Shelf Candy Saturday #7: "The Midwife of Venice"

This is a meme where the designer, photographer and/or illustrator of a favorite cover is featured is hosted by A Night's Dream of Books. I loved the idea since I always want to read a book when the cover is gorgeous. Bad habit, I know!
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This week I'm going to be featuring different versions of the cover of a historical fiction novel, The Midwife of Venice by Roberta Rich.

US Cover


UK Cover


Bulgarian Cover


This one, and variations of it, are used in a few editions.

The version of the ebook I have (one with a US cover) gives credit to Jaya Micelo for the cover design, but I didn't find any results with that name. Instead Google kept suggesting Jaya Miceli. It also credits the landscape image to Roy Rainford.

About the book:

A rollicking, fast-paced historical novel set against the richness and squalor of sixteenth-century Venice and Malta.

Hannah ha-Levi, a midwife in the Jewish ghetto, is known throughout Venice for her skill in midwifery. When a Christian count appears at Hannah's door imploring her to attend his labouring wife who is near death, Hannah's compassion is tested. Not only is it illegal for Jews to render medical treatment to Christians, it's also punishable by torture ... and death. But Hannah cannot turn down the money. With such a handsome sum, she can save her own husband, Isaac, who was captured at sea and taken to Malta as a slave of the Knights of St. John. Aided by her "birthing spoons" — rudimentary forceps she invented to help with difficult births — will Hannah be able to save mother and child? And if she can, will she also be able to save herself?

Woven through Hannah's travails is the story of Isaac's life as a captive slave in Malta. Fearing that his wife has perished in the plague, he pins his hopes of returning home to Hannah on his talent for writing love letters that melt even the hardest of hearts.

What I like about the cover:

I love how literal the cover is. There is a woman and a view of Venice, which in some of the covers is set as background. I wish I could choose just one favorite among them, but the different takes are all gorgeous.

Shelf Candy Saturday #6: "Dance of Shadows"

This is a meme where the designer, photographer and/or illustrator of a favorite cover is featured is hosted by A Night's Dream of Books. I loved the idea since I always want to read a book when the cover is gorgeous. Bad habit, I know!
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This week I'm going to be featuring a cover which I think it's gorgeous! As you may also notice, I seem to be developing a fixation for covers with red and black.

Title: Dance of Shadows
Author: Yelena Black
Series: Dance of Shadows, #1
Publisher: Bloomsbury U.S.A. Children's Books
Designer: Natalie Shau
deviantart
Website

Why I like it:

Besides the cover being completely enthralling, I love how it portrays the book's name, "Dance of Shadows". She's literally dancing in a dark, smokey and shadowy place. I also love the way her red dress disintegrates into rose petals which go upwards just in the direction her gaze is concentrating on. Her pose seems to convey, she's in a dancing thrall or probably dancing under the huge burden of having to carry the family legacy since there's no joy in her face as she moves.

I checked out Natalie Shau's other works and they are equally amazing, some even more.

About the book (from GR):

"Vanessa Adler isn’t so sure she really belongs at the School of American Ballet. But dance runs in her family. It’s been a part of her life for as long as she can remember. Her grandmother and mother were prima ballerinas, and her older sister Margaret was, too. That is, until Margaret mysteriously disappeared from school three years ago. Vanessa is heir to the family’s gift and the only person who can fulfill her sister’s destiny. She has no choice.

But she never could have guessed how dangerous the school is. The infamous choreographer, Josef, isn’t just ruthless with his pupils, he guards a sinister secret, one in which the school’s dancers—prized for their beauty, grace, and discipline—become pawns in a world of dark, deadly demons."

Shelf Candy Saturday #5

This meme where the designer, photographer and/or illustrator of a favorite cover is featured is hosted by A Night's Dream of Books. I loved the idea since I always want to read a book when the cover is gorgeous. Bad habit, I know!

...............This week I chose a cover of a book which is based on one of the classic stories of one of my favorite authors, Edgar Allan Poe.

Title: Masque of the Red Death
Author: Bethany Griffin
Series: Masque of the Red Death, #1

About the book (GR):

Everything is in ruins.

A devastating plague has decimated the population. And those who are left live in fear of catching it as the city crumbles to pieces around them. (more)

Designer: Paul Zakris

From the Under the Green Willow blog

"Paul Zakris has been designing books for the last twenty-five years. He’s been doing children’s books for twenty years and has been with Greenwillow Books for the last eight years. Boy, is he tired!"

What I love about the cover (besides the colors *grins*):

I love the whole air of mystery the cover brings. I also love death being represented by the barren landscape she is in.

Shelf Candy Saturday #4

This meme where the designer, photographer and/or illustrator of a favorite cover is featured is hosted by A Night's Dream of Books. I loved the idea since I always want to read a book when the cover is gorgeous. Bad habit, I know!

...............This week I chose a cover I am absolutely in love with:

Title: Stormdancer
Author: Jay Kristoff
Illustrator: Jason Chan <-- Click to check out his other illustrations. (At least, I think that's him. It looks like his style.) Here is an interesting interview I found at Tor(dot)com about the making of the cover.

What I like about the cover:
I love the colors. If you haven't noticed, *looks around the blog*, I love the combination of black, red and white. I am also somewhat familiar with the Japanese culture, somewhat...on a very, very basic level, I love anime and Matsuda Shota. No? Ok... So, this book certainly gives off that Asian vibe with the Japanese girl in the middle of the cover.

I think it's a nice touch that she's surrounded by red lotus flowers below and the red, hazy, pollution filled sky above which also has a stalking arashitora in it. I'm currently reading the book, so I used the word found in it which names the mythical creature. I also like both the arashitora and the girl's poses. The creature looks like it's preparing itself to attack and she looks like she's preparing to defend herself.

And what I love the most about this cover is that every element in it, even the way the characters are posed, has something to do with the story. It's also such a beautiful illustration which is also a nice change from the same old flesh and blood girls in pretty dresses, not that I mind, I love those too.

Share your SCS with me.