All winning bids will go to the Red Cross to help the victims of the tornado in Henryville, so bid for a good cause, all right?

Maureen’s The Name of the Star is #8 on the Top Ten list, with this great blurb:

Louisiana teen Rory Deveaux arrives in London to attend Wexford Academy just as a series of Jack the Ripper copycat murders grips the city. Rory may hold the key to finding the murderer. A ghost story with a twist, this is sophisticated and sassy, with more than enough suspense to keep you madly turning pages. I can’t wait for the next book!

Thanks, Joanne R. Fritz of Chester County Book & Music Company, West Chester, PA!

Matt’s The Dead Gentleman is a pick on the Ages 9-12 list, with this write-up from Ellen Klein of Hooray for Books! in Alexandria, VA:

This fantastic time-travel tale with a scary twist is great for reading with a flashlight under your bedcovers! While exploring the mysterious basement of a New York City hotel, 12-year-old Jezebel Lemon encounters the ‘ghost’ of Tommy Learner, a time-traveler from the 19th century. Together, they must thwart the evil Dead Gentleman, who wants to kill every living thing on Earth. Their desperate mission takes them to places you can only begin to imagine!

And last, but certainly not least, more love on the Teen list for Steph’s Lola and the Boy Next Door, with this fun blurb from Jenny Cohen of Waucoma Bookstore in Hood River, OR:

Familiar characters Anna and St. Clair appear in this companion novel to Anna and the French Kiss. Lola, who wears outrageous, fun outfits, thinks she has the perfect life with her family and hot rocker boyfriend. But then her old next door neighbors, the Bell twins, move back into their house. Cricket Bell, ‘the boy next door,’ was one of her good friends growing up, and Lola finally has to deal with her feelings for him. As in her previous novel, Perkins accurately describes what it is like to be a teenager and the angst of figuring out a relationship.

I don’t know about you guys, but I’m using this list as a great source of ideas for Christmas presents!

And of course, my little contribution to the holiday:

Some of these you may have seen already, but there’ve been some great reviews for The Faerie Ring! You’ve already seen the reviews from Publishers Weekly and Kirkus, but Voya also chimes in with their opinion (an excerpt):

Hamilton has created likeable and engaging characters. Tiki is a strong, fiercely loyal protagonist. The plot-driven story immediately immerses readers into the underworld of old London. The early tension between Tiki and Rieker, followed by their slowly evolving romance, lends interest without overwhelming the fantastical element. The faerie clashes are exciting and mildly suspenseful. The satisfying closure enables The Faerie Ring to be a successful stand-alone novel, although this is the start of a planned series.

Mundie Moms also loved it!

The Faerie Ring is an intriguing, beautifully written, blend of historical fiction, mixed with the perfect dose of romance, mystery, and faerie lore, all set within the time period of Victorian London. I was completely enraptured with the story that I couldn’t devour this debut novel fast enough. I absolutely loved reading this! Kiki Hamilton’s writing is spellbinding and her story completely mesmerizing. The way Kiki mixed historical London with faerie lore was masterfully done, making this a truly unique YA book.

And that’s just some of the praise! Don’t miss the book trailer, which over 9,000 Facebook viewers already “liked”!

As for Lola and the Boy Next Door, you already know that School Library Journal loves it, as do Kirkus and Publishers Weekly! Did you know Stephanie is appearing TOMORROW at the Austin Teen Book Festival? Oh, for a teleporter to Texas! And after that she heads to San Francisco with Maureen Johnson, where I hear there will be pajama parties. And if you missed the release party at fantastic indie bookstore Malaprop’s in Asheville, NC, you missed a good time. Maybe I’ll start planning my trip now for ISLA’s release!

I’m also trying something new with my site, where you’ll see an ad for Lola and Anna on the sidebar on some of the pages. If you’re a book blogger or have your own website and want to include the ad, let me know! I’d be happy to share.

As for The Name of The Star, it’s been a wild week. Check out the fan trailer below, which is so creepily atmospheric, I got chills the first time I watched it.

There’s also an interview with Maureen up at Bookpage, with a bonus video, and a contest being run by her UK publisher to join Maureen on a East End walking Ripper tour, and another piece on Killer Reads. We also had a great time at the release party at Books Of Wonder in NYC on Tuesday. And we’ve already gone back to press for a second edition! So if you’re a collector, run out and make sure you buy the first edition now, and lord it over all the others who’ll have to settle for a later edition. You know you’re cool.

And *I* know you’re cool. So there’s that.

Seventeen-year-old Lola lives with her two fathers in San Francisco. An aspiring costume designer, she has an extreme style and a penchant for outlandish outfits, sequins, and wigs and no longer cares what anyone else thinks about her exotic outfits. She also dreams of a future with her boyfriend, Max, as he pursues his rock-and-roll career. But life rarely follows a plan, and Lola’s seems to be falling apart. Her parents don’t like Max, who is 22, and seem to go out of their way to express their displeasure (not that the restrictions have stopped Max and Lola’s more amorous activities). Then Cricket Bell, the guy who broke Lola’s heart two years earlier, and his twin sister move back into the house next door, and Lola’s unstable birth mother moves in until she can find a new place to live. As everything begins to come apart at the seams, she learns that, like fabric, life’s pieces can be sewn back together to create something better than what was originally designed. Perkins’s novel goes a bit deeper than standard chick-lit fare, and Lola is a sympathetic protagonist even when readers disagree with her decisions. Her shaken certainties and the obstacles that are thrown in her path give her maturity and depth and, ultimately, settle her more firmly into her dreams with a greater confidence. Secondary characters are well developed and lend believability to the novel. Step back–it’s going to fly off the shelves.

You heard ‘em — watch your fingers for papercuts as these books fly off the shelves!

A clever, scary, little-bit-sexy beginning to a series that takes Louisiana teen Rory to London.

Rory’s parents are teaching for a year at the University of Bristol, so she gets to spend senior year at Wexford, a London boarding school. She recounts her story, from mining her colorful relatives for stories to wow her English classmates, coming to grips with heavier course loads and making a couple of fairly adorable friends. But London is soon caught up in fear, as a copycat killer has begun recreating Jack the Ripper’s bloody murders in gruesome detail. Johnson fearlessly takes readers from what seems like a cool innocent-abroad-with-iPod story to supernatural thriller, when Rory sees a man no one else does on campus the night of one of those murders. Enter a trio of young folks who are ghost hunters of a very specific sort. The tension ramps up exquisitely among cups of tea, library visits and the London Underground. The explosive ending is genuinely terrifying but never loses the wit, verve and humor that Rory carries with her throughout. While this tale does conclude, it does so with a complicated revelation that will have readers madly eager for the next installment.

Nice touches about friendship, kissing, research and the way a boy’s curls might touch his collar fully integrate with a clear-eyed look at a pitiless killer.

And have you seen the official trailer for The Name of the Star? Check it out!

And speaking of MJ’s new book, I promised a galley to one of the many fabulous commenters on my post last week, didn’t I? Let’s see who random.org thinks should win it… Congrats, Rebecca Enzor! Rebecca, email me with your mailing address, and I’ll send you your galley!

Speaking of contests, do stop by Kiki’s site for a chance to win The Faerie Ring as well as two other September releases, including Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Friend of the Blog and all-around fabulous person Laini Taylor. This one is tops on my TBR pile, for certain!

Perkins avoids the second-novel curse with a delectable companion to her debut hit, Anna and the French Kiss (2010).

Seventeen-year-old budding costume designer Lola Nolan (who vows never to wear the same outfit twice) has finally recovered from two years of heartbreak at the hands of amateur inventor Cricket Graham Bell (Yes, “[t]he Bell family is THAT Bell family. As in telephone”), her first love and neighbor who moved away suddenly without a good-bye. Although her two gay dads are always looking for “[e]vidence of debauchery,” she’s found contentment with her 22-year-old sexy musician boyfriend, Max. She’s in for a jolt again, though, when Cricket and his family return to their San Francisco neighborhood so his twin sister, an Olympic skating hopeful, can train with a new coach. Fans of the first novel will be happy to know that Anna and her boyfriend have not only remained together but play a role in helping Lola confront her renewed feelings for the boy next door. Along with the possibility of romance, Lola also reconciles her lineage to a homeless, drug-addict mother, while Cricket deals with the revelation that his notorious ancestor stole his famous idea. Just as Perkins did with Paris, she embeds a tour of San Francisco culture throughout the snappy storyline.

And steamy kisses and tingly touches? There are still plenty of those, too.

Yay! And Publishers Weekly likes it, too!

Like its predecessor, Perkins’s companion novel to Anna and the French Kiss has snappy dialogue and sexy love interests, though high-school junior Lola is a much more unconventional heroine. With an array of wigs and costumes at her disposal (her outfits include an Egyptian-inspired gown made from a sheet and a cheetah-print number adorned with red ribbons and brooches to protest game-hunting), she has no interest in blending in. As Lola begins her junior year, her goals are to get her fathers to approve of her 22-year-old boyfriend, Max, and to create a masterpiece Marie Antoinette costume for the winter dance. But complications arrive when Cricket Bell moves back next door. Two years ago he broke her heart, and seeing him again shakes her faith in her relationship with Max. What’s a girl to do when two guys are into her? Lola indulges her inner angst plenty, but her self-deprecating sense of humor and Perkins’s skill at capturing Lola’s seesawing emotions make for a lively romance about a girl trying to understand who she is under all the gowns and glitter.

Hooray! *tosses glitter*

And don’t forget to check Stephanie’s News page on her website for info on her upcoming tour!

With the sordidness of Criminal Minds and the goofiness of Ghostbusters, it’s a fresh paranormal story.

If they’d only referenced Law & Order, I think it might have been MJ’s favorite review ever!

Also, The Hollywood Reporter calls Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children “innovative”, and describes it as “X-Men imagined by Tim Burton.” Ransom Riggs is currently celebrating his third week on the New York Times bestseller list with Miss P!

Oooh! And Anna and the French Kiss by Stephanie Perkins is on the Silver Inky long list! Go ANNA!

And there’s more great news coming! Stay tuned!