Shelf Candy Saturday

I am running a little behind on everything this month it seems. I started volunteering at a local animal shelter two or three days a week plus I started my internship two weeks ago so I have been trying to rearrange my schedule to make everything fit all nicely together once more! I hate feeling all unorganized and out of whack. I am thinking by next week I'll have a system going on that works in working, studying, volunteering, reading, blogging, working my own four dogs, cleaning and making dinner for the family. (I only make one meal a day. The rest is a free for all. Don't worry, it is just the husband that I starve - no kids!) So I sincerely apologize for being MIA for the past week but hopefully everything will settle down starting this week so I can keep up with everything easily once again. New schedules suck!

Anyways, on to Shelf Candy Saturday! Shelf Candy Saturday is a meme hosted by http://fivealarmbookreviews.com. The purpose of the meme is to highlight book covers that we find interesting/beautiful/unique!

This week I chose 2 books, actually. I haven't read either one of the books and know very little about them. Actually today will be the first time that I have even read the blurbs so the stories themselves in no way influenced my choices.

The first book I chose is Touch by Jennifer Snyder.

Seventeen-year-old Rowan Harper knows her life is forever changed the moment her schizophrenic mother commits suicide. What Rowan doesn’t realize is how much her mother’s choice altered her own fate. It’s not until after meeting Jet, a sapphire-eyed dead boy, Rowan begins to learn of her new destiny as becoming her mother’s replacement for something she never knew existed. 

First of all, the font seems very plain to me and way too big. Maybe a different color would have worked better. The white stands out but I am not so sure that it is in a good way. I do like that it is kind of faded though, it is a cool addition. 

The picture itself is beautiful, the muted colors really speak of a desolation and loneliness. The field she is standing in is empty, isolated and very much emphasizes the 'alone' theme. The birds circling around seem ominous to me, like the carrion birds just looking for their next meal. They might be crows which are a symbol of death in some cultures...I don't know. To be honest though, I hate birds. One of my big phobias and I know nothing about them. They frighten me. It could be a parakeet and it would still terrify me. Birds are scary. 

The other obvious thing on this is the way the girl is dressed. If I had not just read the blurb, I would think maybe this is a steampunk novel of some sort. I want to know why this girl is dressed like this! She's so skinny and her clothing is so out of date. I don't know how this relates to the story at all. I don't get it. Is it because there is a dead boy involved in the story? Is he from this era? No clue. What it all comes down to though is that the cover is strikingly, hauntingly beautiful and I like it a lot. 

The next book I chose is Betrayal by Mayandree Michel. 

Where there is love and power, there is always... betrayal. 
 At seventeen, Cordelia is an ordinary teen with an extraordinary and frightening secret. A secret that induces vivid dreams which she not only experiences true love, but crippling fear while barely escaping with her life each night. After a life altering event, Cordelia has an unexpected encounter with Evan, the mysterious boy from her dreams, who reveals who and what she is, a descendant of the Greek gods. At that moment everything she knows of her world is a lie, and she must leave the present and go into the past to assume the role she was put on this earth for, safeguarding her ancient empire amidst evil forces that toil hastily to destroy it. In a race against time, Cordelia must decide if she is truly a part of this dangerous world, or risk defying the gods, and ultimately lose the boy who has put a claim on her heart.

So the thing that drew me in about this cover was the color palette. All the muted golds, yellows and creams just blend so well together. They are close in color but different and it makes the electricity that is coming out of her hands really pop out. I like the little bit of light filtering in from between the trees, the different shades of the leaves that are littering the ground. 

The clouds are beautiful, fluffy and covering the sky and making the building in the upper left stand out. It looks like the building is elevated, hanging out in the clouds like it is a magical, sort of hidden place. It's intriguing to me and it makes me want to know how the Greek gods entwine in the story. I want to know what kind of powers she has and how she got them, why they suddenly appeared. and how she will deal with them. 

Now, the things I don't like? I think the title and authors name blend too much into the background. Where as I thought the previous book's font and color were too stand out, this one kind of just gets lost in the gold tones of the cover. 

Both of these books I received for free from Amazon.com which was kind of exciting because sometimes the lower priced E-books don't have the most beautiful covers. Some of them, though, are extremely well done! I look forward to reading both of these!