Yesterday, a number of awesome blogs hosted the reveal of SHELF LIFE‘s cover and synopsis as part of the New Adult Sleepover Weekend official blog tour, but today I want to show you the whole jacket.

Why?

Because it’s perty. And I want to pet it. And because designer Najla Qamber rocks my socks off every single time (she also designed WANT and NEED).

I asked her to transition the front into a winter storm on the back (*cough*foreshadowing*cough*) and oh, man, I was transported right back to rural Ohio with those purple snow clouds coming from the west that you just know are going to dump a couple feet of the white stuff–or worse, ice.

It also reminds me of tromping through the woods with my dad, a sportsman, when I was little. He used to make me tuck my ponytail into my hoodie so other hunters wouldn’t mistake it for a squirrel …

ANYWAY. Here’s the full jacket cover, minus a few technical elements that will come later!

Well? Whaddya think???

I know, it’s really different from my other covers, but then, so is the story. Rather than being set in the Deep South, this one’s set in fictional Crestlane, Ohio, though it’s loosely modeled after an area in Ohio where my husband and I lived for a couple years.

Both of us are from rural Ohio, me up in the northeast corner on Lake Erie, and him near where Ohio, Pennsylvania, and the panhandle of West Virginia meet. In many ways, it’s still “home,” so the setting was easy to write.

Synopsis:

*   *   *

It’s impossible to focus on college biology when your family believes doomsday is imminent and the government is out to get you.

All Pete Wilson’s ever wanted is to become a veterinarian, but those dreams are going up in flames. Commuting to an urban college and helping his parents with their apocalyptic prepper crap is more than he can handle.

Worse, Pete’s asshole neighbor is stirring up trouble, his family’s stockpile has been destroyed and farm animals are turning up dead.

Lindsey Linger is the tomboy sister of his best friend. Now a sexy spitfire, she and Pete are liable to set the barn ablaze as their romance finally heats up. But she’s hiding a terrible secret, and rural life isn’t all bonfires and hayloft romps. That becomes clear one icy winter night when the survival of everyone Pete loves hangs in the balance.

Can Pete be the hero they need, or will this be the end of the world as he knows it?

*   *   *

*cue ominous music*

Why am I suddenly tackling farming and doomsday preppers rather than Southern socialites? Well, that’s a post for another day. 🙂

I’d love to know what you think of the cover. Does it fit the synopsis? Can you get a feel for what the book’s about? Tell me in the comments!

(And if you’ve made it this far in the post, you should know there’s a giveaway in conjunction with the cover reveal. Just click on “awesome blogs” above to go to the event page where there’s a list of participating blogs.)