Angieville

So we haven't talked about the three new Shatter Me books that we are getting from the lovely Tahereh Mafi yet, have we? I've been remiss. I know. I mean, I'm pretty sure you could have guessed that I'm positively delighted by the prospect. I was one of the ones happy with how and where she left things in  Ignite Me . I know others were not. Which is why I think it's no small task Ms. Mafi has set herself in returning to this world and picking up the threads of her tale. But I'm along for the ride. That was never really even a question. The first book is titled Restore Me and is due out next month! The sixth, to be exact. I do love this whiteout version of the set of covers we've got going for the series. Actually, it might be my favorite cover thus far. But my question for you today is have you read the first four chapters excerpt they released yet? I wasn't planning on it, opting to just sort of ride out my gentle anticipation until release day....

I'm relieved the Cover Gods decided to repackage this series. The "I'm gonna eat you for breakfast" model photo from the original cover of Shatter Me was seven different kinds of wrong. The only thing I loved about that original cover was the slashed title. I do miss that and kind of wish they'd ported it over in the repackaging. And while I'm not a huge fan of the sky blue and pink they've opted for in the new covers, I applaud the general direction and the nod to some of the overarching themes of the series. Most of all, I hope it reels in new readers for Tahereh Mafi , because she (and her books) really deserve them. Not long back, I caved and read Destroy Me , the e-novella Ms. Mafi wrote from Warner's perspective. It takes place in between the first and second books, and I finished it even more crazy devoted to that crazy psycho than I was before (and that is saying something). And, of course, I've spent the last handful of months impatient...

Shatter Me came across my radar purely through the blogosphere. I'm fairly certain I wrote it off initially based on the cover alone. Having read it now, I'm even less of a fan of the cover. In fact, I vastly prefer the plain white cover of my ARC. It retains the slashed title (which I love), but otherwise it is just a field of white. The final cover sells the book short, in my opinion, especially Juliette herself. The model, her expression, and the dress are just too froufy and faux intense for Juliette and for my taste. I feel like the story deserved a starker, more ambiguous cover. So what encouraged me to check out this debut novel was definitely not the cover, but rather the collective heart attack it seemed to be giving a slew of my favorite bloggers. I heard "beautiful writing" and "awesome dystopian" and I hoped. But I made sure to go in with carefully measured expectations, because I've had a few of those "beautiful writing awesome dys...