And it’s time for Sample Fridays! :) Sample Fridays is when I share three to five new samples I got from Amazon’s Kindle Store. Note that they’re not to-be-released books, but books that are already out that I want to get sometime, preferably soon. Sampling is a fun way to get to read the first few pages of the book to see if I really want it. :) So yay.
Here are this week’s samples!
The Rise of Renegade X by Chelsea M. Campbell
Sixteen-year-old Damien Locke has a plan: major in messing with people at the local supervillain university and become a professional evil genius, just like his supervillain mom. But when he discovers the shameful secret she’s been hiding all these years, that the one-night stand that spawned him was actually with a superhero, everything gets messed up. His father’s too moral for his own good, so when he finds out Damien exists, he actually wants him to come live with him and his goody-goody superhero family. Damien gets shipped off to stay with them in their suburban hellhole, and he has only six weeks to prove he’s not a hero in any way, or else he’s stuck living with them for the rest of his life, or until he turns eighteen, whichever comes first.
To get out of this mess, Damien has to survive his dad’s “flying lessons” that involve throwing him off the tallest building in the city–despite his nearly debilitating fear of heights–thwarting the eccentric teen scientist who insists she’s his sidekick, and keeping his supervillain girlfriend from finding out the truth. But when Damien uncovers a dastardly plot to turn all the superheroes into mindless zombie slaves, a plan hatched by his own mom, he discovers he cares about his new family more than he thought. Now he has to choose: go back to his life of villainy and let his family become zombies, or stand up to his mom and become a real hero.
This sounds like Sky High meets The Incredibles, in a book. All my geeky tendencies are tickled pink with this book — I’m excited. :) I’m not much of a fan of the cover, though, since it looks more like a graphic novel, but the first few pages seem very interesting. Although maybe I shouldn’t put this in as a sample anymore, as I bought it yesterday. :P Heee.
Swoon at Your Own Risk by Sydney Salter
It’s the summer before senior year and Polly Martin has sworn off boys. Who needs the hurt and confusion? Five recent breakups have left her with an unnatural knowledge of NASCAR, the ultimate hiker’s outfit, a student council position, the sixth highest score on the Donkey Kong machine at the mall, and a summer job at Wild Waves with ex #2 Sawyer Holmes.
Success seems a sure thing when Polly’s grandmother, the syndicated advice columnist, Miss Swoon, moves in for the summer. Polly almost doesn’t mind sharing a room with her little sister, Grace. Think of all the great advice she’ll get!
Everything is going according to plan except… Miss Swoon turns out to be a man-crazy septuagenarian! And then there’s Xander Cooper. If only he wouldn’t keep showing up at Wild Waves with his adorable cousins every afternoon — and what is he writing in that little notebook?
No advice column in the world can prepare Polly for the lessons she learns when she goes on a group camping trip (with three too many ex-boyfriends). Polly is forced to see people for who they are — a blend of good and bad qualities that can’t be reduced to a list or a snappy answer in a Miss Swoon column.
This sounds a bit like Judy Blume, for some reason. I read the sample already and it seems pretty interesting, because Polly feels like an endearing protagonist and narrator. Plus it’s a summer book, and I like summer books because I miss summer already. :(
Insatiable by Meg Cabot
Sick of vampires? So is Meena Harper.
But her boss is making her write about them anyway, even though Meena doesn’t believe in them.
Not that Meena isn’t familiar with the supernatural. See, Meena Harper knows how you’re going to die (not that you’re going to believe her; no one ever does).
But not even Meena’s precognition can prepare her for what happens when she meets—then makes the mistake of falling in love with—Lucien Antonescu, a modern-day prince with a bit of a dark side . . . a dark side a lot of people, like an ancient society of vampire-hunters, would prefer to see him dead for.
The problem is, he already is dead. Maybe that’s why he’s the first guy Meena’s ever met that she could see herself having a future with. See, while Meena’s always been able to see everyone else’s future, she’s never been able look into her own.
And while Lucien seems like everything Meena has ever dreamed of in a boyfriend, he might turn out to be more like a nightmare.
Now might be a good time for Meena to start learning to predict her own future . . .
If she even has one.
I’m not a fan of vampire fiction, even before Twilight, but I’m willing to read Meg Cabot’s try at this. I’m guessing Meena is named after that vampire lady that’s included in the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen cast (I think she was originally from Dracula)? This book seems very interesting, although I’m not too crazy about the cover — it looks like those dangerous romance novels that I avoid in the bookstore. Heh.
Zombie Blondes by Brian James
From the moment Hannah Sanders arrived in town, she felt there was something wrong.
A lot of houses were for sale, and the town seemed infected by an unearthly quiet. And then, on Hannah’s first day of classes, she ran into a group of cheerleaders — the most popular girls in school.
The odd thing was that they were nearly identical in appearance: blonde, beautiful, and deathly pale.
But Hannah wants desperately to fit in — regardless of what her friend Lukas is telling her: if she doesn’t watch her back, she’s going to be blonde and popular and dead — just like all the other zombies in this town….
How awesome does this sound? Zombies! I saw this book while looking at The Book Smugglers archives, and they got me at the word zombies. :P The cover looks simple but effective, too. Look at that barbie cover — can you imagine her being a zombie?
Shadowed Summer by Saundra Mitchell
Iris is ready for another hot, routine summer in her small Louisiana town, hanging around the Red Stripe grocery with her best friend, Collette, and traipsing through the cemetery telling each other spooky stories and pretending to cast spells. Except this summer, Iris doesn’t have to make up a story. This summer, one falls right in her lap.
Years ago, before Iris was born, a local boy named Elijah Landry disappeared. All that remained of him were whispers and hushed gossip in the church pews. Until this summer. A ghost begins to haunt Iris, and she’s certain it’s the ghost of Elijah. What really happened to him? And why, of all people, has he chosen Iris to come back to?
I’ve been seeing this book in the blogs I follow in the web, so I finally gave in and got the sample. I haven’t read it yet, but from the looks of the blurb, it’s about ghosts, and from the looks of the Amazon reviews, it’s comparable to Twilight. I hope it isn’t like that, though — please no more of that. But hm, if it has the same story as Twilight, does this mean Iris will fall in love with a ghost? Interesting.
So that’s it for this week’s samples. I am still on my YA kick, and I can’t help it. I just like them so much. :) But because I splurged on the Kindle Store this week, I can’t really spend so much up until the next few weeks. I have a feeling I’ll just end up sampling and sampling and sampling. Oh well. :)
Feed by Mira Grant
