Launch week for SURRENDER: Wearing Your Heart on Your Sleeve

I'm going to do something a little different to help kick off the celebratory week of Elana's launch for her second novel, SURRENDER.

I'm going to talk about the covers.

Now, I do this rarely because, a lot of times, a cover doesn't really represent what's in the book. And, also, there's the fact that a book's cover is not something the author has much (if any) influence on. But I love the covers for Elana's work specifically because I think they are perfect symbols for the story inside them.

Take Elana's debut, POSSESSION. While the cover did get a bit of color between the hardback and paperback, the thing I love is the iconic image of a butterfly frozen in ice.

The story itself isn't about frozen butterflies. There's excitement and danger, a quick moving plot as Jag and Vi try to escape an oppressive dystopian society.

My favorite thing about the first book is the tough decisions that Vi faces. She is forced to confront issues (and people!) that seem almost impossible. She is constantly forced into Catch-22 scenarios where there is NO one right choice.

The butterfly-in-ice symbol works perfectly for Vi, therefore. She wants to be free (as would any butterfly), but she's trapped by her society and the people around her.

But I have to admit--while I thought the cover was pretty, I didn't really get the full impact of the butterfly in ice image until I read the last chapter of the book. Very few books leave me with a WTF JUST HAPPENED reaction, but the last chapter of POSSESSION definitely did. And it was the last chapter of the book that made me realize just how perfect the image on the cover is for the story.

Which brings us to SURRENDER which debuts this week! When I first saw this cover, I gasped in joy--I cannot imagine a better companion image to the butterfly in ice.

SURRENDER tells the story of Raine, Vi's roommate (another plus for the trapped hummingbird image here--because it's not another butterfly, it is so apropos to get a different caged creature to represent the story). Raine quickly becomes entangled in the world Elana introduced us to in SURRENDER, and as she discovers more about the dystopian world--and about whatever secrets Vi might be hiding--she realizes she's going to have to make some of those tough decisions Vi faced in the first book.

Here's the thing I love about the books: both Vi and Raine are trapped by their oppressive worlds, but the decisions they are forced to face similarly cage them.

And this is why the images on Elana's covers so perfectly fit with what the books are really about. Strip away the dystopian world, the dynamic characters, the hot romances, and what you're left with is a philosophical commentary on how we all have to break free from the cages not just our world erects around us, but that we put around ourselves.

I think my favorite thing about the SURRENDER cover is the fact that there's no lid on the jar. The hummingbird could, potentially, fly up and away. As long as she finds the courage to do so.

A good book cover exposes the heart of the novel to the reader before they even start the first page. SURRENDER wears its heart on its sleeve.

Discover the world of POSSESSION and SURRENDER yourself! All this week, we're featuring Elana's books--and wrapping it up with a giveaway! So stick around--and make sure you snag a copy of it for yourself!


a Rafflecopter giveaway