica Roth
Publisher: Katherine Tegen Books, 487 Pages (May 3rd, 2011)
My Review

Why I love the cover, in a sentence - This cover is very captivating for me, and if I'm honest I'm not totally sure what I love about it so much, but I just know that I do.

Synopsis: In Beatrice Prior's dystopian Chicago, society is divided into five factions, each dedicated to the cultivation of a particular virtue—Candor (the honest), Abnegation (the selfless), Dauntless (the brave), Amity (the peaceful), and Erudite (the intelligent). On an appointed day of every year, all sixteen-year-olds must select the faction to which they will devote the rest of their lives. For Beatrice, the decision is between staying with her family and being who she really is—she can't have both. So she makes a choice that surprises everyone, including herself. During the highly competitive initiation that follows, Beatrice renames herself Tris and struggles to determine who her friends really are—and where, exactly, a romance with a sometimes fascinating, sometimes infuriating boy fits into the life she's chosen. But Tris also has a secret, one she's kept hidden from everyone because she's been warned it can mean death. And as she discovers a growing conflict that threatens to unravel her seemingly perfect society, she also learns that her secret might help her save those she loves… or it might destroy her.

Title: Hourglass (Hourglass, #1)
Author: Myra McEntire
Publisher: Egmont, 400 Pages (June 14th, 2011)
My Review

Why I love the cover, in a sentence - This cover is just amazing on so many levels, I can't even begin to come up with words to describe how much I love it.

Synopsis: One hour to rewrite the past . . .

For seventeen-year-old Emerson Cole, life is about seeing what isn’t there: swooning Southern Belles; soldiers long forgotten; a haunting jazz trio that vanishes in an instant. Plagued by phantoms since her parents’ death, she just wants the apparitions to stop so she can be normal. She’s tried everything, but the visions keep coming back.

So when her well-meaning brother brings in a consultant from a secretive organization called the Hourglass, Emerson’s willing to try one last cure. But meeting Michael Weaver may not only change her future, it may change her past. Who is this dark, mysterious, sympathetic guy, barely older than Emerson herself, who seems to believe every crazy word she says? Why does an electric charge seem to run through the room whenever he’s around? And why is he so insistent that he needs her help to prevent a death that never should have happened?

Title: Wither (The Chemical Garden, #1)
Author: Lauren DeStefano
Publisher: Simon & Schuster, 358 Pages (March 22nd, 2011)
My Review

Why I love the cover, in a sentence - When I look at this cover, I see haunting beauty that fits really well with the book - it's the year of amazing dresses.

Synopsis: Obviously, something went terribly wrong. Genetic mutations have festered, reducing human longevity to twenty-five, even less for most women. To prevent extinction, young girls are kidnapped, mated in polygamous marriages with men eager to procreate. Sixteen-year-old Rhine Ellery, a recent victim of this breeding farm mentality, has vowed to break loose from its fetters; but finding allies and a safe way out is a challenge she can only hope she will survive. A dystopian fantasy series starter with wings. Editor's recommendation.

Title: Starcrossed (Starcrossed, #1)
Author: Josephine Angelini
Publisher: HarperTeen, 487 Pages (May 31st, 2011)
My Review

Why I love the cover, in a sentence - See, year of beautiful dresses - and if you've read this book, you'll know just how fitting this amazing cover is... the storm and the sea.

Synopsis: How do you defy destiny?

Helen Hamilton has spent her entire sixteen years trying to hide how different she is—no easy task on an island as small and sheltered as Nantucket. And it's getting harder. Nightmares of a desperate desert journey have Helen waking parched, only to find her sheets damaged by dirt and dust. At school she's haunted by hallucinations of three women weeping tears of blood . . . and when Helen first crosses paths with Lucas Delos, she has no way of knowing they're destined to play the leading roles in a tragedy the Fates insist on repeating throughout history.

As Helen unlocks the secrets of her ancestry, she realizes that some myths are more than just legend. But even demigod powers might not be enough to defy the forces that are both drawing her and Lucas together—and trying to tear them apart.

Title: The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer (Mara Dyer, #1)
Author: Michelle Hodkin
Publisher: Simon & Schuster, 452 Pages (September 27th, 2011)

Why I love the cover, in a sentence - Whenever I look at this cover I see something more, something new and it becomes amazing all over again - the boy holding the girl up from going under water.. or is the other way around? (I think I need to read this one soon.)

Synopsis: Mara Dyer doesn't think life can get any stranger than waking up in a hospital with no memory of how she got there.

It can.

She believes there must be more to the accident she can't remember that killed her friends and left her mysteriously unharmed.

There is.

She doesn't believe that after everything she's been through, she can fall in love.

She's wrong.

Title: The Iron Knight (The Iron Fey, #4)
Author: Julie Kagawa
Publisher: Harlequin Teen, 361 Pages (October 25th, 2011)
My Review

Why I love the cover, in a sentence - it's ASH! and he's looking at me... or I'd like to think he is.

Synopsis: Ash, former prince of the Winter Court, gave up everything. His title, his home, even his vow of loyalty. All for a girl… and all for nothing.

Unless he can earn a soul.

To cold, emotionless faery prince Ash, love was a weakness for mortals and fools. His own love had died a horrible death, killing any gentler feelings the Winter prince might have had. Or so he thought.

Then Meghan Chase—a half human, half fey slip of a girl— smashed through his barricades, binding him to her irrevocably with his oath to be her knight. And when all of Faery nearly fell to the Iron fey, she severed their bond to save his life. Meghan is now the Iron Queen, ruler of a realm where no Winter or Summer fey can survive.

With the (unwelcome) company of his archrival, Summer Court prankster Puck, and the infuriating cait sith Grimalkin, Ash begins a journey he is bound to see through to its end— a quest to find a way to honor his solemn vow to stand by Meghan’s side.

To survive in the Iron realm, Ash must have a soul and a mortal body. But the tests he must face to earn these things are impossible. At least, no one has ever passed to tell the tale.

And then Ash learns something that changes everything. A truth that turns reality upside down, challenges his darkest beliefs and shows him that, sometimes, it takes more than courage to make the ultimate sacrifice.

Title: A Need So Beautiful (A Need So Beautiful, #1)
Author: Suzanne Young
Publisher: Balzer & Bray, 267 Pages (June 21st, 2011)

Why I love the cover, in a sentence - Talk about a breathtaking cover - and in person it's even more beautiful - I haven't read this title either, but I think that this cover will help me and other readers bring the story and the main character to life.

Synopsis: We all want to be remembered. Charlotte's destiny is to be Forgotten...

Charlotte’s best friend thinks Charlotte might be psychic. Her boyfriend thinks she’s cheating on him. But Charlotte knows what’s really wrong: She is one of the Forgotten, a kind of angel on earth, who feels the Need—a powerful, uncontrollable draw to help someone, usually a stranger.

But Charlotte never wanted this responsibility. What she wants is to help her best friend, whose life is spiraling out of control. She wants to lie in her boyfriend's arms forever. But as the Need grows stronger, it begins to take a dangerous toll on Charlotte. And who she was, is, and will become--her mark on this earth, her very existence--is in jeopardy of disappearing completely.

Charlotte will be forced to choose: Should she embrace her fate as a Forgotten, a fate that promises to rip her from the lives of those she loves forever? Or is she willing to fight against her destiny--no matter how dark the consequences.

Title: Across the Universe (Across the Universe, #1)
Author: Beth Revis
Publisher: Razorbill, 398 Pages (January 11th, 2011)
My Review


Why I love the cover, in a sentence - This is another cover that is just so fitting for the story and I love how spot on the art departments are hitting these covers - I think the stars and space are amazingly beautiful and Amy and Elder look a bit otherworldly.

Synopsis: Seventeen-year-old Amy joins her parents as frozen cargo aboard the vast spaceship Godspeed and expects to awaken on a new planet, three hundred years in the future. Never could she have known that her frozen slumber would come to an end fifty years too soon and that she would be thrust into the brave new world of a spaceship that lives by its own rules.

Amy quickly realizes that her awakening was no mere computer malfunction. Someone - one of the few thousand inhabitants of the spaceship - tried to kill her. And if Amy doesn't do something soon, her parents will be next.

Now, Amy must race to unlock Godspeed's hidden secrets. But out of her list of murder suspects, there's only one who matters: Elder, the future leader of the ship and the love she could never have seen coming.

Title: Lola and the Boy Next Door
Author: Stephanie Perkins
Publisher: Dutton, 338 Pages (September 29th, 2011)
My Review

Why I love the cover, in a sentence - It's got Cricket on the cover and all I can say is that I wish I was lucky enough to have a boy like him living right next door to me.

Synopsis: Budding designer Lola Nolan doesn’t believe in fashion . . . she believes in costume. The more expressive the outfit -- more sparkly, more fun, more wild -- the better. But even though Lola’s style is outrageous, she’s a devoted daughter and friend with some big plans for the future. And everything is pretty perfect (right down to her hot rocker boyfriend) until the dreaded Bell twins, Calliope and Cricket, return to the neighborhood.

When Cricket -- a gifted inventor -- steps out from his twin sister’s shadow and back into Lola’s life, she must finally reconcile a lifetime of feelings for the boy next door.

Title: The Girl in the Steel Corset (Steampunk Chronicles, #1)
Author: Kady Cross
Publisher: Harlequin Teen, 473 Pages (May 24th, 2011)

Why I love the cover, in a sentence - Another amazing dress and I love the rich color verses the usual dullness when you think of a Steampunk story. (Yes, another that I have and still need to read.)

Synopsis: In 1897 England, sixteen-year-old Finley Jayne has no one except the "thing" inside her.

When a young lord tries to take advantage of Finley, she fights back. And wins. But no normal Victorian girl has a darker side that makes her capable of knocking out a full-grown man with one punch...

Only Griffin King sees the magical darkness inside her that says she's special, says she's one of them. The orphaned duke takes her in from the gaslit streets against the wishes of his band of misfits. Emily, who has her own special abilities and an unrequited love for Sam, who is part robot; and Jasper, an American cowboy with a shadowy secret.

Griffin's investigating a criminal called The Machinist, the mastermind behind several recent crimes by automatons. Finley thinks she can help-and finally be a part of something, finally fit in.

But The Machinist wants to tear Griff's little company of strays apart, and it isn't long before trust is tested on all sides. At least Finley knows whose side she's on, even if it seems no one believes her.

Honorable mentions - Die for Me By: Amy Plum, Clockwork Prince By: Cassandra Clare, Shatter Me, Supernaturally By: Kiersten White and a few others were some of my favorite covers this year.

Tomorrow's Topic - Top 10 Book Boyfriends in 2011

Don't forget to link each day! Signing up & then linking your Top 10 posts early you EXTRA entries into the $50.00 Amazon Gift Card Giveaway. The last day to share your posts is January 8th, 2012. The winner will be picked using Random.org and announced during the week of the 9th, 2012. Good Luck!

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*Titles listed are in no particular order.