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It's a promising week for those of you in need of last-minute stocking stuffers! Jaclyn Dolamore's MAGIC UNDER GLASS and Yvonne Prinz's DARKLIGHT should satisfy those looking for a faerie fix, while three releases this week focus on unconventional teenage jobs: THE VINYL PRINCESS’ Allie works is a record store enthusiast; STUPID CUPID’s Felicity is a matchmaking Cupid-in-training; and VIP LOUNGE’s Chloe Gamble wants to make it as an actress. Rounding out the list are new installments in the action-packed Hero.com and Villain.net series by Andy Briggs, and globe-trotting drama in WANDERLUST, the sequel to BEAUTIFUL AMERICANS.


New Releases for December 22nd

Hardcover

MAGIC UNDER GLASS by Jaclyn Dolamore (Bloomsbury USA Children's Books)
Nimira is a foreign music-hall girl forced to dance for mere pennies. When wealthy sorcerer Hollin Parry hires her to sing with a piano-playing automaton, Nimira believes it is the start of a new and better life. In Parry's world, however, buried secrets are beginning to stir. Unsettling below-stairs rumors swirl about ghosts, a madwoman roaming the halls, and Parry's involvement with a league of sorcerers who torture fairies for sport. Then Nimira discovers the spirit of a fairy gentleman named Erris is trapped inside the clockwork automaton, waiting for someone to break his curse. The two fall into a love that seems hopeless, and breaking the curse becomes a race against time, as not just their love, but the fate of the entire magical world may be in peril.

THE VINYL PRINCESS by Yvonne Prinz (HarperTeen)
Summer is here, and 16-year-old Allie, a self-professed music geek, is exactly where she wants to be: working full-time at Berkeley’s ultra-cool Bob and Bob Records. There, Allie can spend her days bantering with the street people, talking the talk with the staff, shepherding the uncool bridge-and-tunnel shoppers, all the while blissfully surrounded by music, music, music. It’s the perfect setup for her to develop her secret identity as The Vinyl Princess, author of both a brand-new zine and blog. From the safety of her favorite place on earth, Allie is poised to have it all: love, music and blogging.

Her mother, though, is actually the one getting the dates, and business at Allie’s beloved record store is becoming dangerously slow --- not to mention that there have been a string of robberies in the neighborhood. At least her blog seems to be gaining interest, one vinyl junkie at a time…

DARKLIGHT by Lesley Livingston (HarperTeen)
Faerie can't lie…or can they?

Much has changed since autumn, when Kelley Winslow learned she was a Faerie princess, fell in love with changeling guard Sonny Flannery, and saved the mortal realm from the ravages of the Wild Hunt. Now Kelley is stuck in New York City, rehearsing Romeo and Juliet and missing Sonny more with every stage kiss, while Sonny has been forced back to the Otherworld and into a deadly game of cat and mouse with the remaining Hunters and Queen Mabh herself.
When a terrifying encounter sends Kelley tumbling into the Otherworld, her reunion with Sonny is joyful but destined to be cut short. An ancient, hidden magick is stirring, and a dangerous new enemy is willing to risk everything to claim that power. Caught in a web of Faerie deception and shifting allegiances, Kelley and Sonny must tread carefully, for each next step could topple a kingdom…or tear them apart.

With breathtakingly high stakes, the talented Lesley Livingston delivers soaring romance and vividly magical characters in DARKLIGHT, the second novel in the trilogy that began with WONDROUS STRANGE.


Paperback
STUPID CUPID by Rhonda Stapleton (Simon Pulse)
Felicity Walker believes in true love. That's why she applies for a gig at the matchmaking company Cupid's Hollow. But when Felicity gets the job, she learns that she isn't just a matchmaker...she's a cupid! (There's more than one of them, you know.)
Armed with a hot pink, tricked-out PDA infused with the latest in cupid magic (love arrows shot through email), Felicity works to meet her quota of successful matches. But when she bends the rules of cupidity by matching her best friend Maya with three different boys at once, disaster strikes. Felicity needs to come up with a plan to set it all right, pronto, before she gets fired and before Maya ends up with her heart split in three.


VIP LOUNGE by Ed Dector (Simon Pulse)
Chloe Gamble is the hottest thing in Hollywood. But it's only pretty from the outside.
Travis was supposed to have Chloe's back. But the spotlight of fame is very seductive.
Nika's the secret behind Chloe's success. But she's got an agenda of her own.
Let the games begin.


HERO.COM: VIRUS ATTACK by Andy Briggs (Walker Books for Young Readers)
The villain Basilisk is back, and his nefarious plan to infiltrate Hero.com and take it offline has worked --- leaving Toby, Pete, Lorna and Emily as the only Downloaders left on the planet! It’s up to the four friends to stop Basilisk before his computer virus completely destroys the Hero Foundation…but with glitchy, short-circuiting powers and some contention among their ranks, it’ll be no simple task to outwit, outpace and outplot the evil mastermind. VIRUS ATTACK is an action-packed adventure, full of even more creative and exciting powers and intricately linked to the anti-series, Villain.net.

VILLAIN.NET: DARK HUNTER by Andy Briggs (Walker Books for Young Readers)
When a mysterious benefactor springs him from Diablo Island penitentiary, Jake Hunter is back on the run, trying to locate the man who wiped out his family’s memories of him and dodging the efforts of the hero Chameleon to track him down. Unfortunately, his benefactor wants something in return --- for Jake to kidnap the president of the United States. Sure, Jake’s the most powerful super villain on earth, but will the ordinary school kid in him be up to the deadly challenge? DARK HUNTER is an action-packed adventure, full of even more dastardly villains and exciting showdowns and intricately linked to the anti-series, Hero.com.


New Releases for December 24th

Hardcover

WANDERLUST: A Beautiful Americans Novel, by Lucy Silag (Razorbill/Penguin Young Readers Group)
Will they save their lost friend before it’s too late?

Angst and betrayal abound as teens search the French countryside for their missing classmate in this exciting sequel to BEAUTIFUL AMERICANS.

The book opens with PJ on a train, racing toward Rouen to meet her sister, Annabel. But Annabel’s life may be fraught with troubles far worse than her own.
Alex persuades Jay and Zack to hunt for PJ at one of her absentee father’s ritzy estates in the country. But a painful encounter with her dad leaves Alex weeping --- on Jay’s shoulder. Three’s a crowd for Zack; he heads to Amsterdam seeking an old friend, and a place to belong.
Back in Paris, Olivia’s escapades with Thomas are interrupted when they discover reason to believe PJ is in more peril than she knows. Will the crew find PJ in time? Have they lost themselves along the way?