Friday Face-Off: Fresh
Welcome to The Friday Face-Off, a weekly meme created by Books by Proxy! Each Friday, we will pit cover against cover while also taking the opportunity to showcase gorgeous artwork and feature some of our favorite book covers. If you want to join the fun, simply choose a book each Friday that fits that week’s predetermined theme, post and compare two or more different covers available for that book, then name your favorite. A list of future weeks’ themes are available at Lynn’s Book Blog.
This week’s theme is:
“New beginnings for a New Year”
~ a cover that is FRESH
Mogsy’s Pick:
Flame in the Mist by Renée Ahdieh
The book I’ve chosen this week is Flame in the Mist, a young adult fantasy inspired by Japanese mythology and history. Its protagonist Mariko is the daughter of a samurai, fated to be a bartered off in a political marriage to the son of the emperor’s favorite consort. On the way to the imperial city, however, her wagon train is attacked by a notorious gang of bandits known as the Black Clan, and only by sheer luck does Mariko manage to escape the bloody massacre. With everyone thinking she is dead, for the first time in her life, Mariko can finally take control of her own destiny. Donning the disguise of a peasant boy, Mariko sets out to infiltrate the ranks of the Black Clan to find out who hired the bandits to try and kill her.
So what is fresh? Surely, a phoenix (or a peacock on fire, whatever!) as a symbol of rebirth and renewal would serve well for today’s theme of new beginnings. And if nothing else, lots of fresh flowers should suffice. Regrettably, I didn’t end up enjoying this book as much as some of its covers. A couple of which I think are actually quite pretty.
From left to right:
G.P. Putnam’s Sons (2017) – Hodder (2018)
German Edition (2018) – Portuguese Edition (2018)
Winner:
Here’s how I would rank these covers, in order from favorite to least favorite: German edition, G.P. Putnam’s Sons edition, Hodder edition, and finally the Portuguese edition.
But what do you think? Which one is your favorite?
I do like the dress, but I will go with the phoenix. Though I would have wanted something explosive if she is to infiltrate an evil gang
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The phoenix cover is quite bright, and I do like it, but maybe it’s because of my mood at the time, I went with something softer 🙂
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I think I prefer the first one!
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That one is popular this week!
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The Hodder edition is so close to being amazing! I don’t know what it is, but it’s missing one thing! So, I’d have to go with your pick too. Not a cover that would make me want to read this book, but I still think it’s the best cover of the lot.
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Maybe it’s the color…I noticed when I went back to look at the different editions, there’s actually one that’s pretty much identical except it’s a light blue instead of light green. I kind of like the blue better!
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I love the idea of a phoenix for new beginnings😊 I still love the original US edition because of the bright colors.
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Yeah it’s very bright, I think it makes it look a little “cartoony” somehow, but it’s still a gorgeous cover!
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Your choice is lovely, but I’m afraid my eyes are drawn by the fiery phoenix in the first cover… 😉
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Haha, it’s hard to beat a phoenix! 😀
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A phoenix is perfect for this theme 😀 And I like that cover the best. Happy New Year, good choice this week!
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Can’t beat that cover when it comes to being the most eye-catching 😀
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I like the Hodder edition best I think, then the G.B. Putnam cover. The shurikens are a nice touch. 🙂
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Haha, I only noticed as I was putting together this post that those flowers were shurikens. I agree they are a nice touch 😀
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This is exactly the type of cover that I was looking for – in fact I was looking for a cover with cherry blossoms because that really speaks of Spring for me. I love your choice of favourite – it’s the one that jumped out to me, it’s beautiful.
Lynn 😀
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Yay, I’m glad I nailed it! And I agree, cherry blossoms scream “spring” and new beginnings to me.
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I’m all for covers with colour so I’d go with the 2017 one.
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That one definitely wins for being the most colorful!
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Oh wow, the covers for this are so very different. I like the one you picked for this them because it feels the most fresh. I do also really love the first two as well.
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Yeah, more variety is always good, though sometimes it makes picking the winner difficult! The first three are all pretty strong.
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I think the putman one is my favourite, but I think the German one is very elegant 🙂
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Elegant is exactly why I picked it! I love elegance, haha 😀
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