X-Ray Reads - Look Before You Read

Every Nanowrimo I’ve done so far has brought some new experience with it. This year, so far… this year’s record is “most re-starts”. I didn’t hit it off with my first story idea, persisted for about 14K words, and then when I still didn’t like any of it I decided to start a new story. That one didn’t work either. I’m working on my third beginning now, and this time I love the story-idea. I&...

Nanny #1. Author: Emma McLaughlin. Summary: Wanted: One young woman to take care of four-year-old boy. Must be cheerful, enthusiastic and selfless–bordering on masochistic. Must relish sixteen-hour shifts with a deliberately nap-deprived preschooler. Must love getting thrown up on, literally and figuratively, by everyone in his family. Must enjoy the delicious anticipation of ridiculously erratic pay. Mostly, must love being treated like...

Author: Jay Asher Summary: You can’t stop the future. You can’t rewind the past. The only way to learn the secret . . . is to press play. Clay Jensen returns home from school to find a strange package with his name on it lying on his porch. Inside he discovers several cassette tapes recorded by Hannah Baker–his classmate and crush–who committed suicide two weeks earlier. Hannah’s voice tells him that there are thi...

Queen’s Thief #5. Author: Megan Whalen Turner. Summary: Deep within the palace of the Mede emperor, in an alcove off the main room of his master’s apartments, Kamet minds his master’s business and his own. Carefully keeping the accounts, and his own counsel, Kamet has accumulated a few possessions, a little money stored in the household’s cashbox, and a significant amount of personal power. As a slave, his fate is tied to his master’s. I...

Author: Elizabeth Goudge. Summary: A lyrical, introspective tale set in 17th Century England, when Cavaliers struggle with Puritans for the king and throne. The story revolves around characters on both sides of the war. On the puritan side, we have a half-gypsy healer with hidden depths, Froniga the white witch. She struggles with her pride and her love for a Catholic. The local squire of her town, Richard, is also a Puritan; he fights his own...

Heartstrikers #3. Author: Rachel Aaron. Summary: When Julius overthrew his mother and took control of his clan, he thought he was doing right by everyone. But sharing power isn’t part of any proper dragon’s vocabulary, and with one seat still open on the new ruling Council, all of Heartstriker is ready to do whatever it takes to get their claws on it, including killing the Nice Dragon who got them into this mess in the first place. To keep his...

Splintered #2. Author: A.G. Howard. Summary: Alyssa Gardner triumphed over her trials in fairyland and made her way back to the human world. Now she’s ready to stay there, with the boy who’s earned her trust and the mother she barely knows yet. But when Morpheus shows up, everything goes wrong. Alyssa’s forced to keep him off, try to open herself to Jeb, explain herself to her mother, all while maintaining appearances at school despite dangero...

Author: Cindy Pon. Summary: Skybright has been a handmaiden her entire life, and as far as she can see she’ll stay right there for the rest of it. But as she and her mistress come of age, things begin to change. Her mistress is acting strangely, hiding things from Skybright and excluding her from her new friendship. For Skybright, this is only the tip of her problems as she begins to undergo strange nocturnal changes. Something’s happening to ...

Author: Karen M. McManus. Summary: Pay close attention and you might solve this. On Monday afternoon, five students at Bayview High walk into detention. Bronwyn, the brain, is Yale-bound and never breaks a rule. Addy, the beauty, is the picture-perfect homecoming princess. Nate, the criminal, is already on probation for dealing. Cooper, the athlete, is the all-star baseball pitcher. And Simon, the outcast, is the creator of Bayview High’s noto...

Author: Jessica Khoury. Summary: Zahra, jinni of the lamp and prisoner of old, is released from her lamp for the first time in centuries when Aladdin finds it. Haunted by the death of the only friend she ever had, Zahra must try to keep herself from growing too attached to Aladdin as she waits for him to choose his wishes… especially when the jinni king offers her freedom in return for help rescuing his son from the humans. But as the two go t...