This pair of books sharing a cover image aren’t even out yet, but they’ll come out within a month of one another. . .across the pond from one another. It’s an image I really like, as I think the feeling it gives is spot on for both stories.

First up:

The Vespertine by Saundra Mitchell, which comes out March 7 by Harcourt. I really love the coloring in this one, as it reminds me of an old sepia photograph. The image itself looks like a modern Cinderella, with a girl in a pretty dress running. But unlike the horrible trend of sullen girls in pretty dresses, this one reminds me a lot more of a scared girl caught in a moment. She’s not weak or broken. The story itself is a historical fantasy, so the cover is spot on. The thin font done in gold adds to the historical feeling. And this cover is much, much better than the original one I saw for this months ago, which is this:

This one doesn’t work as well for me. Not only that, but it reminds me of this one:

Ahem. Back to the double take at hand. The Vespertine cover which I really like is replicated by Eden Maguire’s (of the “Beautiful Dead” series) forthcoming Dark Angel:

This one will release in the UK by Hodder Books in April (and from the looks of it may be available in the US sometime in August). I really dig the red on this — it pops. But what I think I like more is that despite how it’s the same image as The Vespertine, the coloring gives it a completely different feel. This book gives no hint of being historical — and it’s not — but rather a sort of dark romance with hints of the paranormal — which it is. The superimposed woods behind the girl in the red dress really adds to the creepy feeling. The font on this one for the title is perfect too, thick and loopy in the style many other paranormal type books have.

I don’t think either one of these covers does it better; I like both capture the feeling of the book perfectly.

Do you prefer one to the other?