Cover Art: 2

Source: Beautiful Creatures
Title: Beautiful Darkness (The Caster Chronicles #2) 
Author: Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl
Release Date: October 12, 2010
Artist:  David Caplan
Author Comments:

Covers change all the time between the ARCs (Advanced Reader Copies) and the final versions you see in the bookstore. There are all sorts of reasons, but we think our cover designer David Caplan’s might be the best because it’s something that happens to writers all the time.

Does an idea ever hit you, out of the blue?

You’re just hanging out listening to Black Sabbath (if you’re Kami) or the soundtrack to Spring Awakening (if you’re Margie), and you have an insane flash — a title hits you, the name of a character, the perfect ending, the thesis to your English paper that you have no idea how to start. The same thing can happen when you’re an artist/cover designer. We all loved the first cover for BEAUTIFUL DARKNESS, but an idea hit Dave & he ran with it. When he shared it with everyone, we all went wild! Not only is it gorgeous, but it has a connection to the story you’ll understand after you read BD.

My Thoughts:
What really stands out for me with these covers is the font, which happily didn’t change. We get stairs instead of a gate now.  It’s not a huge change either way, but I’m interested in finding out how the new version connects with the story.

Original version:

Final Version:

Book Description:

Ethan Wate used to think of Gatlin, the small Southern town he had always called home, as a place where nothing ever changed. Then he met mysterious newcomer Lena Duchannes, who revealed a secret world that had been hidden in plain sight all along. A Gatlin that harbored ancient secrets beneath its moss-covered oaks and cracked sidewalks. A Gatlin where a curse has marked Lena’s family of powerful supernaturals for generations. A Gatlin where impossible, magical, life-altering events happen.

Sometimes life-ending.

Together they can face anything Gatlin throws at them, but after suffering a tragic loss, Lena starts to pull away, keeping secrets that test their relationship. And now that Ethan’s eyes have been opened to the darker side of Gatlin, there’s no going back. Haunted by strange visions only he can see, Ethan is pulled deeper into his town’s tangled history and finds himself caught up in the dangerous network of underground passageways endlessly crisscrossing the South, where nothing is as it seems.

Previous Books in Series:

 

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Source: Dark Faerie Tales
Title: Silver Zombie (Delilah Street #4)
Author: Carole Nelson Douglas
Release Date: November 30, 2010
Artist:  N/A
Author Comments: N/A
My Thoughts:
Very pretty.  The first two covers in this series were pretty cheesy, but the third and now this one obviously have a new artist.  I didn’t think much of the first book in this series and can only hope the stories improved with the covers.

Book Description:

Delilah Street and her partner Ric’s Las Vegas investigations left the werewolf and vampire mobs’ empires in shambles and almost killed Quicksilver, Delilah’s beloved wolfhound guardian. Now, the threesome heads for the heartland on a road trip from—and possibly to—Hell, aka Wichita, Kansas. Ric hopes Delilah’s hometown visit will reveal the mysteries behind her childhood phobias, but the heartland proves to be a paranormal hotbed of ancient wrongs, zombies, crime lords, and hustlers. Can the warring witches of Wichita brew up a perfect storm of old enemies, vicious new forces, and shocking revelations to destroy all that Delilah and Ric are and can become?

Previous Books in Series: