Surprising Celebrity Novels

Montaro Caine by Sidney Portier: A mysterious coin is found in a baby’s hand and  is sent to an MIT lab where the titular student determines that it’s made of materials not found on Earth. Decades later, when another coin surfaces, a larger mystery unravels connected strangers from around the world.

Modelland by Tyra Banks: Tookie De La Crème is snatched out of relative obscurity courtesy of a well-placed  talisman and thrown into a sort of post-apocalyptic model factory, complete with a Thigh-High Boot Camp where De La Crème tries to run the Catwalk Corridor gauntlet to become an Intoxibella (a supermodel).

Playground by 50 Cent: Like most hip-hop superstars, 50 Cent has parlayed his success on the charts into a corporate empire. Unlike most superstars, he also wrote a YA novel about bullying.   Playground was his first solo venture, about a pudgy young man named Butterball whose conflicted emotions about his mother’s lesbianism leads him to violence.