The Penguin Five

Recently our children’s rep from Penguin Publishing sent the usual advanced reading copies (ARC’s) for the store’s fall buy. Like always, I was eager for a few titles I had already heard about, and even more eager to find new titles that looked fun. What I did not in any way expect was what came out of the box: The Penguin Five. This truly brilliant marketing stunt provided 5 must read books from the genres of fantasy, romance, dystopia, paranormal, and horror all in a single, beautifully laid out, box-set. Never before have I seen ARC’s bundled in such a way. It immediately caught my eye, and after a brief period of begging (not too much, our Children’s Buyer quickly recognized that the contents were exactly to my taste, and therefore would actually be read) I was able to take them home. Much like one might enthusiastically open a present while still protecting the beautiful wrapping paper, I gently handled the box as it was transported to my humble abodes, and then drove at breakneck speeds to finally get home and crack this plastic wrapped bundle open (okay, I didn’t really speed home just to read these…I always speed).

The books:
Matched by Ally Condie
The Replacement by Brenna Yovanoff
Nightshade by Andrea Cremer
The Eternal Ones by Kirsten Miller
Sapphique by Catherine Fisher

I’ll try to read them in this order. Finishing with Sapphique only because it is the sequel to Incarceron, which I have yet to read. So, stay tuned and I will review each and every one of these Penguin Five. Let’s see if these 5 new young adult novels are truly worth the money spent on this canny new marketing campaign.