So as a cover-junkie I have to admit that these cover reveal posts are becoming one of my favorite new types of posts! I love looking at covers and wondering more about the story that’s about to unfold. I love having the privilege of sharing these beautiful and thoughtful covers with my readers, and I’m especially excited about today’s reveal!
What’s being revealed today you ask?
I’ll tell you! It’s this brand new debut novel by Ann Gavin called Side by Side, Apart. and it sounds very unique!!!
A special thanks to Ann and the team at Meryton Press for putting this all together!
~ Side by Side, Apart ~
“You see what a strange circumstance it is,” She felt some fleeting relief. “You know our acquaintance has not been easy.”
Elizabeth Bennet—stubborn, quick to judge but slow to revise her opinions, and entirely prejudiced against the man who had just proposed marriage at Hunsford—awakens to learn she has been in an accident. Bedridden in an unfamiliar house, she learns eleven years have passed since the last moment she can remember
She finds herself a married woman, the mother of four, and pregnant yet again. Her children are strangers, and most mystifying of all, Fitzwilliam Darcy is her husband! How could she have married a man she loathes?
Confined to the house by her injury, Mr. Darcy’s company is inescapable. But is just being side by side enough to overcome their differences? What happens when Darcy, improved in manners and happily married to Mrs. Elizabeth Darcy, is faced with an obstinate, bewildered Miss Elizabeth Bennet?
Expected Release Date: TBD
~ Author Bio ~
Ann started writing sometime before she knew how letters functioned. Her first books were drawings of circus poodles heavily annotated with scribbles meant to tell a story. Upon learning how letters were combined to represent words, she started doing that instead. This has proven to be much more successful.
Sometime after that, she decided she wanted to study Anthropology and sometime after that, she decided she liked cats more than dogs. And sometime after that, she decided to become an educator and teach a new generation of kids how to combine letters to represent words, and use those words express ideas.
And without further ado….here is the big reveal!!!
~~~
Connect with Ann
~ Side by Side, Apart Blog Tour ~
May 2nd – May 16th
~~~
What do you think, my friends?
Isn’t this an interesting premise?
I wonder how Elizabeth ended up married to Mr. Darcy!
Isn’t it interesting how the children in the image look a little faded?
What an enticing cover! I love the way that the children are pencil sketch and their parents are in oil – it creates a sort of telescopic effect which really draws you in. This story is new to me and I am very much looking forward to it – congratulations to the author & team – and thanks for another cover reveal Meredith – they are fun posts aren’t they?!
Zorylee sure came up with an interesting premise for a cover, didn’t she? I was blown away when she first told me this concept of an incomplete family portrait.
It’s a beautifully written story! Congratulations on your first JAFF publication!!
Thank you so much for hosting the cover reveal, Meredith! I have wanted to share Zorylee Diaz-Lupitou’s work on this project for months! I think the family scene she created really captures the Darcys and their individual focuses throughout the story.
I loved this story! It’s such an interesting sequel because the premise is quite unusual and the way Darcy and Elizabeth interacted with each other in this story was great to experience.
Thanks for posting the cover. It’s so beautiful and so well suited to this story, especially since this story takes place 11 years since the Darcys have been married.
I think this is such an interesting cover, with the one part clear and the other parts hazy, very apt for the premise. I am looking forward to reading this one very much.
The cover is beautiful! I love the contrast of oils to pencil! And the story sounds very interesting! Well definitely be waiting for this one!
Beautiful cover. I like the idea of coming in the middle of the story. It sounds like a great book that I look forward to reading.
Stunning cover! I love portraits to begin with but what a great concept along with the premise of the story! I can’t wait to read this sequel! Four children already and pregnant…while not remembering how that came to be! Congratulations Ms. Galvia! You have followers already!
Lovely cover and an intriguing storyline. I love books where Elizabeth is married to Darcy and I am wondering how she doesn’t know about it. This will definitely be going on my wish list and I only hope Elizabeth soon realises that Darcy is definitely someone she is happy to have married
I was lucky enough to be able to read this already, and it’s just wonderful. Every lover of great JAFF should watch for its release.
Love the cover. Can’t wait for your book to be released. Her dilemma sounds interesting to say the least. Wow. Asleep 11 years and 4 births she can’t remember. That would be a shock more ways than one.
Carole, she is not asleep all that time…just that those are the years she can’t remember so her thoughts on her husband are all the old not so nice thoughts. Amnesia.
This is an absolutely gorgeous cover. I do love it and I am like you, Meredith, a complete cover junkie! I find the premise of the book enticing too and the cover fits it so well! Looking forward to it!
I read this story as Bruises…loved it and will purchase it. The cover is just so gorgeous. Well done, both artist and author.
I love the partially finished painting look for the cover. What a premise, too!
I love the cover. It makes you curious about the story. The premise is intriguing. I am looking forward to reading this book.
A beautiful, haunting cover and an intriguing premise for a story. I look forward to reading how this all came about for Darcy and Elizabeth. It looks like a three-teapot read!
A great cover for a great story. A unique and very well done variation. Ann did a great job making her character’s actions realistic in an very unusual situation.
What a gorgeous cover!
This certainly sounds like a very different variation. Or should we call it a sequel?
It’s also lovely to meet a new author. Good luck with the launch of your first book Ann.
Beautiful cover! And I love the premise of this one! I’ll definitely be putting it on my wish list.
Oh, I love the premise of this one! And the cover is lovely. Keep us posted on the release date.
Oh my! This is one of the most beautiful covers! I love how it directly presents the premise it is written under! I’d love to know more about the artist and her efforts to get it to this work of art! The book sounds like a definite read for me! So cool!
Meredith, what a great idea to do cover reveals on your blog! What a great way to advertise and get feedback! I love it!
Thank you, Jeanna! I really enjoy doing them! I love looking at and talking about covers! lol!
While I am not the artist, I can tell you a little about how this cover came to be.
The first thing Zorylee did when preparing to design the cover was read the story. Then, she came to me and asked me to distill the essence of the story into one sentence. What is it about more than anything else? Then, she asked for keywords.
She came back to me with the idea of a family portrait where the mother and father had been fully painted, but the children were sketches. Amazingly, she had found a Victorian-era painting with the right parents and children. I loved the concept immediately. After that, it was a matter of getting the details just right. *How* sketchy should the children be? Because the painting was Victorian, the father’s clothes and hair were all wrong for the time period of the story, so Zorylee digitally painted new clothes and hair for him. You would never guess to look at this cover, the father in the original painting also had an enormous mustache! The mother in the original painting had a teeny corseted waist–my Elizabeth is pregnant. Zorylee painted her a new torso that sort of fades out into the sketching…her pregnancy is just as alien to her as the other children.
The fonts used are a authentic 1820’s font and a brush script. The brush script ties into the painting theme of the cover, while the font reflects the research that went into making sure all the words used in the story are authentic to the time period.
In addition to capturing the story and the time period, there are also lots of compositional fundamentals at work that are keeping your eyes drawn to just the right places and making the entire canvas feel balanced, even though there is so much going on.
Zorylee really worked hard to create this cover and I am so happy that it has been unveiled!
Thanks for the extra detail on how the cover was created, Ann. Not only is it interesting to know how the process worked, but it gives me a greater appreciation to know how much thought and work has gone into it.
It is amazing to learn the process of how this cover came to be! Thank you so much for sharing, Ann! How wonderful that Zorylee was able to make these alterations to the character’s faces and clothing. You definitely wouldn’t know it!
Once again, Zorylee Diaz Lupitou has created a strong reflection of the essence of a story in a stunning image that’s enticing to those who aren’t familiar with the subtleties of the plot. The symbolism of the faded children–Elizabeth has amnesia, so she doesn’t remember them–the tenderness of Darcy towards his family, and the question on Elizabeth’s face are all clear summaries of what the reader can expect to enjoy. The story within is wonderful, as well, and has lately been enhanced by the wisdom of editor Gail Warner and finessed by proofreader and layout artist Ellen Pickels. I trust that “Side by Side, Apart” will be even better than when we enjoyed reading it as “Bruises” on fanfiction web sites. I can hardly wait. Congratulations, Ann, and thanks, Meredith!
Wow! That’s quite a premise for new P&P story! Even without seeing this beautiful and meaningful cover I would have been intrigued to no end. I say I has found a new book to be added to my wish list and to be really looked forward to being read:) Thank you for the post, Meredith. As always, your blog is such an endless well of interesting information about books to read.
Beautiful, enticing cover.
I love it! Congratulations Ann, and excellent work as always, Zory!
beautiful cover