Something wicked this way comes … and it’s a guest post from Odd & True author Cat Winters, stopping by as part of the official blog tour for her new book! Today, Cat shares what it was like seeing the delicious Odd & True cover for the first time — then keep reading to learning more about the book and enter for your chance to win a copy!
So, let’s talk about the stunning Odd & True cover and the first time I laid eyes on it.
In January 2017, my publisher sent me a lovely, clever cover design that looked a little too young for YA, but it was whimsical and unique, and I loved it. About a month later, I learned the cover would be getting a complete overhaul. The sales team wanted it changed to something older and with a more dramatic, photographic look, created by the brilliant artist Nathalia Suellen. I’ve been a fan of Nathalia’s ever since I saw her cover illustration for A.G. Howard’s Splintered, so I gave my full approval.
On February 13, I opened an email from my editor and was greeted by a rough version of the new cover. My jaw dropped. Here’s my ecstatic response (I saved the email!):
“Wow! WOW! WOW! WOW! I adored that original cover, but this one is absolutely perfect and surpasses anything I could have ever imagined. I love their poses. I love that Tru has her cane and the ax and Od has the leather case. I love that this has the look of posters for both PENNY DREADFUL and ABRAHAM LINCOLN, VAMPIRE HUNTER, but with two badass girls at the center. I love the use of red. I love that this will allow the book to sit on shelves with the big kids of YA and demand its own attention.”
I printed a copy of the image to hang on my wall and couldn’t stop looking at it—and this wasn’t even the finished design. I get to have a say in my covers and can speak up if anything isn’t right, but as you can see in my message, I was completely blown away.
A week or two after the mockup arrived, I peeked at the Odd & True page on the website of my YA publisher, Abrams, and there, in all its dark and fantastical glory, was the finished cover you’re looking at today. I love it to death and can’t imagine a better design. My sincerest thanks to the designer, Alyssa Nassner, and the illustrator, Nathalia Suellen. Alyssa and Nathalia also created a new cover for the paperback edition of my 2016 novel, The Steep and Thorny Way.
Trudchen grew up hearing Odette’s stories of their monster-slaying mother and a magician’s curse. But now that Tru’s older, she’s starting to wonder if her older sister’s tales were just comforting lies, especially because there’s nothing fantastic about her own life—permanently disabled and in constant pain from childhood polio.
In 1909, after a two-year absence, Od reappears with a suitcase supposedly full of weapons and a promise to rescue Tru from the monsters on their way to attack her. But it’s Od who seems haunted by something. And when the sisters’ search for their mother leads them to a face-off with the Leeds Devil, a nightmarish beast that’s wreaking havoc in the Mid-Atlantic states, Tru discovers the peculiar possibility that she and her sister—despite their dark pasts and ordinary appearances—might, indeed, have magic after all.
In Stores September 12th: Amazon | B&N | iBooks | TBD | Goodreads
Cat Winters’s critically acclaimed debut novel, In the Shadow of Blackbirds, was named a 2014 Morris Award Finalist, a 2014 Best Fiction for Young Adults pick, a 2013 Bram Stoker Award Nominee, and a School Library Journal Best Book of 2013. Her upcoming novels include The Cure for Dreaming (Amulet Books/Oct. 2014) and The Uninvited (William Morrow/2015), and she’s a contributor to the 2015 YA horror anthology Slasher Girls & Monster Boys. She lives in Portland, Oregon. Visit her online at www.catwinters.com.
Find Cat Online: Website | Twitter | Facebook | Goodreads | Tumblr | Pinterest
(3) winners will receive a finished copy of ODD & TRUE, US & Canada.
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Week One:
- 9/4/2017- Adventures of a Book Junkie– Interview
- 9/5/2017- Here’s to Happy Endings– Review
- 9/6/2017- YA and Wine– Guest Post
- 9/7/2017- Ex Libris– Review
- 9/8/2017- Novel Novice– Guest Post
Week Two:
- 9/11/2017- Take Me Away To A Great Read– Review
- 9/12/2017-Two Chicks on Books– Interview
- 9/13/2017- Falling For YA– Review
- 9/14/2017- Stories & Sweeties– Guest Post
- 9/15/2017- Lisa Loves Literature– Review
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Novel Novice 
Getting ready for the Halloween reads and this would be perfect.
This cover is FANTASTIC! ❤
The cover is breathtaking, the excerpt I read a few months made be want more, but its Cat Winters, so I know its going to be good. 🙂
Can’t wait to read this book! So happy to find another YA author!
It IS a BEAUTIFUL cover!