Top 10 of 2011 is a week long event hosted by the awesome Jessica from Confessions of a Bookaholic, Lisa from A Life Bound By Books, Rachel from Fiktshun and Patricia and Jaime from Two Chicks On Books where we look back on all the awesome books of 2011 and look forward to all the amazing new releases of 2012.
Everyone has heard of the saying: Don't judge a book by its cover. But I think at some point in every bookworm's life, they have judged a book by its cover simply because, it's kind of hard not to do. Today's post will bombard your eyes will lots and lots of prettiness. Like, so much you'll be like this afterwards:
I'm sorry for the cuss words; tried to find one without.
There is no particular order as to how I listed them and also take note that even though I listed them, it doesn't necessarily mean that I have read them. I just like to drool at their amazing beauty. :)
TOP 10 BOOK COVERS OF 2011
Why: I love it for the little sparkle thingy above the D, the butterflies, and the colors.
Worlds divided them. Chance brought them together. Only love will save them.
An alien princess exiled to Earth. An arrogant boy. One week to get back to her planet or she'll die. And, her only chance for survival? She must help the boy find his soul mate. Piece of cake!
Stubborn, sixteen-year-old Princess Venus of Kelari wants one thing, to become immortal, that is, until someone exiles her to Earth, kills her irrihunter and takes her family.
Now she wants revenge.
First she’s got to get home. But before she can return to Kelari, the Gods have commanded her to help an arrogant boy named Michael find his soul mate.
Only she doesn't know the first thing about love.
Rather quickly, her inexperience with human emotion is obscured by other matters--alien-controlled psychotic teens that are out to kill her, and a government group that is set on capturing and dissecting her. Worst of all, Venus will suffer a painful death-by-poisoning, thanks to Earth’s atmosphere, if she remains on the planet longer than one week. Still, Venus is a Princess and she's got a plan. Surely, with her help, Michael will fall in love with a human. But time is running out and Michael is falling for the wrong girl--her.
2. Wither by Lauren DeStefanoWhy: I love how the text/font is scattered throughout the cover, the model, and the coloring.
By age sixteen, Rhine Ellery has four years left to live. She can thank modern science for this genetic time bomb. A botched effort to create a perfect race has left all males with a lifespan of 25 years, and females with a lifespan of 20 years. Geneticists are seeking a miracle antidote to restore the human race, desperate orphans crowd the population, crime and poverty have skyrocketed, and young girls are being kidnapped and sold as polygamous brides to bear more children.
When Rhine is kidnapped and sold as a bride, she vows to do all she can to escape. Her husband, Linden, is hopelessly in love with her, and Rhine can’t bring herself to hate him as much as she’d like to. He opens her to a magical world of wealth and illusion she never thought existed, and it almost makes it possible to ignore the clock ticking away her short life. But Rhine quickly learns that not everything in her new husband’s strange world is what it seems. Her father-in-law, an eccentric doctor bent on finding the antidote, is hoarding corpses in the basement. Her fellow sister wives are to be trusted one day and feared the next, and Rhine is desperate to communicate to her twin brother that she is safe and alive. Will Rhine be able to escape–before her time runs out?
3. Unearthly by Cynthia HandWhy: Of course, the model is gorgeous, the mysterious feel that the background evokes, and the color of the book.
In the beginning, there's a boy standing in the trees . . . .
Clara Gardner has recently learned that she's part angel. Having angel blood run through her veins not only makes her smarter, stronger, and faster than humans (a word, she realizes, that no longer applies to her), but it means she has a purpose, something she was put on this earth to do. Figuring out what that is, though, isn't easy.
Her visions of a raging forest fire and an alluring stranger lead her to a new school in a new town. When she meets Christian, who turns out to be the boy of her dreams (literally), everything seems to fall into place—and out of place at the same time. Because there's another guy, Tucker, who appeals to Clara's less angelic side.
As Clara tries to find her way in a world she no longer understands, she encounters unseen dangers and choices she never thought she'd have to make—between honesty and deceit, love and duty, good and evil. When the fire from her vision finally ignites, will Clara be ready to face her destiny?
Unearthly is a moving tale of love and fate, and the struggle between following the rules and following your heart.
4. Dearly, Departed by Lia HabelWhy: I love the font of the title, the violet coloring in contrast with the black, and the model with the umbrella.
Love can never die.
Love conquers all, so they say. But can Cupid’s arrow pierce the hearts of the living and the dead—or rather, the undead? Can a proper young Victorian lady find true love in the arms of a dashing zombie?
The year is 2195. The place is New Victoria—a high-tech nation modeled on the manners, mores, and fashions of an antique era. A teenager in high society, Nora Dearly is far more interested in military history and her country’s political unrest than in tea parties and debutante balls. But after her beloved parents die, Nora is left at the mercy of her domineering aunt, a social-climbing spendthrift who has squandered the family fortune and now plans to marry her niece off for money. For Nora, no fate could be more horrible—until she’s nearly kidnapped by an army of walking corpses.
But fate is just getting started with Nora. Catapulted from her world of drawing-room civility, she’s suddenly gunning down ravenous zombies alongside mysterious black-clad commandos and confronting “The Laz,” a fatal virus that raises the dead—and hell along with them. Hardly ideal circumstances. Then Nora meets Bram Griswold, a young soldier who is brave, handsome, noble . . . and dead. But as is the case with the rest of his special undead unit, luck and modern science have enabled Bram to hold on to his mind, his manners, and his body parts. And when his bond of trust with Nora turns to tenderness, there’s no turning back. Eventually, they know, the disease will win, separating the star-crossed lovers forever. But until then, beating or not, their hearts will have what they desire.
In Dearly, Departed, romance meets walking-dead thriller, spawning a madly imaginative novel of rip-roaring adventure, spine-tingling suspense, and macabre comedy that forever redefines the concept of undying love.
5. Anew by Chelsea FineWhy: I absolutely love everything about this cover; the purple background, the model's uber blue eyes, and the arrow coming out of the A.
Two years ago, Scarlet awoke in the forest alone, afraid, and unable to remember anything. Lost and confused, her life was a mystery...until she met a boy with a familiar voice.
Gabriel Archer has a voice from her past, and Scarlet's determined to remember why. She immerses herself in his life only to discover he has a brother he's kept hidden from her: Tristan Archer.
Upon meeting Tristan, Scarlet's world becomes even more muddled. While she's instinctively drawn to Gabriel, she's impossibly drawn to Tristan--and confused out of her mind. As she tries to piece together her history Scarlet realizes her past...might just be the death of her.
6. Wildefire by Karsten KnightWhy: I love how the flame starts out with the orange glow and then it disperses into smoke; also the purple-ish hue around the flame is stunning. If any of you have touched this book in person, you would know that the cover is oh so soft and addicting to the touch, I love it!
Every flame begins with a spark.
Ashline Wilde is having a rough sophomore year. She’s struggling to find her place as the only Polynesian girl in school, her boyfriend just cheated on her, and now her runaway sister, Eve, has decided to barge back into her life. When Eve’s violent behavior escalates and she does the unthinkable, Ash transfers to a remote private school nestled in California’s redwoods, hoping to put the tragedy behind her. But her fresh start at Blackwood Academy doesn’t go as planned. Just as Ash is beginning to enjoy the perks of her new school—being captain of the tennis team, a steamy romance with a hot, local park ranger—Ash discovers that a group of gods and goddesses have mysteriously enrolled at Blackwood…and she’s one of them. To make matters worse, Eve has resurfaced to haunt Ash, and she’s got some strange abilities of her own. With a war between the gods looming over campus, Ash must master the new fire smoldering within before she clashes with her sister one more time… And when warm and cold fronts collide, there’s guaranteed to be a storm.
Why: First of all, it's purple - hello! The outline of the hibiscus flower is so pretty and I love how it's not like a clear image of the flower. It reminds me of the movie Avatar (the blue people) and how everything lights up when someone touches it.
The Hematoi descend from the unions of gods and mortals, and the children of two Hematoi-pure-bloods-have godlike powers. Children of Hematoi and mortals-well, not so much. Half-bloods only have two options: become trained Sentinels who hunt and kill daimons or become servants in the homes of the pures.
Seventeen-year-old Alexandria would rather risk her life fighting than waste it scrubbing toilets, but she may end up slumming it anyway. There are several rules that students at the Covenant must follow. Alex has problems with them all, but especially rule #1:
Relationships between pures and halfs are forbidden.
Unfortunately, she's crushing hard on the totally hot pure-blood Aiden. But falling for Aiden isn't her biggest problem--staying alive long enough to graduate the Covenant and become a Sentinel is. If she fails in her duty, she faces a future worse than death or slavery: being turned into a daimon, and being hunted by Aiden. And that would kind of suck.
8. Silence by Becca FitzpatrickWhy: Obviously the black and white adds this whole different effect to the cover, overall. I also love this one because both Patch and Nora are on there. I love how the clouds are opening up, the wings on Patch's back and the waves.
The noise between Patch and Nora is gone. They've overcome the secrets riddled in Patch's dark past...bridged two irreconcilable worlds...faced heart-wrenching tests of betrayal, loyalty and trust...and all for a love that will transcend the boundary between heaven and earth. Armed with nothing but their absolute faith in one another, Patch and Nora enter a desperate fight to stop a villain who holds the power to shatter everything they've worked for—and their love—forever.
9. Sneak Thievery by Samantha YoungWhy: I don't think I even need to ask this! ;) The cover is breathtaking! The model, the horse, the moonlight - straight up mischief and mystery right there! If I saw this cover sitting on a bookshelf in stores, I would pick it up, no questions asked!
SPOILERY: I have not read this book but just to warn everyone, this is book two in The Fade series, so if you haven't read book one, you might want to skim over the summary.
L is surprised by how much she enjoys the transformation from mountain girl to a lady of Silvera. With a strong sense of self, she’s adamant that learning proper conduct, and how to speak and dress well, will provide her with a brighter future. She refuses, however, to give up her practical or straightforward nature. Or her crossbow.
When L meets Fane, a soldier in the Royal Guard, all she sees is a smart-mouthed, straight talking young man who seems to understand her. L thinks nothing of befriending him.
But Fane is not who he appears to be. Fane is a spy. And when war ships arrive on the coast of Silvera carrying Fane’s ruler, a mage more powerful than any of them could ever imagine,
Phaedra is plunged into darkness as an old legend proves true.
Reeling from the betrayal, L shrugs off the new her and pulls on the old.
It seems once more… she and Rogan have a princess to save.
10. Shattered Souls by Mary LindseyWhy: I love how the model's dress turns into flower petals like they're shattering...like the title says. ;) I love how at the top and the bottom of the cover it's green-ish because it really draws my attention to the center of the book where the title and tagline are.
A thrilling debut story of death, love, destiny and danger.
Lenzi hears voices and has visions - gravestones, floods, a boy with steel gray eyes. Her boyfriend, Zak, can't help, and everything keeps getting louder and more intense. Then Lenzi meets Alden, the boy from her dreams, who reveals that she's a reincarnated Speaker - someone who can talk to and help lost souls - and that he has been her Protector for centuries.
Now Lenzi must choose between her life with Zak and the life she is destined to lead with Alden. But time is running out: a malevolent spirit is out to destroy Lenzi, and he will kill her if she doesn't make a decision soon.
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Omg, I just went back through my list and out of all these ten, I have only read two of them. #MomoFail ;) So, what do you guys think of my top picks? I absolutely love all of them and I had a really fun time choosing and putting together this post, lol! So many pretties!
If you have a post, be sure to leave it in the comments and I will most definitely drop by to check out some more pretties!
Don't forget to check back tomorrow for my Top 10 Boyfriends in 2011. Eee! This one should be fun to write up and share with all of you, not to mention how hard it will be to narrow it down. ;) I wouldn't miss it if I were you!
