I need to read each of these books. Their excerpts were gripping

I love seeing these pop up on my feed every month.  There were a couple of authors I wasn't sure if I would like prior to reading this.  Now I'm much more likely to give them a chance after reading these previews.

My favourite extract in the sampler was Peter Bognanni's "Things I'm Seeing Without You", which came across like a sequel to "The Fault in Our Stars" but where Hazel was perfectly healthy. The bereaved Tess juggles extreme grief with acerbic observations and I really wanted to read more of her story! 
Next on my list was Marie Lu's "Warcross" - a Bladerunner-esque YA tale of life as a bounty hunter on the edges of a civilisation obsessed with VR gaming. Again, this one left me wanting to know more as the extract came to an end. 
Stephanie Perkins' "There's Someone Inside Your House" set up a Scream-esque thriller, with a serial killer picking off teens in an Alaskan town. Horror is a genre that I struggle with, mainly as I get scared and start freaking out at home, when every slight noise is a nutter with an axe coming to attack me. That said, this pacy and fun tale focused more on the characters and less on the gore, so I was comfortable with it. Not sure if it escalates into a Cabin in the Woods bloodbath, but I felt I could read on and still sleep at nights. 
Kristin Cashore's "Jane Unlimited" piqued my interest, blending a Dickensian poor unfortunate heroine with an OTT Austen-esque country pile filled with the idle rich. 
Last on my list was Julie C Dao's "Forest of a Thousand Lanterns" which was slow to start, but which ended with a pretty night cliffhanger that left me wondering what would happen next. As more of a period fairy tale, this isn't a genre I'm particularly fond of, but it was well written and ended up hooking me.
All in all a great selection of exciting new YA fiction.

What an excellent selection of teasers...I can't wait until the following are available:
Warcross 
A teen technology guru turned bounty hunter is trying to save herself from homelessness by coming up with the owed rent. Between chasing peeps and outrunning the law from a mistake she made and served time for, Emi finds time to escape with Warcross, a world wide video game phenomenon. 

Jane, Unlimited.            Kristen Cashore 
A middle class college drop-out visits her older friend/former tutor at her island estate home. There are hints at mysteries unsolved, questionable characters and Jane is intrigued as she settles in.

There's Someone Inside your house      Stephanie Perkins 
Beginning with a murder scene straight out of a horror movie, Perkins begins her tale of teenage angst. A trio of friends come together the day after, and we are immersed even more in this high school drama. One I'd like to keep reading.

Things I'm Seeing Without You       Peter Bognanni
A story of Tess, a high school dropout who's just lost the love of her life, whom she's only met once. The power of technology to hold two people together as they forge a relationship is astounding. As Tess and Jonah would describe what each other's lives were like, what one is seeing without the other, Tess becomes a better version of herself.
Bognanni has a great voice, and I can't wait to see what comes next in this game. Ganging novel. Well done. 

Rise of the Empress 1.        Julie C Dao
Chinese magic and fairy tales collide in this fateful story of Xifeng. Having endured her aunts scolding, beatings and magic for so long, Xifeng takes a step with her protector boyfriend to begin in the path of her fate. 
Great beginning, I was so disappointed it stopped, and I will definitely be picking this one up again!

I have placed all of these titles on my to-read list!

Warcross – Maire Lu
This title has an interesting concept but was slow going in the beginning. From the few chapters available, the actual game was not seen which makes me leery as to the rules, play, and action that will follow in the novel. The world and character building is strong, but a little long winded and repetitive. I am anxious to see Lu’s take on the online/immersive game that has been proposed. 

Jane, Unlimited – Kristin Cashore
I’m always up for a good mystery and Cashore appears to have stepped up to the challenge. Her characters were given an intriguing back story and small snippets of what may be to come. I enjoyed the private setting and suspicious characters lurking about the island. This will be at the top of my to-read list.

There’s Someone inside Your House – Stephanie Perkins
From these first couple of chapters, I became excited and put off. The quick suspense was well done and even surprised me when the character was killed off so quickly. I saw it as a pattern to later be followed and looked forward to the future danger. The second chapter was slightly less exciting. I felt that there were too many characters introduced too quickly which made it confusing to the reader. These characters all had their quirks (LBGT/male/female names) which were overwhelming when placed all together. The first chapter was very simple in its presentation and I can only hope that the rest of the novel falls back to that.

Things I’m Seeing without You – Peter Bognanni
This has never been my genre of choice but I read the title to see what it was all about. For me, the writing was well done and the character of Tess is given a brief background and a huge weight on her shoulders. This looks like a promising book for teens looking for more emotional walkthroughs or a book about the realities of life.

Forest of a Thousand Lanterns – Julie C. Dao
The first couple of chapters in this novel were enticing and led up to what looks to be a great quest. Xifeng is a strong female character who, after a little provoking, makes her own decisions and can find her way in life. The names themselves could be a problem as they can be hard to wrap one’s tongue around, but, all in all, this title has action, adventure, and a foreign land ahead of it that many readers are clamoring for.

These books will be AMAZING, I FEEL IT. 
They're is so many great books. 
Although I anticipate Warcross on so many levels.

I got this mainly for Warcross by Marie Lu because I'd heard a few good things about it recently on Goodreads. I wasn't disappointed. Mega interesting concept (a rainbow haired, tattooed bounty hunter badass girl and an online game?! Count me in!) and a great writing style. Even from reading just a few chapters I'm now really looking forward to reading the rest. 

Jane, Unlimited was another good story, with an interesting set up. Invited to a rich families 'event', the first chapters introduced some interesting characters (loved Ivy with those Dr. Who references!!!). 

I'm not normally into thrillers/horrors, and as such Theres Someone Inside Your House didn't really appeal to me, but it was an easy read. 

Things I'm Seeing Without You had a good first person narrator, Likeable. But I couldn't really get a feel for the character beyond that because it was a very short chapter. 

Forest of a Thousand Lanterns. Lovely picture of a lantern on the chapter pages. I love Chinese/Asian fairy tales and retellings, and this one had a lot of promise. Star crossed lovers, magic and sorcery. One I'll look out for.

Penguin Teen has some really great titles coming out in the next few months, five of which were featured in this collection. I was thrilled to get to read this because it gave me a chance to see if I'd like some of these titles, two of which are attaining really big hype levels.

Warcross by Marie Lu

This is one of the most talked about books on Twitter right now. While I don't have a full arc, I can see why it's getting the hype. The introduction into the world of the MC, her difficult situation as bounty hunter struggling to keep a roof over her head, really pulls in the reader and their heart.

I love the idea of a world that has a game like this as a central unifier. I've seen it in Japanese manga titles like Sword Art Online and Accel World, loving it both times. There were some details about the game that is Warcross, but I was left wanting just enough that I know I'll be picking it up when it's released.

Jane, Unlimited by Kristin Cashore

I've heard good things about Kristen Cashore's Graceling series and did start the first book. However, the sample of her next work, Jane, Unlimited, did not impress me. The perspective felt strange, like someone was both telling the story and we were hearing it from a 3rd person p.o.v. (Jane). It made reading it confusing.

Then, there was the plot itself. Reading about Jane and Kiran, there wasn't anything to pull me in, nothing interesting that made me want to keep reading.

I won't be picking this book up, as cool as the summary had sounded on Goodreads.

There's Someone Inside Your House by Stephanie Perkins

All I've read from Stephanie Perkins has been light contemporary stories. This feels like a real departure from her Anna and the French Kiss books, which I enjoyed, but now this, this horror movie-esque tale is a real treat.

You get immersed in a not completely safe world from chapter one and instantly you're on guard. Anyone could be the bad guy. Everyone has a secret. Don't get attached to the p.o.v. you're reading from because that person might be the next victim.

This was my favorite entry in the sampler, even more so than Warcross. While I want to read that book, I really want to read this one.

Things I'm Seeing Without You by Peter Bognanni

This book certainly doesn't start out on a cheery note.

"The morning after I dropped out of high school, I woke up before dawn in my father’s empty house thinking about the slow death of the universe."

I wasn't sure I'd like it because that is a rather heavy statement to begin with, but the more I did read, the more questions I found myself having about Tess's story. She's just lost a very important someone, someone she'd only met once IRL, and that kind of relationship has a lot of power, despite what people say. I'm now curious to see how she'll deal with her grief, what her process will be for moving on, can she move on, that sort of thing.

This is going on my to-buy list.

Forest of a Thousand Lanterns by Julie C. Dao

I am not sure what to feel about Xifeng at this point. In such a short amount of time, three or four chapters, she went from someone I felt I could sympathize with to someone that annoyed me, someone that was downtrodden to someone that was privileged and didn't care.

The writing style and the hints at a darker future intrigue me. I want to find out more about this Serpent God that got brought up and whether Xifeng will be a heroine or an anti-heroine.

I love samplers because it gives me a chance to sample authors I have not read yet. This sampler gave me books and authors to add to my list.

Fall is going to be an exciting time in the world of Penguin publishing! I recently met Marie Lu at a book signing and was so excited to hear more about "Warcross." In just the first few chapters, I was hooked on the concept of this futuristic world and whether teams battling in the Warcross games are really in a simple game, or a revolution? I am so excited to find out how Emi's story progresses because knowing Mari Lu, it has to be big! I love her writing!

Jane, Unlimited follows Jane who is a recent college drop out whose sole guardian recently passed away. She is living on her own and is trying hard to make ends meet until one day an old (and very wealthy) friend walks back into her life and invited her to come home to her family's island. So Jane complies and finds herself in the family home in her own suite, complete with hot tub, a bed the size of her own room, original Rembrandt paintings, private yachts, and more. Her aunt believed that the island was one of opportunity, whereas Jane believes things are a little mysterious. What will Jane discover and how will her future unfold?

I won't go into synopses for all five of the books--we'll be here all day. I'll put it on my blog. But overall, these books all had me excited in 2-3 chapters. Whether it was suspenseful, intriguing, magical, or just really good writing, I am interested in all 5 of these and recommend all of them!

Its a good collection of samples, all from books that I am dying to read this year. They are long enough to whet my appetite but since some of these books, like Wacross, don't release until the end of the year, hurts to read because I have to wait so long.

I came here for the Stephanie Perkins, and stayed for everyone else.  The sample from Kristin Cashore also stood out to me as a must-buy.  Can't wait for these books to come out!

Warcross looks like a really interesting premise. There's Someone Inside Your House is probably the book I'm looking forward to the most this summer. Things I'm Seeing Without You sounds like a depressing contemporary, my favorite kind.

So many of these books are on my TBR! I cannot wait to get my hands on them.

Obviously I can't reccome d this one because they're short teasers of books that are coming in September, but 3 of them made my "to-read" list, and one made me physically angry when it ended after sucking me in, So, publishers, mission accomplished! I'm excited to get a hold of these and read them in their entirety!

I love these samplers. It's exciting to get a taste of upcoming books. The hardest part is being cut off at the end of the sample and having to wait until the book releases to finish the story. These definitely help me decide what to pre-order, what to keep on my radar and what I'm probably not that interested in. Out of this sampler I already pre-ordered Jane, Unlimited and There's Someone Inside Your House. The others were interesting but not a definite auto buy for me. I'll still be keeping an eye out for them and early reviews.

I just spent the afternoon devouring the excerpts in the Penguin Teen Game-Changers sampler. It contains five samples of highly anticipated book that will be released this fall, including WarCross by Marie Lu (science fiction), Jane, Unlimited by Kristen Cashore (fantasy), There's Someone Inside Your House by Stephanie Perkins (horror), Things I'm Seeing Without You by Peter Bognanni (contemporary), and Forest of a Thousand Lanterns by Julie C. Dao (fairy tale). 

Prior to these excerpts, I had heard of all of the books except for Things I'm Seeing Without You. I was so thrilled to get to read these excerpts. I put everything in my life on hold for a few hours. And truthfully, I need to read them all. ALL OF THEM. 

I don't want to wish away summer, but can we all take a deep breath and brace ourselves for the amazing fall book season ahead? Amazing!

This was one of the years that I wished I was at Book Expo because I would have been staking these titles out. They sound like a great way to get readers to read them and I like the idea of one book a month. Some of my favorite authors are included that i can't wait for them to be released.

Game Changers works like a perfectly balanced team of athletes - It's a collection of unparalleled talent that will awe and inspire "spectators" in all "arenas"  of YA Lit.  The two standouts on this "team, however, were WARCROSS  and THINGS I"M SEEING WITHOUT YOU.  Lu, already a "legend," displays heightened talent as she wraps us in Em's world--a not-too-distant future wrought with economic dysfunction---and delivers intrigue on demand within only the first two chapters.  Bognanni's excerpt will catch you off guard. Give "Things I'm Seeing" two chapter's worth of your time. You'll discover an undeniable human connection with Tess, who pulls us into her story with honesty, wins us over with her humor, and puts an original story into words with courage.  Thank you,, Penguin Teen, Game Changers is the Geek Equivalent of an ideal Fantasy Football Team.  ARC via Netgalley ~ Lisa Brennan, Middle School Librarian ~ @noveltalk