Obsessed With Covers #16: China Dolls, City of Eternal Night & Made You Up

Y'all know how much I love a pretty cover. I think about...40% of the books that end up on my shelves (be they physical or digital) do so because of the covers. Call me shallow but you have to admit that a pretty, shiny cover will catch your eye faster than a dull, boring one. Two, simple rules that I'll follow:

• 1, 2 or 3 (no more than 3, though) covers per week;
• books should be new-ish; no more than 2 years old.

Oh, before I share the covers that made me drool or want to stare at them for hours and hours, I have to say something. This is a semi-original idea. Why semi? Because almost every book blogger has something similar. The only thing I came up with was the title. If by any chance there's another blogger with a similar feature with the same title, I assure you I'm not stealing your idea. I'm just THAT bad with titles. Believe me, I'd love to be smarter and have a witty name for this feature, but I don't. So, no copyright infringement/theft/steal or anything of the sort was desired. All I can say is sorry :P

So, here are the prettiest covers I've seen this week.

This cover reminds me so much of those old photos I see from the 20's and I love it for that. I adore the fact that the background is sort of foggy and you can't really see that bridge. I wonder why. You know me, I'm all about figuring out if the cover fits the book. The model fits the title, if you ask me. Not only is her makeup really beautiful, her clothes remind me of the clothes of a china doll. So I have to say that I'm pretty impressed with that.








China Dolls - Lisa See

I think you guys know by now how obsessed I am with cartoonish covers, creepy covers and beautiful dresses. So if a cover has all those three elements together, you get awesomeness and an excited puppy called Ruby *points at self* Let's start with the dress, shall we? Her corset is made of leaves. I love that! And the gold and green colors blend together so well and it makes her stand out against the dark, creepy background. Why creepy? Well, you have the full moon (love!) and the tons of beads that hang from the tree and they remind me of Mardi Gras (would love to see it one day) and of spider webs. Not to mention those black thingies below her elbow which look like bats to me, but I may be wrong. And the entire city is dark violet. And her eyes are scary, because I barely see her pupils. Okay, I'll shut up now.

City of Eternal Night - Kristen Painter

This cover is very, very different from the other two. First, it reminds me of a Rorschach test. And after reading the blurb, I applaud the cover artist for making it like this, because it fits perfectly with the idea of this book. It isn't a happy cover, it kinda hints to a very serious, sad, incredibly heartbreaking story, yet it still gives me hope that there's going to be a happy ending in there somewhere.









Made You Up - Francesca Zappia

Reading Blogs & Eating Popcorn #6

Reading Blogs & Eating Popcorn is a weekly feature here at Ruby's Books, in which I share some of the posts written by other fellow book bloggers over the last week, posts that I loved so much I have to share. 

It's been a while since I did a post in this series and I'm sorry for that. There are tons of good posts out there that deserve to be read by as many people as possible, so I decided to bring this back. Here are some of the posts I read and loved this week:

• Alicia @ Awesome Book Assessment talks about Second Book Syndrome 
• Laura @ Laura Plus Books talks about Being An Easy Reviewer
• Anya @ On Starships and Dragonwings gives great Advice for Starting a Blog
• Kritika @ Snowflakes & Spider Silk talks about the books that put science in science fiction in "Because Science!" (a rant)

I'm late to the party (I'm so sorry guys!) but November is the Sci-Fi Month. This is an event hosted by Rinn, Asti, Leanne and Kelly. There are a lot of amazing posts done by a lot of bloggers, so if you want to check them out, go here and read more about the event and the bloggers participating.

I've read tons of other good posts since I've been missing, but since I have a tiny brain, I didn't think to save all the links *head meet desk*. 

Are there any good posts you've read and loved recently? 

Confession Of A Weird Reader #3: Reading The Last Book In A Series

Hey you all, bookish people! Let's talk about the last book in a series. In the last couple of years some of my favorite series ended and I think a lot of us had to go through the heartbreak that comes right after reading the very last sentence in that particular book.

The news that a series is going to end always makes me anxious. It's one of those things I dread with all my heart and I always hope I don't see it on an author's website. And even if it's not about those big series, of over 6 books in it. Even just the release day of the third book in a trilogy that I loved makes me anxious.

 

I'm not ready for a series to end. I know at some point it should, but I don't want it to end. Not only because I'm so invested in the story, the characters and the world in that series, but because really, that series has become like... a magical portal to this incredible world that gives me immense joy and sometimes heartbreak. I know those characters. I cried for them, I jumped with joy or moped around with them. They're like friends.

Yeah, it might sound weird to non-bookish people, I know. But let's be honest here. Not only have you read their stories and seen them grow and develop and become great men and women, they've also changed you in a way. It always makes me angry when I hear people saying books don't teach you anything and I want to just smack them so hard, but I hear it isn't polite and that it's illegal in some countries *rolls eyes*

 

So, here comes the confession part of this post (it is titled that way, after all). I have yet to read the last 4 books in Women Of The Otherworld. It's not because I've stopped loving that series, I haven't. And I do want to read about *SPOILER ALERT* Savannah and Adam. But reading these last 4 books means reading the end. I don't want that. I've literally picked up those books and put them back on their shelf dozens of times just because of that reason. 

Not to mention that I've delayed reading the last Harry Potter book for a year after it came out, because I didn't want to read about any of my favorite characters dying in the last battle. Guess why I haven't yet read Allegiant and tons of other series endings. I had the courage to read Beautiful Redemption only because I knew there's a sequel. I'm a chicken sometimes, okay?

I have a hard time reading the last book in a series. Okay, so some authors, like Kelley Armstrong, are nice people and write little "What happened after" stories or novellas. It's not the same. And I know, I know, I said I love re-reads and I do. I stand by what I said. But it's still going to end again and again and again. Now, I know I could read stand-alones. But again, I love series. They're big and they give me time with characters that I love and they tell me more stories than you can ever fit into a single book. Plus, with series, there's a certain ease you have when reading from your favorite character's POV. It's like you're meeting with friends. 

What about you? Do you have a hard time reading the final THE END in a series, or is it just as easy as if it were a stand-alone?