Cover Reveal: The Dragon with a Chocolate Heart by Stephanie Burgis

In which we showcase the US and the UK covers for Stephanie Burgis’ upcoming Middle Grade novel The Dragon with a Chocolate Heart.

Today we are thrilled to unveil the covers and synopsis for The Dragon with a Chocolate Heart by Stephanie Burgis along with a few words about the novel from the author.

Without further ado, behold! The smugglerific covers!

The UK Cover:

Art by Freya Hartas

The US Cover:

Art by Petur Antonssen

About the Book:

THE DRAGON WITH A CHOCOLATE HEART

Aventurine is the fiercest, bravest kind of dragon, and she’s ready to prove it to her family by leaving the safety of their mountain cave and capturing the most dangerous prey of all: a human.

But when the human she captures tricks her into drinking enchanted hot chocolate, she finds herself transformed into a puny human girl with tiny blunt teeth, no fire, and not one single claw. She’s still the fiercest creature in these mountains though – and now she’s found her true passion: chocolate! All she has to do is walk on two feet to the human city, find herself an apprenticeship (whatever that is) in a chocolate house (which sounds delicious), and she’ll be conquering new territory in no time…won’t she?

Wild and reckless young Aventurine will bring havoc to the human city – but what she doesn’t expect is that she’ll find real friendship there too, along with betrayal, deception, scrumptious chocolate and a startling new understanding of what it means to be a human (and a dragon, too).

A pinch of Ella Enchanted, a sprinkling of How to Train your Dragon and a generous helping of Eva Ibbotsen – The Dragon with a Chocolate Heart is entirely delicious.

About the Author:

Stephanie Burgis grew up in East Lansing, Michigan, but now lives in Wales with her husband and two sons, surrounded by mountains, castles and coffee shops. She has published over thirty short stories for adults and teens, as well as an MG Regency fantasy trilogy, known in the U.S. as the Kat, Incorrigible series and in the U.K. as The Unladylike Adventures of Kat Stephenson. Her first two historical fantasy novels for adults, Masks and Shadows and Congress of Secrets, will be published by Pyr Books in 2016, and her next MG fantasy series will be published by Bloomsbury Books, beginning with The Dragon with a Chocolate Heart in 2017.

A NOTE FROM THE AUTHOR:

When my editor sent me Freya Hartas’s first sketch for the cover of The Dragon with a Chocolate Heart, it was only one of several sketches drawn by various artists for Bloomsbury’s consideration. In her email, my editor said: “Would you like me to send you the others to compare? I really think this one is the best, but you can look at the others if you’d like.”

I talked to her on the phone about fifteen minutes later and told her: “I don’t need to see any others! This one is wonderful.”

The Dragon with a Chocolate Heart is about Aventurine, a fierce, adventurous young dragon who finds herself transformed into an equally fierce and adventurous human girl via a pot of enchanted hot chocolate (which is shown on the back cover of the book). I love the fact that she’s shown in both forms on this cover – and I love the expression on her dragon-face!

I also (is this too shallow to admit?) completely adore the fact that all the silver bits on her scales and on the title itself are foiled on the book’s cover. I have a proof-copy of that cover now, and every time I turn it back and forth, it sparkles in the light, just like this book sparkled for me as I wrote it.

Dragons and chocolate: two of my very favorite things in the world! Bringing them together in this adventure was so much fun. I loved entering my fierce (and chocolate-loving) dragon-girl’s head, and I love seeing her pictured so beautifully here.

The Dragon with a Chocolate Heart is out on 9th February 2017 in the UK and 30th May 2017 in the US.