Title- The Samantha Project
Series- The Samantha
Project Book #1
By-Stephanie Karpinske
Genre- YA Sci Fi
Seventeen-year-old Samantha has a seemingly perfect life; great
parents, early admission to Stanford, and a boyfriend who happens to be the
hottest guy in school. But Sam's life takes a dark turn when she starts
developing powers brought on by her unknown involvement in a global
corporation's genetic enhancement project. Now the corporation decides it's
time to take Sam back and turn on the genetic switch that will unleash all the
powers of her enhanced genes.
During a heart-pounding race to flee from the people who
created her, Sam encounters another person who was part of the experimental
project. He's been living in hiding for years and now that Sam's found him,
she's put both their lives in danger. But they can't run for long. A
technological safeguard embedded in their cells ensures that if the corporation
can't have them, nobody will.
“What is this? Why am I here?” I
asked, still feeling like I was half asleep.
More footsteps entered the room. “I
think she’s slept most of it off,” I heard Erik say to whoever walked in.
I felt Erik’s other hand on my arm
and then felt a prick from a needle. Soon I could feel the grogginess go away
and the strength in my muscles return. I opened my eyes and could see normally.
Erik was sitting at my side, still
holding my hand. “Ready to get up now?” His smile was so warm and kind that the
anger I had prepared to unleash on him was quickly disarmed.
Jack stood behind him, arms crossed,
studying my every move.
“Amazing,” he said. “But I can’t
quite understand it.”
Erik shot him a glance of
annoyance.
“Um, yes. Well, let’s get started
then, shall we?” Jack said, sitting on a chair at the end of my bed.
Erik sighed, disappointed in how
the old man was handling things. He turned back to me. “I know it may not seem
like it, but we’re actually trying to help you.”
I gave him the look that I had
heard that line before.
“Sure. You don’t believe me,” he
continued. “I wouldn’t believe me either. Someone drugs me and I wake up in
some strange place, I’d be pretty pissed.” He flashed a slight smile. “But
here’s the deal. We have a lot of stuff to tell you and we’d like you to tell us some stuff, too.” He paused, sensing my hesitation. “If, and
only if, you want to. Okay?” He waited for me to shake my head yes.
“I’ll start with the basics.” Erik
let go of my hand and sat in the chair next to my bed. “I don’t know if you noticed, but I’m a little like you.” I glanced
over at him, unsure of what he was trying to tell me. “You see what I mean? Not everyone can do this.”
I looked at him confused. Not do
what? I thought. This guy is cute but not at all good at explaining things in
clear and simple terms.
“So you
think I’m cute, huh?” I looked up to see him smiling. “And by the way, I think my explanation is very clear. You just need to
pay attention.”
“I AM paying attention!” I said
loudly. And then it hit me. My voice had filled what had been a silent room.
Nobody had spoken for at least a minute. Erik hadn’t said anything. And yet we
were having a conversation. A two-way conversation—without spoken words. He
could read thoughts! That’s why he said we were alike.
Amazon- http://amzn.to/Tj5Ruj
Title-The Golden Couple
Series-The Samantha
Project Book #2
By- Samantha Karpinske
In this action-packed second installment of The Samantha
Project series, Samantha and Erik go on a search to find a way to save
themselves from the genetic time bomb ticking away in their cells. Along the
way, they discover a shocking secret that changes everything.
Although Samantha's boyfriend, Colin, is back now, she can't
deny her feelings for Erik. It isn't long before she learns the real reason why
she can't resist Erik. But only after she's gone too far with him. So far that
Colin may never forgive her.
GlobalLife Genetics continues to pursue Samantha and they'll
stop at nothing to get her. Sam still doesn't understand GlobalLife's plan for
her but she knows it's something big. And she knows it isn't good.
A few minutes later, a black limo
pulled up. “A limo!” Brittany yelled. “Oh my God! I’ve never been in a limo!
I’ve gotta see this!” She ran outside and into the limo.
“Brittany! Wait!” I ran after her,
followed by Erik. We poked our heads into the limo and found her already seated
at the far end. Erik and I stepped in to grab her. “Brittany, get out,” I
yelled at her. “You don’t even know—”
The door slammed shut behind us.
“Erik, open the door,” I said, pulling on Brittany. “The wind must’ve slammed
it shut.”
Erik went to open the door but it
was locked. He pressed the unlock button but it didn’t work. I tried the door
closest to me. It was locked, too. We both tried the remaining doors. All
locked. Then just outside the limo we saw a man in a dark coat and hat who
appeared to be the driver.
I banged on the side window to get
his attention. “Hey, we need to get out! There’s two other people back there!”
I pointed to the airport building.
The driver saw us but didn’t react.
We watched as he walked to the front of the limo and got inside. Erik pounded
on the piece of dark glass that divided us from the driver. “Wait! We need to
wait for two more people!”
The driver ignored him and started
driving away from the airport with the three of us trapped in the back.
“Erik, make him stop!” I screamed.
“This is the wrong car! They didn’t even ask for the code word.”
Erik banged even harder against the
glass divider. “Hey! Stop! Let us out!”
Brittany and I kept trying to open
the doors and windows but they were all locked. We heard a loud bang and looked
back to see a bright, fiery light in the dark night sky. It was coming from the
airport building. Part of the building had exploded, leaving fire and plumes of
smoke in the air.
I moved closer to the back window.
“Oh my God! Erik, look!”
“What the hell? This can’t be
happening!” Erik beat on the glass again, trying to get the driver’s attention.
“Who are you? Let us out! I swear I’ll break this thing!” But the glass
wouldn’t break. It didn’t even crack. If we still had our abilities, Erik would
have broken the glass without a problem. But now both he and I had normal
strength, which wasn’t enough to help us.
“They’re in that building!” I
screamed. “Colin and Jack are in there! We have to go back!” Brittany and I
pounded on the back and side windows.
Erik sat back. “You can’t break it,
Sam. It’s reinforced glass.”
I stopped, frozen in disbelief as I
watched the airport get farther and farther away. “It was a set up. The whole
thing was a trap.”
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Title- A Chosen Destiny
Series- The Samantha Project Book # 3
By- Samantha Karpinske
Samantha's destiny was chosen long ago. At least that's what
she's told by the people who created her. Her enhanced genes and genetic
software were meant to do everything from mold her personality to pick who she
falls in love with.
But can destiny be changed? Ever since Samantha learned the
truth about herself, she's struggled to figure out who's really in charge of
her life. Can she make her own choices? Or is her future determined by her
genes?
Old enemies reappear and new ones emerge as Samantha and Erik
use their powers to fight the people who are after them. But it's getting
harder to figure out who's good and who's evil. The enemy they've been fighting
may not be the one who's truly after them.
“No! Please! Not now!” I said aloud
to myself. I’d never been stopped for speeding before. And I couldn’t be
stopped now. GlobalLife had connections with the police. The cop would look me
up in his database and I’d be back in GlobalLife’s custody within the hour.
“Calm down.” I continued to talk to
myself. “Maybe he’ll just give me a ticket and leave.”
I slowed the car and pulled over.
My hands were shaking as I waited for the officer. Escape scenarios began
playing in my head in response to the stress hormones being released in my
blood. It was one of my abilities, but it wasn’t always that helpful. The scenes
showed me different roads to take in an attempt to get away. But the last thing
I needed was a police chase.
I took a deep breath to calm
myself. It didn’t work. As the officer approached the car, I heard his
thoughts.
“Stupid
teenage drivers. She looks to be around 16. Probably just got her license. Bet
she’s one of those rich kids from The Academy. Taking Daddy’s fancy car for a
spin.”
“You were going 81 in a 55, young
lady,” the officer said as I rolled down my window. “License and registration.”
I kept my head down. “I have to get
it in the glove compartment. Is that okay?”
“Go ahead.” The officer let out a
long sigh as he crossed his arms and stared down at me. “So do you go to The
Academy?”
“Um, no. I don’t know what that
is.” I reached over and opened the glove compartment. It was filled with
papers. I started searching for the registration.
“It’s that private school. Just up
a few exits from here.” The officer leaned down and poked his head through the
window. “Nice car you got. Is your daddy one of the execs at that research
place?”
“I don’t know what place you’re
talking about.” I found the registration and handed it to him. It had Owens’
name on it. Once the officer saw Owens’ name, I knew he’d be suspicious. Some
teenage girl driving a well-known billionaire’s car?
The officer didn’t look at the
registration. Instead he kept talking to me. “You know, that research place
that does something with genes? It’s a big corporation. GlobalLife something.”
I tried to act normal. “Um, no.
I’ve never heard of that place. Is it around here?”
“It’s down in White Plains. But a
lot of the bigwigs who work there like to live out here in the country and send
their kids to The Academy.” He paused. “License, please.”
I froze. I didn’t have a license!
It was sitting in my bedroom back in Minnesota. My mind began racing so fast
that I developed a massive headache. How could I be so stupid speeding like
that?
“License, please.” The officer
repeated the request as he leaned down closer to me. “What’s the problem? You
don’t have one? You’re driving without a license?”
I said nothing and stared straight
ahead.
He sighed again. “Okay, then.
You’ll need to come with me. Your folks will have to come get you at the
station. Gather your things. I’ll be right back.”
The officer returned to his squad
car. My headache intensified as my mind tried to hear what he was thinking. But
I heard nothing as he walked away.
“Please, please just let me go,” I
whispered to myself as if doing so would somehow help. “I’m begging you. Let me
go. Just forget this ever happened and go away.”
My head now felt like it was
splitting into pieces. I closed my eyes and tried harder to hear the officer’s
thoughts. I still couldn’t hear anything.
I opened my eyes again. The bright
sun made the pain in my head even worse. I checked my mirror to see if the
officer was still in his car. But the police car was no longer behind me. I
looked out the front window and noticed an expensive black car with dark tinted
windows. Had another car been pulled over? Or did the car belong to someone
from GlobalLife?
I wasn’t sure what was going on,
but I knew this wasn’t going to end well. I decided I had to at least try to
escape. I reached down to turn the keys in the ignition, but something didn’t
look right. Then I noticed the dashboard was different. It had all kinds of
equipment attached to it. I quickly realized that I was sitting in the front
seat of the police car. The black car in front of me was the one I’d been
driving. How did I get in the police car? I looked to my left and caught a
glimpse of myself in the side mirror. But it wasn’t me! It was the officer!
Amazon- http://www.amazon.com/Chosen-Destiny-Samantha-Project-ebook/dp/B00CCSLCVY/ref=pd_sim_kstore_1http://www.amazon.com/Chosen-Destiny-Samantha-Project-ebook/dp/B00CCSLCVY/ref=pd_sim_kstore_1
Barnes & Noble- http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/a-chosen-destiny-stephanie-karpinske/1115122480?ean=2940016635675
Stephanie is a freelance health writer by day and novel writer
by night. She's been dreaming up stories for as long as she can remember but
finally put a few down on paper (or ebook) with her YA trilogy, The Samantha
Project. She's currently working on a new adult romance series that’s coming
out soon! When she’s not writing, she’s reading (usually YA/NA romance or a
mystery thriller), cooking something really good, or running (to burn off the
calories of whatever she cooked that was really good).
What would you have done differently if you were the main
character of your book?
If I was Samantha, I would’ve told someone about the strange
dreams I was having. I’d probably tell Colin (Sam’s boyfriend) and maybe Uncle
Dave, too. But I’m someone who likes to tell people about my weird dreams.
What was your inspiration behind this book?
About 5 years ago, I had a dream about a girl who was part of
an experiment and being held against her will in an all white room. (That’s now
a scene in book one.) When I woke up I knew that something had been done to her
DNA. For some reason, that dream stuck with me and I kept thinking about how
she got there, who was doing this to her and why, and eventually I turned all
those ideas into a book. I’ve always loved sci-fi and I got interested in
genetics when I took biochemistry in college so it was a fun series to write.
Why did you become a writer ?
I love to tell stories and make characters come alive on the
page. I also love reading other people’s books and getting so immersed in a
story that you can’t put it down. My day job is writing nonfiction health
stories for magazines and developing recipes for cookbooks but whenever I’m not
doing that, I write fiction.
As a reader and writer I think it is important to get to know
your fans and make a connection with them as an author who takes the extra step
to hear what their fans think and want in their continued writing is continued
success and key to selling more books .Do you agree with that ?
Absolutely. I read all the comments about my books--both good
and bad. For book 1, The Samantha Project, I had several comments about the
first half being a little slow so I re-edited the entire first half and
uploaded a new file of the book last June (six months after it came out). With
book 3, A Chosen Destiny, I’ve learned that readers really take sides in a love
triangle and get mad when the girl ends up with the guy they didn’t like. And
the reviews and ratings reflect that. So I’m not sure if I’d do a love triangle
in future books.
Do you have a favorite author or authors?
JK Rowling
Colleen Hoover
Do you like to write your books in a continuing series ?
I do, but I never start out with the idea of doing a series. I
always start out thinking they’ll be standalones and then the story takes off
and I end up doing a series. Samantha was only supposed to be one book but I
don’t write from an outline, so as I was writing I kept coming up with more and
more twists and turns and it ended up being a 3-book series. And I could
definitely write more books in this series if there was enough reader interest.
Currently I’m working on a New Adult romance series that I thought would be one
or maybe two books and it ended up being four.
If you could date any character from any book, who would it be
and why?
Cam from Wait for You (by J. Lynn) - He seemed like a really
nice guy who was also super hot and could bake.
What kinds of books do you like to read in your spare time ?
Young Adult (romance, paranormal romance, science fiction)
New Adult contemporary romance
Do you cry when writing
sad scenes?
Not a full blown cry but I sometimes get teary-eyed. Writing
about the tragedy Samantha has to deal with early in book 1 was very sad.
Did you have a Cover Designer ?
Yes. I’ve worked with several different designers but for The
Samantha Project series I used some designers from Author’s Red Room. And I’m
doing a redesign of all three covers later this fall.
Who is your fictional boyfriend or girlfriend crush ?
It changes depending on what book I’m reading but for now, I’m
sticking with Cam in Wait for You.
If you were able to dine and have a one on one with your
favorite writer/author who would it be ?
J.K. Rowling. I’d love to hear about her writing process,
specifically for the Harry Potter series.
Do just re-read your favorite books ?
I re-read books all the time. Sometimes I’ll skip ahead to my
favorite scenes and just re-read those sections. That’s why I like having an
e-reader. I have all my favorite books handy when I’m traveling and can re-read
scenes or chapters.
Do you ever get in a reading slump like your readers do ?
Not really. I love to read and am open to lots of different
genres.
What is the funniest book you ever read ?
I just read one that I got for free on Amazon and it was
hilarious. It’s a romantic mystery called “It’s Saturday Night and I Ain’t Got
No Body.” It had funny dating scenes and crazy characters. I was laughing out
loud as I read it. My husband looked at me like I was nuts.
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