Wow! Those are some mouth-watering covers! If I had to choose, I'd have to say my favs are: Huntress, Iron Witch and Tiger's Curse, but they are all beautiful. Looks like I'll be reading some great books this winter.

And I swear I picked Huntress before I noticed it was Malinda who posted this!

:)

I personally love THE IRON THORN, BLESSED, ENTWINED and the ANGELFIRE covers. But my absolute favourite just has to be HUNTRESS (and I'm not just saying that) because it's the *only* book with an honest-to-God person of colour on the front, even though I'm sure at least some of the others must have main characters who aren't white. *Sigh*

yes, just commented on the same thing before your comment popped up on my screen - we must have been thinking the same thing at the same time! *double sigh*

Great minds, and all that!

Well, actually this spring there are FOUR Asian-inspired YA fantasies coming out: HUNTRESS, FURY OF THE PHOENIX, EONA, and TIGER'S CURSE. I think all four covers definitely have some Asian elements in them. Also, Nnedi Okorafor's AKATA WITCH is Nigerian fantasy.

Don't forget that CITY OF FALLEN ANGELS is populated by a very diverse cast. And last but not least, Cynthia Leitich-Smith, author of BLESSED, is Native American. So there's definitely diversity to celebrate this winter!

My gosh! And I forgot about DARK GODDESS, too!

I think it's *wonderful* that there are increasing numbers of books that feature diverse and realistic casts. I just wish that the cover art celebrated/announced it bit more clearly...

And I forgot about SLICE OF CHERRY by Dia Reeves! OK, I'm going to slink off now ...

which speaks to my theory that kick-ass Asian heroines need to form a union, or at least a social club. In which they can practice their sword fighting skills and witty social justice oriented reparte side by side! :) (and eat really yummy pan asian foods...)
If there is such a social club for fictional beings, I do hope my WIP's kick-ass Bengali heroine will get to know the secret handshake soon... *triple sigh!*

All joking aside - I actually love the heroines with weapons motif. Asian kick-butt heroines with weapons, even better (how better to debunk the myth that we Asian women are somehow docile or passive?)

Although both Sarwat Chaddha and Cindy Pon's heroines are (at least partially) Asian - can we tell tho by the covers? (ie. how much whitewashing is STILL going on with YA covers? I know it's totally out of the authors' hands....)

Malinda - I've got to say I LOVE the symmetry and power of the Huntress cover - it's georgeous! Kudos!

Glad you like the Huntress cover!

there's so much MOTION in it, right? that's what I really like about it. Like she's about to leap off the page at you...

Gorgeous covers! And it's wonderful that women with weapons are showing up.

I love "No, really, who IS that girl?" :-D

I was a little freaked out by the neck photos. LOL.

I'm loving the Timeless cover. It makes it look mysterious and seems to convey what the story's about (at least from the blurb I've read).

I always love this post when you put up all the new covers. I also like how you sort them - interesting to see the trends I might not be aware of otherwise.

There is MUCH to love here, but if I had to choose one that I would pick up just from the tantalizing cover I'd have to go with THE IRON WITCH.

I'm with you! Honestly that's the one (Geek Fantasy Novel) that caught my attention immediately. There are many, many on this list that I am looking forward to as well! And BTW, HUNTRESS looks AMAZING. I love perusing covers!

My favorite covers are False Princess, Geek Fantasy Novel, Shadow Walkers, The Abused Werewolf Rescue Group, The Hunt of the Unicorn, and, obviously, Huntress.

I didn't realize that Dark Goddess and Fury of The Phoenix featured Asian characters until I read the comments. : (

so many faces!

They are all fantastic, but I think BLOOD MAGIC and SLICE OF CHERRY are my personal faves.

Great selection. They're all beautiful and so full of intricate details.

Wow! It's hard to pick. If I had to pick it'd be Darkest Mercy.

Wow...it's fascinating to see the trends on display like that. Some very cool covers...

I have to admit, I like a little humor in a cover too--or a playful element whose meaning is only obvious if you read the book.

Fascinating!

Fabulous post, Malinda... love the cover art for The Returning, and of course Huntress! It is kickass :)

Awesome post! I'm so excited for all the sexy assassin-type chicks this season!

Wow! It's so interesting to see them all broken down like that. I hadn't heard of Geek Fantasy Novel before but it looks hilarious!

I quite like the decorative scrolly bits in the corners of Geek, The Iron Witch, and Tiger's Curse.

Great post--lots of titles to look forward to!

I love the sort of dreamy out-of-body experience that comes from looking at huge arrays of book covers . . . . . :)

SLICE OF CHERRY and GEEK FANTASY NOVEL both make me smile (a nervous smile for Dia's book, because I know it's got to be beautifully gory!). HUNTRESS is lovely. And I like the old-fashioned look of THE IRON THORN.



Anne

I love these cover posts.

And EONA! I didn't know it even had a release date. This cover is so much better than the EON cover.

Wow! These are all gorgeous, and I love your categorizations. For me, the ones that have the most intriguing "I wonder what's going on with that?" quality are Chime, The Iron Witch, and Slice of Cherry. My favorite from a purely visual perspective is the Kathryn Lasky book.

The cover for my third book Arrow (Orchard Books UK, January 2011) has a beautiful brown-skinned faery with full lips and a thick mane of nappy hair, and it's selling better than either of the earlier two in the series.

Maybe because the cover is monochrome, readers find it easy to overlook her biracial appearance (even though it's described early and mentioned several more places in the book)? Or maybe it's because the UK is a different culture than the US when it comes to racial diversity? I don't know -- but I'm thrilled that my British publisher didn't shy away from depicting Rhosmari as I envisioned her.

In fact, when I first sent a stock photo of a girl I thought resembled Rhosmari to my (white) editor early in the writing process, her first response was, "What a beautiful character!" It made me so happy to hear that, especially after the then-recent upsets over the whitewashed covers of books like Liar and Magic Under Glass. It still does.

Edited at 2011-01-27 12:56 am (UTC)

The Magical Beasts made me laugh when I saw the butterfly. Not what I was expecting but still cool.

So many of the books coming out this winter, have a winter cover appeal! Huntress, Tiger's Curse, the Returning, Timeless. They all have a wintery feel to me :)

I LOVE the cover of Blessed too, simple but striking. Same thing with Slice of Cherry. And I'm ecstatic over all the awesome covers for Lady Killers (The dark Goddess! Fury of the Phoenix!)

Akata Witch has such a whimsy feel to me, I adore it :D

What I like about the cover of The Iron Witch is that the girl's face isn't cut off, instead she's hiding from something/someone. It's better than seeing half a face, or a throat. haha

Great breakdown!

~Ari

It's really fascinating to see just how strong these trends are. At the same time I really miss illustrated covers and will always prefer them to photo-manipulated ones. Talented illustrators are so precious and I think it is really important that their skills are used and appreciated, where as people with this level of Photoshop ability are a dime a dozen at the moment. I also find the airbrushed model faces uninspiring.

Strong, beautiful girls are "It".

No complaints from me.

I love unearthly, Haunted, Beautiful Dead & Entwined... Absolutely beautiful!

I actually really like this latest trend in covers!
Have to love the Huntress cover though, there's something about the simplicity of it.

There's also something drawing me to the Dark Goddess cover, but then I like the idea of female leads throwing knives and punches.

This is the 2nd time I've seen The Iron Witch cover n less than 24 hrs and I've been intrigued both times! Thank u for posting these!