Book Wars a weekly feature hosted between two book review blogs – A Life Bound By Books & Much Loved Books!

It’s a fact that book lovers know all about the covers of the books they covet.  Often when a title is released here in the US, it’s sometimes vastly different across the pond in the US.  So, Michelle from Much Loved Books and I have come together to create Book Wars to talk about the difference in covers when it comes to the US vs. UK versions.

We hope from time to time authors will chime in with their thoughts as well. We welcome everyone to comment and share their thoughts too! The more the merrier!

Before we get to this weeks Book Wars, we have a winner to announce. The Book Wars winner for Inside Out by Maria V. Snyder is..... the UK COVER!!!  Thank you to everyone who voted for both books, and for picking a winner.

Also, there's a poll at the bottom of the post that we'd love to hear your input for the two covers! Tell us which one YOU love the most.

Left: US - Right: UK

Title: Dreams of Gods & Monsters

Series: (Daughter of Smoke & Bone #3)
Author: Laini Taylor
Publisher: US - Little, Brown & Company, 624 Pages (April 8th, 2014) UK - Hodder & Stoughton, 613 Pages (April 17th, 2014)
Add to: Goodreads USA Version | Goodreads UK Version
Order online here: USA: Amazon, Barnes and Noble, The Book Depository UK: Amazon UK, Waterstones, W H Smith, The Book Depository

Synopsis: By way of a staggering deception, Karou has taken control of the chimaera rebellion and is intent on steering its course away from dead-end vengeance. The future rests on her, if there can even be a future for the chimaera in war-ravaged Eretz.

Common enemy, common cause.

When Jael's brutal seraph army trespasses into the human world, the unthinkable becomes essential, and Karou and Akiva must ally their enemy armies against the threat. It is a twisted version of their long-ago dream, and they begin to hope that it might forge a way forward for their people.

And, perhaps, for themselves. Toward a new way of living, and maybe even love.

But there are bigger threats than Jael in the offing. A vicious queen is hunting Akiva, and, in the skies of Eretz ... something is happening. Massive stains are spreading like bruises from horizon to horizon; the great winged stormhunters are gathering as if summoned, ceaselessly circling, and a deep sense of wrong pervades the world.

What power can bruise the sky?

From the streets of Rome to the caves of the Kirin and beyond, humans, chimaera and seraphim will fight, strive, love, and die in an epic theater that transcends good and evil, right and wrong, friend and enemy.

At the very barriers of space and time, what do gods and monsters dream of? And does anything else matter?

About the author:

Hi there! I'm a writer of fantasy books for young people, but my books can be enjoyed by adults as well. My 'Dreamdark' books, Blackbringer (2007) and Silksinger (2009) are about faeries -- not dainty little flowery things, but warrior-faeries who battle devils. My first young adult book, Lips Touch, is a finalist for the 2009 National Book Award! It's creepy, sensual supernatural romance. . . about kissing. I am also an artist with a licensed gift product line called "Laini's Ladies."

Find Laini Online: Website | Twitter | Facebook | Goodreads

Let the Wars Begin: Its now time to make our decision, let's see what we think about the covers and pick our favorite cover.

Lisa The thing that I love about these covers is how they fix together so amazingly well when you see them in person. They just fit... and the US and the UK covers go so well with the story too. This is another hard week for me because I love both of these covers just so much... yet I think the UK cover edges out this week for me. I LOVE the blue and the birds... I can't help but want to keep looking at. It's without a doubt beautiful to me in it's simplicity.

So, the UK wins again for me this week! Tell us YOUR favorite in the quick and easy poll below! Or feel free to share your thoughts in comments!

Michelle This is an easy pick for me this week. When these books were released as hardback editions my favourite cover out of them all has always been the US version. I think they are much more dramatic and eye catching compared the the UK hardback editions.

I love the how the US cover is dark, and that the gold antlers stand out so vividly against this background. I really like how these covers draw you in and would make you want to stop and see what they are all about.

Its an easy US vote for me this week.

VOTE for YOUR favorite cover of Dreams of Gods & Monsters NOW!

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"Waiting On" Wednesday is an event hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine. The purpose of this weekly event is to spotlight a soon-to-be-released book that you are very much anticipating. "Waiting On" Wednesday will also give bloggers an opportunity to share ideas for our TBR lists.

Title: Altered (Altered #1)
Author: Jennifer Rush
Publisher: Little, Brown & Co., 336 Pages (January 2nd, 2013)
Add to: Goodreads
Pre-order here: Amazon, Barnes and Noble, The Book Depository

Synopsis: When you can’t trust yourself, who can you believe?

Everything about Anna’s life is a secret. Her father works for the Branch at the helm of its latest project: monitoring and administering treatments to the four genetically altered boys in the lab below their farmhouse. There’s Nick, Cas, Trev . . . and Sam, who’s stolen Anna’s heart. When the Branch decides it’s time to take the boys, Sam stages an escape, killing the agents sent to retrieve them.

Anna is torn between following Sam or staying behind in the safety of her everyday life. But her father pushes her to flee, making Sam promise to keep her away from the Branch, at all costs. There’s just one problem. Sam and the boys don’t remember anything before living in the lab—not even their true identities.

Now on the run, Anna soon discovers that she and Sam are connected in more ways than either of them expected. And if they’re both going to survive, they must piece together the clues of their past before the Branch catches up to them and steals it all away.

Title: Rise (Nightshade Prequel #2)
Author: Andrea Cremer
Publisher: Philomel, 432 Pages (January 8th, 2013)
Add to: Goodreads
Pre-order here: Amazon, Barnes and Noble, The Book Depository

Synopsis: The sequel to Rift and the prequel to the New York Times bestselling novel Nightshade.

Everything Conatus stands for is at risk. Hoping to gather enough resistance to save their order, Ember and Barrow attempt a desperate escape. But fate offers little mercy. When their mission is exposed, the  couple face relentless pursuit by the supernatural horrors that act on the commands of Eira’s ally: the mysterious Bosque Mar. A shocking revelation forces Ember out of hiding, sending her back into the heart of dark magic at Tearmunn keep, where she must convince her old friend Alistair of her love or face dire consequences. Ember’s deception offers the only chance for the resistance to succeed, but what she discovers in the shadows beneath the keep will shatter her world and bring about the Witches’ War.

Richly sensual and full of magic, action and danger, Andrea Cremer's fifth book set in the Nightshade world is an edge-of-your-seat page turner.

Title: Hooked
Author: Liz Fichera
Publisher: Harlequin Teen, 304 Pages (January 31st, 2013)
Add to: Goodreads
Pre-order here: Amazon, Barnes and Noble, The Book Depository

Synopsis: Get hooked on a girl named Fred...

HE said: Fred Oday is a girl? Why is a girl taking my best friends spot on the boy's varsity golf team?

SHE said: Can I seriously do this? Can I join the boys' team? Everyone will hate me - especially Ryan Berenger.

HE said: Coach expects me to partner with Fred on the green? That is crazy bad. Fred's got to go - especially now that I can't get her out of my head. So not happening.

SHE said: Ryan can be nice, when he's not being a jerk. Like the time he carried my golf bag. But the girl from the rez and the spoiled rich boy from the suburbs? So not happening.

But there's no denying that things are happening as the girl with the killer swing takes on the boy with the killer smile...

Title: Nobody But Us
Author: Kristin Halbrook
Publisher: HarperTeen, 272 Pages (January 29th, 2013)
Add to: Goodreads
Pre-order here: Amazon, Barnes and Noble, The Book Depository

Synopsis: Bonnie and Clyde meets IF I STAY in this addictively heart-wrenching story of two desperate teenagers on the run from their pasts.

They’re young. They’re in love. They’re on the run.

Zoe wants to save Will as much as Will wants to save Zoe. When Will turns eighteen, they decide to run away together. But they never expected their escape to be so fraught with danger....

When the whole world is after you, sometimes it seems like you can’t run fast enough.

Nobody But Us, told in alternating perspectives from Will and Zoe, is an unflinching novel, in turns heartbreaking and hopeful, about survival, choices, and love...and how having love doesn’t always mean that you get a happy ending. Described as “beautiful, heartbreaking, and exhilarating” by Kody Keplinger, author of The DUFF, Nobody But Us will prove irresistible to fans of Nina Lacour, Jenny Han, and Sara Zarr.

Four titles this week! Four exciting, squeeeeee worthy, epic, must have NOW titles this week. Two hot covers, two contemps, one sequel to a prequel, two teens on the run and lets take a look again at that cover for Altered. *day dreams* *sighs* 

So, what do YOU think of one or all of these titles I picked out for this weeks WoW?

*covers are always subject to change.

"Waiting On" Wednesday is an event hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine. The purpose of this weekly event is to spotlight a soon-to-be-released book that you are very much anticipating. "Waiting On" Wednesday will also give bloggers an opportunity to share ideas for our TBR lists.

Title: Rebel Heart (Dust Lands, #2)
Author: Moira Young
Publisher: Margaret K. McElderry, 448 Pages (October 30th, 2012)
Add to: Goodreads
Pre-order here: Amazon, Barnes and Noble, The Book Depository

Synopsis: The Tonton have been defeated. Lugh has been rescued.
The heartstone has brought Saba and Jack together.
Now, Saba and her family head west to meet him and start a new life. All should be well.
But shadows of the dead are stalking Saba.
And another kind of shadow is creeping over the dustlands.
Then a messenger shows up.
With news of Jack.

Title: Ashen Winter (Ashfall, #2)
Author: Mike Mullin
Publisher: Tanglewood Press, 400 Pages (October 14th, 2012)
Add to: Goodreads
Pre-order here: Amazon, Barnes and Noble, The Book Depository

Synopsis: It’s been over six months since the eruption of the Yellowstone supervolcano. Alex and Darla have been staying with Alex’s relatives, trying to cope with the new reality of the primitive world so vividly portrayed in Ashfall, the first book in this series. It’s also been six months of waiting for Alex’s parents to return from Iowa. Alex and Darla decide they can wait no longer and must retrace their journey into Iowa to find and bring back Alex’s parents to the tenuous safety of Illinois. But the landscape they cross is even more perilous than before, with life-and-death battles for food and power between the remaining communities. When the unthinkable happens, Alex must find new reserves of strength and determination to survive.

Title: The Diviners (Diviners, #1)
Author: Libba Bray
Publisher: Little Brown, 608 Pages (September 18th, 2012)
Add to: Goodreads
Pre-order here: Amazon, Barnes and Noble, The Book Depository

Synopsis: Evie O'Neill has been exiled from her boring old hometown and shipped off to the bustling streets of New York City--and she is pos-i-toot-ly thrilled. New York is the city of speakeasies, shopping, and movie palaces! Soon enough, Evie is running with glamorous Ziegfield girls and rakish pickpockets. The only catch is Evie has to live with her Uncle Will, curator of The Museum of American Folklore, Superstition, and the Occult--also known as "The Museum of the Creepy Crawlies."
When a rash of occult-based murders comes to light, Evie and her uncle are right in the thick of the investigation. And through it all, Evie has a secret: a mysterious power that could help catch the killer--if he doesn't catch her first.

Another three books this week. Two are sequels and one is the beginning of a brand new series. I LOVED the first two books in each series for both Rebel Heart and Ashen Winter. They were both some of the best books I was lucky enough to read in 2011. That made these books automatically set at the top of my must read list. And then for The Diviners.. I read my first book by Libba Bray last year - Beauty Queens, and loved it - and I am really excited to read more from her. I know she has other books out prior to Beauty Queens, but this new one sounds thrilling!!! I know I can't wait. Anyone else have these three titles on their must read lists?


*covers are always subject to change.

"Waiting On" Wednesday is an event hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine. The purpose of this weekly event is to spotlight a soon-to-be-released book that you are very much anticipating. "Waiting On" Wednesday will also give bloggers an opportunity to share ideas for our TBR lists.

Title: Perfect Escape
Author: Jennifer Brown
Publisher: Little Brown, 352 Pages (July 10th, 2012)
Add to: Goodreads
Pre-order here: Amazon, Barnes and Noble, The Book Depository

Synopsis: Kendra has always felt overshadowed by her older brother, Grayson, whose OCD forces him to live a life of carefully coordinated routines. The only way Kendra can stand out next to Grayson is to be perfect, and she has perfection down to an art -- until a cheating scandal threatens her flawless reputation.

Behind the wheel of her car, with Grayson asleep beside her, Kendra decides to drive away from it all -- with enough distance, maybe she'll be able to figure everything out. But eventually, Kendra must stop running and come to terms with herself, her brother, and her past.

With undeniable grace and humor, acclaimed author Jennifer Brown explores OCD, the pressure for perfection, and the emotional highs and lows of a complex sibling relationship.

Title: One Moment
Author: Kristina McBride
Publisher: Egmont, 272 Pages (June 26th, 2012)
Add to: Goodreads
Pre-order here: Amazon, Barnes and Noble, The Book Depository

Synopsis: This was supposed to be the best summer of Maggie’s life. Now it’s the one she’d do anything to forget.

Maggie Reynolds remembers hanging out at the gorge with her closest friends after a blowout party the night before. She remembers climbing the trail hand in hand with her perfect boyfriend, Joey. She remembers that last kiss, soft, lingering, and meant to reassure her. So why can’t she remember what happened in the moment before they were supposed to dive? Why was she left cowering at the top of the cliff, while Joey floated in the water below—dead?

As Maggie’s memories return in snatches, nothing seems to make sense. Why was Joey acting so strangely at the party? Where did he go after taking her home? And if Joey was keeping these secrets, what else was he hiding?

Title: For Darkness Shows the Stars
Author: Diana Peterfreund
Publisher: Balzer + Bray, 398 Pages (June 12th, 2012)
Add to: Goodreads
Pre-order here: Amazon, Barnes and Noble, The Book Depository

Synopsis: Generations ago, a genetic experiment gone wrong—the Reduction—decimated humanity, giving rise to a Luddite nobility who outlawed most technology.

Elliot North has always known her place in this world. Four years ago Elliot refused to run away with her childhood sweetheart, the servant Kai, choosing duty to her family’s estate over love. Since then the world has changed: a new class of Post-Reductionists is jumpstarting the wheel of progress, and Elliot’s estate is foundering, forcing her to rent land to the mysterious Cloud Fleet, a group of shipbuilders that includes renowned explorer Captain Malakai Wentforth—an almost unrecognizable Kai. And while Elliot wonders if this could be their second chance, Kai seems determined to show Elliot exactly what she gave up when she let him go.

But Elliot soon discovers her old friend carries a secret—one that could change their society . . . or bring it to its knees. And again, she’s faced with a choice: cling to what she’s been raised to believe, or cast her lot with the only boy she’s ever loved, even if she’s lost him forever.

Well, three books this week make it into my WoW and I really can't wait to read each of them!! I'm not going to say much about them, other than they each look FABULOUS. I think they books speak for themselves. Are there any books I have listed this week that you guys can't wait for? What are your thoughts?


*covers are always subject to change.

"Waiting On" Wednesday is an event hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine. The purpose of this weekly event is to spotlight a soon-to-be-released book that you are very much anticipating. "Waiting On" Wednesday will also give bloggers an opportunity to share ideas for our TBR lists.

Title: Bitter End
Author: Jennifer Brown
Publisher: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers, 368 Pages (May 10th 2011)
Preorder here: Amazon, Borders, The Book Depository

Synopsis: When Alex falls for the charming new boy at school, Cole, a handsome, funny, sports star who adores her, she can't believe she's finally found her soul mate-someone who truly understands her and loves her for who she really is.

At first, Alex is blissfully happy. Sure, Cole seems a little jealous of her relationship with her best friends, Zack and Bethany, but what guy would want his girlfriend spending all of her time with another boy? But as the months pass, Alex can no longer ignore Cole's small put-downs, pinches, or increasingly violent threats. As Alex struggles to come to terms with the sweet boyfriend she fell in love with and the boyfriend whose "love" she no longer recognizes, she is forced to choose - between her "true love" and herself.

Title: Between the Sea and the Sky
Author: Jaclyn Dolamore
Publisher: Bloomsbury, 352 Pages (June 7th 2011)
Preorder here: Amazon, Borders, The Book Depository

Synopsis: For as long as Esmerine can remember, she has longed to join her older sister, Dosinia, as a siren--the highest calling a mermaid can have. Then Dosinia runs away to the mainland, and Esmerine is sent to retrieve her. Using magic to transform her tail into legs, she makes her way unsteadily to the capital city. There she comes upon a friend she hasn't seen since childhood--a dashing young man named Alandare, who belongs to a winged race of people. As Esmerine and Alandare band together to search for Dosinia, they rekindle a friendship . . . and ignite the emotions for a love so great it cannot be bound by sea, land, or air.

I think I've started something with posting two books in my WoW's that are so different from each other, I might as well continue it again in this one. Bitter End sounds more than emotional. I have a feeling that these will be one of those books where you wont be able to put it down. Between the Sea and the Sky... another I don't think I'd be able to put down. Mermaids and a Winged race of people... I can't wait!!

*covers are always subject to change.
*I am not compensated at all for any of the links within this page.

What is my writing style like?

The act of writing is as individualistic as the books that come out of it. If you ask fifty writers about their process, you’ll get fifty different answers. With maybe a little overlap. But of the writers I know, we each work differently, and we each work in the way that is most suited to us.

My own process involves a lot of whining and procrastination. After twenty years in the business, this has evolved into an art form, and I have to respect that.

But first, I think of a character that I’d like to write about, and put her in a situation I find interesting. Sort of think of a plot. Then I run the idea by a couple of people, like my daughters, my husband, and my agent.

I start writing a broad outline that’s sometimes pretty different from my original idea, because it’s evolved during the talking-about-it stage. From the broad outline, I hammer out a chapter-by-chapter outline that’s about 25-30 pages long. It will change during the actual writing process, but it’s what I work from. I send the outline to my agent, and if she finds any huge plot problems, she will gently ask if I meant for my heroine to do something in chapter seven that I made a huge deal of her not being able to do in chapter two. Stuff like that.

Then I start writing. I start at the beginning of the outline and write it in sequence until the end. I have a friend who actually writes out of sequence, writing the fun scenes first, and then filling in all the other scenes, and that whole thought makes my stomach hurt. I could never do that. Things change during the writing, characters change, characters make decisions that I didn’t expect that take the plot in a different direction. That’s the exciting, amazing part about writing--when you feel that the characters are living their lives, and you’re just writing down what they’re doing, like a court reporter. That’s when words fly onto the paper and I look up and hours have passed, and I’ve done more pages than I’d thought, and it’s been a great day.

Then there are the other days, when I sit at my desk and feel blank, or distracted, or impatient, or discouraged. I write something and then delete it. I write several pages and then delete them. I realize that I didn’t address a plot point, like, forty pages back, and have to go in and fix that and restructure some things. Or a character is evolving into someone who doesn’t do what I need them to do, and I have to work the plot around that, or force them into being someone they’re not.

This is where the whining and procrastination come in. It’s one thing to be a witness of and participant in the exciting, elemental force that is creative writing, where you read something you wrote and marvel at it and had no idea you had anything like that inside you--and it’s another thing to feel that you have zero talent, you are all written out, your career is over, and all the readers who write in with compliments are just victims of an elaborate hoax. Sometimes you can feel both things within the space of five minutes, which is hard on you and everyone around you.

Then I get up and put a load of laundry in, do some other relatively mindless chore that will free my brain up and get me out of a rut. Then I eat something, like cookies. Then I look at Lolcats and a couple of other websites that are funny and/or inspiring. Sometimes I walk around outside, or lie on my back and watch the clouds for a while.

Then I sit down again, wishing I had learned to type properly and not just with five fingers. Eventually, a thought hits me, and that triggers other thoughts, and once again I have to sit tight and hang on because my characters are pulling me along with them, pulling me into their world, and it’s an amazing and wonderful place to be. The act of hoping for that moment to come again is what keeps me going, makes me try again, makes me sit down at my desk.

And at the end of the day, I’ll read what I wrote, clean it up, fix typos, read it again--and marvel at it, because I love it and I had no idea I had anything like that inside me. And the next day, the process will begin again.

You can find Cate Online:

Website | Twitter

Cate Tiernan is the author of the Sweep & Balefire Series and most recently, the first book in the Immortal Beloved Series.



Check out my Immortal Beloved Review

Ordering information for all books:

Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Borders | The Book Depository

A HUGE thank you to Cate for stopping by and writing up such an amazing guest post. The insight into her writing style was extremely interesting. It's always nice to learn more about an author and letting us get a better idea of how she creates was a pleasure to read and share. Thanks again Cate!

*I am not compensated at all for any of the links withing this page.

Title: Immortal Beloved (Immortal Beloved #1)
Author: Cate Tiernan
Publisher: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers, 416 Pages (September 7th 2010)
From: the Publisher, Thank You!

Synopsis: New name, new town, new life. Nastasya has done it too often to count. And there’s no end in sight. Nothing ever really ends... when you’re immortal. But this time is different: Nastasya knows that this new town must hold her salvation—or her death.

Nastasya was born into darkness, and has embraced it her whole life. Four hundred years ago, a tragedy robbed her of her birthright, and she’s been living a lie ever since. Now, four centuries of exploring the depths and limits of dark power has left Nastasya feeling sickened unto death. If she continues down this road, she will end up as a very dark, twisted, evil thing—with unthinkable power. Or she can begin the long, painful road toward light, and reclaim the destiny that others tried to destroy.

They’re rare. You may have never met one, never sat next to one on a plane, never eaten in the same restaurant at the same time. But the Immortals are there. Have always been there. Will always be there. Moving among humans, playing out their own cursed fate. Sometimes subtly, sometimes with huge, sweeping implications for mankind. But no one will ever know. Except you.

Review: 4.5 Stars - Cate Tiernan’s Immortal Beloved was interesting, intriguing and thoroughly entertaining from start to finish in her new series about troubled Immortals. Featuring a cast of characters that were more then unique and kept this reader on the edge of her seat, Tiernan knows how to write a book that’ll have readers looking for more with the turn of the last page – she has a hit on her hands.

Nastasya is an Immortal who’s been around for more then 450 years. She’s seen a lot in her time being trapped in a teenage body. She’s engaging, witty and wields snark like it’s going out of style. When she’s faced with a moral dilemma at the hands of the friends she’s had for… well, hundreds of years, she’s forced to make a hard choice. Finally not able to handle the events of the night before, Nasty leaves her current home of England to go in search of safety and sanity in a place so far removed for what she knows… and who she knows.

Nasty ends up in a rehab of sorts for Immortals on an organic farm in the Midwest United States. Totally weird and random I know… but it works, trust me. There she meets a whole cast of characters and learns about her life and theirs - past and present and how to use her magic for good and not evil. On the farm she’s forced to deal with her past and learn to live and enjoy everything from a simpler life. I mean, being an Immortal for so many years, your bound to start to take the little things in life for granted, right? While she’s there she meets a Viking she thinks she recognizes from her past. He’s more then the strong silent type and her relationship with most of the other Immortals, especially this Viking - Reyn (Rain) is often awkward.

Reyn (Rain) is complex and has many issues of his own he’s trying to sort through. He’s strong and guarded of Nasty and you get a clearer picture of just why he’s this way as you continue throughout the whole book. He might look perfect on the outside, but he’s far from perfect on the inside due to his past. I have to say that the awkwardness between these two was entertaining to read, however being that your reading this book from Nasty’s point of view, Reyn is often much harder to get a read on.

The plot does take some twists and turns along the way that some I guessed and some I had no idea were coming. The writing was refreshing with both a historical and present day timelines. I usually am not a big fan of History, however when it’s written as well as this book is and the whole fact that it’s interlaced with present day life, I find I really enjoy getting more of a look into a character whose life has been around for so many years with the addition of a back story such as this.

The ending of the book left me ready to dive right into the next in the series. I enjoyed the fact that I know I’ll get a chance to read more of these same characters in the next installment because of the bigger arc that’s at play - I believe we only saw the tip of the ice berg of for what Tiernan has in store for her characters and readers alike.

All in all, Tiernan’s Immortal Beloved had me hooked with the triple threat of writing, characters and a plot that holds something new for any paranormal fan. Her knack for spinning a tale showing the downfalls of being an Immortal will without a doubt spark interest in many readers, giving them just a taste, leaving them ready for more. I can’t wait for the next in the series - Everlasting Dark – out April 2012. Oh, the wait is going to be a long one. Enjoy!

Be sure to check back today for a guest post from Cate! She's written a great piece on what her writing style is like. I hope you'll check back to see just what she has to say.

FTC Disclaimer: I did NOT pay for this book, nor have I been compensated at all in any way or means for reading and writing this HONEST review.