Maggie Stiefvater | Authors Who Win the Cover Lottery #1

A new segment here on the blog that will spotlight gorgeous covers and the authors who nail them repeatedly. 

Take a moment. Breath these cover in. Let their beauty cure all your ills. Imagine yourself stroking and hugging them close. Then marvel at how damn lucky can one author be to win the cover lottery again, and again, and again!

I don't know if it's because Maggie is an artist, or if she even has a say in her books' covers, but damn. Even her earlier works, like Lament and Ballad, or the anthologies she's in like The Curiosities and The Anatomy of Curiosity have really pleasing covers.

But I chose to focus on the eight above.

The Shiver series is the earliest of the ones displayed, and I have to admit I like all the iterations of this series. The ones I put above are the original ones, which I think are the best. I like the simplicity of them, the branches, and the way you suddenly see the wolf there. The new covers follow a similar theme, but I don't like how the color just overtakes everything. I feel like the white works a lot better.

The next covers are of the raven cycle. God almighty, I think those are the most gorgeous covers EVER. Seriously they are at the top of the top of my favorite list. It starts all the way with the first book, The Raven Boys with the cool raven made of brush strokes and the red beating heart, The Dream Thieves with my hubby Ronan so beautifully drawn atop it, Blue Lily, Lily Blue which fights with The Raven King for my favorite of the favorites. Both of them utilize the gorgeous brush strokes, and create such beautiful drawings I CAN'T EVEN THEY ARE SO PRETTY!!!

And then there is the newest addition, All the Crooked Saints. Another pretty one that uses the theme of branches and flowers. It's just SO PLEASENT to look at. Seriously. The colors beautifully mash, the typography and the way the veins climb through it and AHHH I want it already just so I could stare at it all day.

Another cover that I debated putting in but eventually decided against (since the original one is pretty ugly) is the second hardcover version of The Scorpio Races and the second paperback version.  Again, both are so nice to look at.

By the way, I love how Maggie's covers often utilize the white and blank spaces. It makes the actual illustration POP out.

*I link to the amazon buying options where they exist, or to the GR page if you can't buy it anymore.

*I created the graphic with help from this stamp template*

A Goodbye Letter to The Raven King by Maggie Stiefvater | Book Review-ish

The Raven King by Maggie Stiefvater

The Raven Cycle #4
First Published: 2016
Hardcover
Young Adult, Fantasy
Rating:

Nothing living is safe. Nothing dead is to be trusted.
For years, Gansey has been on a quest to find a lost king. One by one, he’s drawn others into this quest: Ronan, who steals from dreams; Adam, whose life is no longer his own; Noah, whose life is no longer a lie; and Blue, who loves Gansey… and is certain she is destined to kill him.
Now the endgame has begun. Dreams and nightmares are converging. Love and loss are inseparable. And the quest refuses to be pinned to a path.

I can't believe that it's over. I don't even know if I have the words right now. I feel inadequate compared to the flourish with which this story expressed itself. In my head, I have something more. A way to articulate the thoughts and the feelings and the friendship I found within these pages.

How do I review something like this? What can I say, what can I not?

Blue and Gansey; you two were the reason I went on this journey. It wasn't just the idea about your doomed love and your stolen glances and touches, not so stolen now, although I cannot deny it's a part of it. I cannot pretend I wasn't waiting for THE kiss with a voyeuristic sense of anticipation.

It was that Gansey was a king, a leader, a dreamer. A believer, with charisma to spare and attachments no one can sever. If your found family chooses to forget the good in themselves, you'll remember it for them. And I loved you for it.

It was that Blue was magic without being magical herself, a quirky mass of righteousness and hypocrisy (but not in a bad way), a soul desperate to explore and expand and get out of its own skin. To touch the sky. And I loved you for it.

The two of you quieted something in my when I read of you.

Adam and Ronan; I wasn't counting on you two when I started this series. You sneaked up on me, starting out as two of my least favorite people in the book and developing into something more.

It was that Ronan was gruff and abrasive at first glance, but inside he was color and magic and fantasy. A chaos on the verge of breaking down, anytime. As Adam said himself, so much of Ronan is posturing, and beneath it all you find loyalty, love, and dreams.

It was that Adam was so self righteous and above everything at first, but then you realized he's been hurt one too many times to accept unconditional love--what is love? How do recognize love?-- and affection, and friendship. And so he stumbled and he stumbled until he was faced with the truth of love and life.

Of all the stories, your journey affected me the most. You inflamed something in me, a fierce need to see you both settled in a semblance of a HEA. I did not expect to spend most of the final book thinking of you guys. I did not expect your relationship to be THE relationship when I thought of The Raven Cycle.

I started this series anxiously waiting for one KISS. I finished it looking forward to another.

Noah; my cinnamon bun. The one character in this all who would always draw the short stick. You did not deserve any of what happened to you, and yet you kept your spirits up (no pun intended). I wish I could hug you and tell you everything would be okay. I wish that was the truth.

Cabeswater; You magical, fantastical creature. How you protected your magicians. How you fought. How willing you were to come to your humans' aide, when you could. All you wanted was to make their dreams reality; how could you know some dreams are nightmares?

I fell in love with all of you, as you've all fallen for each other. Your friendship is the stuff of legends, and all consuming thing that has it's own thoughts and feelings.

This strange, fantastical journey feels like a dream, one I did not necessarily want to wake up from. I wish there was something more, another book, or three, because I don't feel ready to let you all go.

You gave me the ending you deserved, you gave me the series finale I've been hoping for, but it could never be enough. I could never really tell you goodbye, my weird, otherworldly friends. I could never think of you and "the end" in the same sentence and have it make sense. You're more than words on a page.

Truly, something more.

#Fangirl: You Need This Trailer Artist In Your Life

Okay, so this is a really spontaneous post, as I've just discovered this incredible trailer artist. This fan makes "tv credits" for fictional tv shows based on the books she loves. She makes an art of assembling clips and it looks so professional. I would watch any tv show that had these for opening credits, especially if they're based on books.

Heck, publishing houses should hire her to create their book trailers because these are far better than any of the ones I've seen out there.

Take this one for the Raven Boys, for example:

Like, seriously. I watched this and I was in awe. It's absolutely perfect, and it doesn't look fan-made at all. what is this sorcery????

Is this what people call an instant-sub? Why, yes, yes it is. I didn't even need to go to see the rest of her tv credits before I subscribed, but I went after just for fun, and found more incredible pieces.

Such as this Cinder tv credits

But okay, I may be a bit biased because those are books I've already read and loved (which, ps. I'm totally isn't. I'm way harsher of variations/adaptations/etc for things I love. I'm nit-picky with them. Can't find a single fault with any of these, though). What about books I haven't seen/read?

Well, check this trailer for the short story "The Man in the Parlor" which was so good I went to read the short story after.

So, what do you think of her tv credits/trailers? are you going to subscribe to her too?