Designing a Book Cover I LOVE

Hey! I've missed you! I've been very busy with my work, and they've kept me pretty busy with lots of things I LOVE, such as Graphic Design. I'll post more on that later, but for now, won't you tell me what you think about this particular graphic design project?

I'm new to the "literature" world. Never been an avid reader. That is, until this past Christmas when my sister got me the Twilight Series to read. Eight days later, I came out of my Twilight haze and vowed to read MORE. I've been reading LOTS of books ever since, somewhere around 40 to be exact.

Yep, I'm kinda weird like that. No, you shouldn't judge!

I have read Alyson Noel's "Immortal Series," and in doing that, somehow managed to sign up for the publisher's newsletter, in which I stumbled upon a VERY good book, by Shannon Delany called "13 to Life." I finished it in a day! Totally LOVED it. Now, she's having a contest for her fans, and it includes some graphic design.

So, I decided to give it a try!

Here's the original cover:. . . and here's MY version:
I'm not a fan of using "models" on book covers, so I tried to keep it more neutral, but did find a really cool wolf tattoo-like symbol and some fur! Then, I decided to keep the same format, since it's a series, and it would look totally COOL if they were, like, connected in a "series" kind of way, so I designed the second book, Secrets and Shadows, like this:
I like the forest-y effect, and since I don't know much about the book's content, I sort of had to guess what lies inside... Shannon, if you're reading this, I totally want to put under your name "New York Times bestselling author of the series, "13 to Life" -- so when you're ready, I'm TOTALLY doing it...!!

So what do you think?!? I think I could do a couple of book covers for REAL -- you know, like push my graphic design in that direction!! Sooo much FUN!

It may not be enough to win the competition, since the points for design are so low, but it was so much fun! I hope to WOW the author, though!!