My Top 10 Indie Book Covers of 2011!

Top 10 Indie Book Cover of 2011
(In no particular order.)

Mundahlia by R.J. Gonzales
Publisher: Self
Pub. Date: July 26th, 2011
Series: The Mundahlian Era, #1

Why I Love this Cover:
Okay so this cover is just so beautiful. And a few days ago I noticed something about this cover that I never noticed before, a somewhat hidden image. When I finally saw it, it only made me love the cover that much more. Do you see it? I'll give you a clue: Here kitty kitty kitty. The purple and silvery-greys work so well together and I love the hourglass and that elegant font.

Synopsis via Goodreads
When our era ends, theirs begins.

Rini thought going to live with her cousins in the city of Austin, Texas while her parents rekindled their marriage on a four month long cruise, was a step in the right direction. When she makes a new quirky friend, and stumbles upon a handsome young man named Jett in the enveloping forest surrounding her cabin, she thought she was only moving forward. Well, she was wrong.

Jett and his clan appear human, just like anyone else. But take a closer look, and you will see that they are indeed Mundahlians. Legendary hybrid beings with both human and animal qualities that have been kept a heavily guarded secret throughout time—until now. They are taking refuge in our world, fleeing from their hidden homeland of Mundahlia and its aging power-hungry King, who has set up a game between his many children. Whoever can bring them back to their world so they can be tried and executed shall receive the crown once he passes.

Upon finding their hide out, Bane, one of the King's sons, and on a hunt to win the crown, sees an opportunity to shatter the blossoming relationship, lure the family back to Mundahlia, and frame Rini for the murder of a Mundahlian—thus, breaking the pact signed long ago with the humans, and reigniting an ancient war for the majority of land and control. A triple deed that will surely earn him the power he craves.

Buy It Now:
Kindle / Nook

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Every Last Kiss by Courtney Cole
Publisher: Lakehouse Press
Pub. Date: May 2nd, 2011
Series: The Bloodstone Saga, #1

Why I Love this Cover:
Here we have another case of a hidden image that I didn't notice til a while after I first originally saw the cover. And once again, it made me find this cover even more spectacular. Do you see it? Here's a hint: Eye see you. This cover is so gorgeous, with beautiful gold tones and a layered composition that really pulls you into the cover. Stunning!

Synopsis via Goodreads
What would you do if you held Fate in your hands? 17-year old Macy Lockhart has the weight of the world on her shoulders. For thousands of years, she has been a Keeper in the ancient organization, the Order of the Moirae… and she literally holds fate in her hands. But this is something that she forgets because her memories are wiped clean in every life until it is time for her cycle to start again. For the last two thousand years, this has never been a problem. Until now. And now…Fate, the very thing that Macy was born to keep, is being challenged and she has only one choice: To return to a previous life to fix it; a life where she was Cleopatra’s handmaiden, Charmian. And that’s not all. Unless she interferes with the fabric of time, the very thing she has returned to repair, her soul mate will die leading Marc Antony’s forces against Rome. Can she really stand aside and allow the love of her life to die all over again?

Buy It Now:
Paperback / Kindle / Nook / Smashwords

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Rippler by Cidney Swanson
Publisher: Williams Press
Pub. Date: June 15th, 2011
Series: Ripple #1

Why I Love this Cover:
Here we have some super pretty shades of blue and purple with an ever so slight and subtle hue of pink. There is something both relaxing and exhilarating about this cover. The font is very elegant and I love that you can see the rocks underneath the water, which adds some dimension. Very beautiful and eye-catching!

Synopsis via Goodreads
Samantha Ruiz has a freak gene that makes her turn invisible, or ripple. She can’t control it, and it’s getting worse. Afraid of becoming a lab-rat, Sam keeps her ability secret, until fellow runner Will Baker sees her vanish into thin air. Will promises secrecy and help, and Sam begins to fall in love. Together, the two discover there are worse things than being a scientific curiosity. Someone’s been killing people who possess Sam's gene. A mysterious man from France sends letters that offer hope for safety, but also reveal a sinister connection with Nazi experiments. The more time Sam spends with Will, the less she can imagine life without him. When Sam uncovers secrets from her past, she must choose between keeping Will in her life or keeping Will safe.

Buy It Now:
Paperback / Kindle

~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Don't Fear the Reaper by Michelle Muto
Publisher: Dreamscapes, Inc
Pub. Date: September 23rd, 2011
Series: Netherworld #1

Why I Love this Cover:
Eerie. Haunting. Deliciously creepy. These are all words I'd use to describe this cover. It's ominous awesomeness! (Say that five times fast.)

Synopsis via Goodreads
Grief-stricken by the murder of her twin, Keely Morrison is convinced suicide is her ticket to eternal peace and a chance to reunite with her sister. When Keely succeeds in taking her own life, she discovers death isn’t at all what she expected. Instead, she’s trapped in a netherworld on Earth and her only hope for reconnecting with her sister and navigating the afterlife is a bounty-hunting reaper and a sardonic, possibly unscrupulous, demon. But when the demon offers Keely her greatest temptation—revenge on her sister’s murderer—she must uncover his motives and determine who she can trust. Because, as Keely soon learns, both reaper and demon are keeping secrets and she fears the worst is true—that her every decision will change how, and with whom, she spends eternity.

Buy It Now:
Paperback / Kindle / Nook / Smashwords

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Brightest Kind of Darkness by P.T. Michelle
Publisher: Self
Pub. Date: June 27th, 2011
Series: Brightest Kind of Darkness #1

Why I Love this Cover:
Okay so Autumn is my favorite time of year so it's only natural that I would be drawn to the gorgeous orange and gold tones of the leaves paired with the red of Nara's dress. This is another one of those covers that has a nice depth to it. Also really like the black, floating leaves! At least, I think they're leaves. Anyway.

Synopsis via Goodreads
Nara Collins is an average sixteen-year-old, with one exception: every night she dreams the events of the following day. Due to an incident in her past, Nara avoids using her special gift to change fate…until she dreams a future she can’t ignore.

After Nara prevents a bombing at Blue Ridge High, her ability to see the future starts to fade, while people at school are suddenly being injured at an unusually high rate.

Grappling with her diminishing powers and the need to prevent another disaster, Nara meets Ethan Harris, a mysterious loner who seems to understand her better than anyone. Ethan and Nara forge an irresistible connection, but as their relationship heats up, so do her questions about his dark past.

Buy It Now
Paperback / Kindle / Nook / Smashwords

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Destiny Binds by Tammy Blackwell
Publisher: CreateSpace
Pub. Date: March 3rd, 2011
Trilogy: Timber Wolves #1

Why I Love this Cover:
So I got to admit, the cover this book had before this one was...ugh...not pretty. It was really plain and fake looking. You'll see it when you click the Nook link. So I was delighted to see this new cover, which is so...wow. I love how there's a mostly dark cover and then an area of light streaming beautifully through the branches of the trees. And then the silhouette of the wolf pulls it all together to make for a very mysterious and stunning cover. The font is awfully darn cool too.

Synopsis via Goodreads
Scout Donovan is a girl who believes in rules, logic, and her lifelong love of Charlie Hagan. Alex Cole believes in destiny, magic, and Scout. When Alex introduces Scout to the world of Shifters, men who change into wolves or coyotes during the full moon and Seers, women who can see your most private thoughts and emotions with a mere touch, the knowledge changes everything and everyone Scout thought she knew.

Buy It Now:
Paperback / Kindle / Nook / Smashwords

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Dark Seeker by Taryn Browning
Publisher: Self
Pub. Date: September 27th, 2011
Series: Seeker #1

Why I Love this Cover:
Badass! This cover seriously rocks and has a gritty, sleep-with-one-eye-open-cause-I-can-totally-use-this-dagger look.

Synopsis via Goodreads
For 17-year-old Seeker, Janie Grey, ridding the Baltimore streets of the undead is an inherited duty passed down from her Cherokee ancestors. Seeker Training Lesson #1: Never trust the undead. After her father’s tragic death, Janie creates her own life lesson: Love isn’t worth the risk. Both lessons are easy to follow until she encounters the flawed Kai Sterdam. At first, she believes he is the hybrid she is trained to hunt. But, when he has human traits, she determines she doesn’t know what he is. As Janie’s intrigue over who Kai is pushes her deeper into his mysterious past, she discovers a shocking truth that is even more harrowing than the evil they are up against. It’s a secret Kai wants to keep hidden, especially from Janie.

Buy It Now:
Paperback / Kindle / Nook / Smashwords

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Sleepers by Megg Jensen
Publisher: DarkSide Publishing
Pub. Date: July 20th, 2011
Trilogy: The Swarm #1

Why I Love this Cover:
This is another case of a re-covering. Though I didn't have any problems with the old one, this new one is fantastic! I'm not even sure where to start because everything about this cover is so awe-inspiring with its lovely colors, scenery, and, yes, another pretty girl in a dress. The font is gorgeous as well. This is really one of those covers that makes me sit back and go, "Oooooooo! Ahhhhh!"

Synopsis via Goodreads
An adoptee raised in a foreign land, sixteen-year-old Lianne was content with her life as handmaiden to the queen, until a spell cast on her at birth activated. Now she's filled with uncontrollable rage and access to magic she thought had been bled from her people years ago. Even her years of secret training in elite hand-to-hand combat and meditation can’t calm the fires raging inside her.

Her heart is torn between two boys, the one she’s always loved and the one who always ignored her. But when the kingdom threatens to tear itself apart due to rumors surrounding the queen’s alleged affair, who will Lianne protect and who will she destroy?

Buy it Now:
Kindle / Nook / Smashwords

~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Released by Megan Duncan
Publisher: CreateSpace
Pub. Date: April 1st, 2011
Series: Agents of Evil #1

Why I Love this Cover:
One more badass cover for the collection! (I has a new favorite word. Mom will be thrilled! Not.) This is like the indie version of Angelfire when it comes to badass awesomeness in covers. It's creepy and dangerous and I can tell you right now...I would not want to piss that chick off.

Synopsis via Goodreads
After a demon apocalypse kills their parents and everyone they know, 17-year old Abby Phillips, her brother, Carter, and friend, Max flee their home to travel through what has become the wastelands of America. When radio transmissions of a resistance offering shelter and safety cease, Abby is tempted to give up. Struggling to overcome life-threatening obstacles in their dangerous journey, Abby and her companions quickly discover there are much worse things lurking in the dark than they could have ever imagined.

Buy it Now:
Paperback / Kindle / Nook / Smashwords

~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Exiled by Rashelle Workman
Publisher: Polished Pen Press
Pub. Date: October 3rd, 2011
Series: Immortal Essence #1

Why I Love this Cover:
Okay so this one kind of surprised me by making it to this list. It is just so bizarre, and weird, and crazy, but for some reason it really hooks my attention and I kinda sorta love it in all it's spacey eccentric-ness. Definitely a cover to rival Across the Universe for possessing out-of-this-world-ness.

Synopsis via Goodreads
Stubborn, sixteen-year-old Princess Venus of Kelari wants one thing, to become immortal, that is, until someone exiles her to Earth, kills her irrihunter and takes her family.

Now she wants revenge.

First she’s got to get home. But before she can return to Kelari, the Gods have commanded her to help an arrogant boy named Michael find his soul mate.

Only she doesn't know the first thing about love.

Rather quickly, her inexperience with human emotion is obscured by other matters--alien-controlled psychotic teens that are out to kill her, and a government group that is set on capturing and dissecting her.

Worst of all, Venus will suffer a painful death-by-poisoning, thanks to Earth’s atmosphere, if she remains on the planet longer than one week.

Still, Venus is a Princess and she's got a plan. Surely, with her help, Michael will fall in love with a human.

But time is running out and Michael is falling for the wrong girl--her.

Buy It Now
Paperback / Kindle / Nook / Smashwords

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Aren't those some awesome covers? And they are all on my to-read list. I'll be starting Rippler soon.

Now, I didn't do these seperate from the 'big dogs' because I didn't think they could stand their own, because they most certainly can and all of these are just as good, if not better, in my opinion. I did it because I was having a really tough time picking only ten and so to allow myself to choose more books, I figured I'd do one post for the bigger names and one for the indies. It was for the sake of my sanity and nothing more. With that said, all of these books can be bought for $2.99 or less for Kindle, Nook, and/or through Smashwords.

My Top 10 Book Covers of 2011