Cover Crazy (#3)

Cover Crazy is a meme held (normally) on Mondays, and is hosted by Tawni at The Book Worms.  The whole point is to admire a cover you love, focusing why it caught your attention and what you like most about it. 

Ok, this week I'm mixing it up a little.  I've decided to give you two versions of one book, and then compare the covers and decide which I like best.  So...

Immortal Beloved

Series: Immortal Beloved, Book One

By: Cate Tiernan

Hardcover 7th September 2010

Hardcover 6th January 2011

Synopsis From Goodreads:

New name, new town, new life. Nastasya has done it too often to count. And there's no end in sight. Nothing ever really ends ...when you're immortal. But now, after centuries of feeding from the lives of the innocents around her, of living with little care for others, Nastasya is ready to turn towards the light.

'After some of the events I've witnessed I felt like I was a shell with nothing alive left in me. I hadn't been going around killing people, but people were hurt -- the memories just kept trickling in like rivulets of fresh acid dripping into my brain until I wanted to scream. It was in my blood, I knew. A darkness. The darkness. I had inherited it, along with my immortality and my black eyes.'

Captivating, intense and with an incredible and original voice, EVERLASTING LIFE is a haunting story of friendship, love and secrets, tragedy and loss. Sometimes life is eternal...

Ok, my favourite is the newer hardcover.  It's beautiful: the red leaves bright against the dark greys, blacks and white.  The flowers opening, little white buds with beautiful blood red peeking through.  But then I start to wonder why the white barbs?  Also, the colour seems to drain out towards the bottom of the cover: why?  What does the forest symbolise?  And the soft glow of light at the end?  Will out heroine have to go through a hard time to find her light?  Is she going to have a struggle ahead of her?  Then there's the "Discover The Secret To Everlasting Life".  What does that mean?!  Through magic, vampirism, happiness?  So many questions from the one cover.  And it's so, so beautiful.  I could just buy it to sit on my bookshelf so I could just stare at it.  I want to just stare at it.  But that's just me: what do you think of it?

As for the older version, the first thing I think of is fire.  The hot reds, oranges and purples instictively bring flames up in my head.  I love the light on the girl's face, and the colours are absolutely gorgeous.  And the little circle round the title is beautiful, intricate.  And seeing that with the flames for some reason makes me think of magic, maybe fairies.  It's the circle that does it: it's looks so delicate, full of flowers and little swirls.  I prefer the font for the title on this one: it's really pretty.  But still, fire.  Why fire?  Is there going to be passion?  Magic?  Danger?  It's a gorgeous cover, and I love the colours, but it's not as appealing.

So, my fave is the new cover: it's simple but makes me have a mad tumble of thoughts. 

Which do you prefer?

And which Cover are you Crazy over?