Take Home Tuesday - Lauren Baratz-Logsted's CRAZY BEAUTIFUL Nominated for a Connecticut Book Award

UPDATE: The winner of CRAZY BEAUTIFUL and THE TWIN'S DAUGHTER by Lauren Baratz-Logsted is Rachel. Congrats! Please email your physical addy to contests(AT)knightagency.net.

Lauren Baratz-Logsted's CRAZY BEAUTIFUL is one of five finalists in the young adult/children's category at the Connecticut Book Awards, being held this weekend. To celebrate Lauren's awesome nomination and gather up good luck vibes, we are giving away a copy of CRAZY BEAUTIFUL and a copy of her recent August release, THE TWIN'S DAUGHTER, to one winner. To enter, leave a good luck wish for Lauren in the comment section. The winner will be announced tomorrow afternoon.

The 411 on THE TWIN'S DAUGHTER: Lucy Sexton is stunned when a disheveled woman appears at the door one day…a woman who bears an uncanny resemblance to Lucy's own beautiful mother. It turns out the two women are identical twins, separated at birth, and raised in dramatically different circumstances. Lucy's mother quickly resolves to give her less fortunate sister the kind of life she has never known. And the transformation in Aunt Helen is indeed remarkable. But when Helen begins to imitate her sister in every way, even Lucy isn't sure at times which twin is which. Can Helen really be trusted, or does her sweet face mask a chilling agenda?

Filled with shocking twists and turns, THE TWIN'S DAUGHTER is an engrossing gothic novel of betrayal, jealousy, and treacherous secrets that will keep you guessing to the very end.

The 411 on CRAZY BEAUTIFUL: In an explosion of his own making, Lucius blew his arms off. Now he has hooks. He chose hooks because they were cheaper. He chose hooks because he wouldn’t outgrow them so quickly. He chose hooks so that everyone would know he was different, so he would scare even himself.

Then he meets Aurora. The hooks don’t scare her. They don’t keep her away. In fact, they don’t make any difference at all to her.

But to Lucius, they mean everything. They remind him of the beast he is inside. Perhaps Aurora is his Beauty, destined to set his soul free from its suffering.

Or maybe she’s just a girl who needs love just like he does.

A Family Affair: Online Chat & Book Giveaway with Lauren Baratz-Logsted & Greg Logsted on Thursday, March 19th @ 9pm ET

This Thursday we are hosting authors Lauren Baratz-Logsted and Greg Logsted in the TKA chat room. This amazing husband and wife team joined forces with their 8 year old daughter, Jackie, to co-author THE SISTERS EIGHT, a delightful series that follows the adventures of 8 year old octuplets as they search for their lost parents and along the way discover that they each possess a magical talent. The tween series premiered last December with ANNIE'S ADVENTURES and DURINDA'S DANGERS (Houghton Mifflin). The next book, GEORGIA'S GREATNESS will be released March 23rd. During the chat, we will give away a copy of ANNIE'S ADVENTURES, signed by all three authors, as well as an autographed copy of Greg Logsted's SOMETHING HAPPENED!

Lauren is an accomplished author with more than a dozen books for both teens and adults under her belt. Her YA books include ME, IN BETWEEN, SECRETS OF MY SUBURBAN LIFE and the upcoming CRAZY BEAUTIFUL (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, September 2009), a modern re-telling of Beauty & The Beast starring a boy with hooks for hands who meets the girl of his dreams on the first day of school. Greg recently released his debut YA novel SOMETHING HAPPENED (Simon & Schuster, November 2008) and his sophmore effort ALIBI JUNIOR HIGH (Simon & Schuster) will be released this June.

This amazing family of writers has a lot of advice to share about writing for the YA audience. Don't miss out on the opportunity to pick their brains on topics such as the latest trends in the market or how to promote books to teens!

To learn more these authors, you can visit their websites: www.LaurenBaratzLogsted.com and www.GregLogsted.com.

What: Online Chat with Lauren Baratz-Logsted & Greg Logsted

When: Thursday, March 19th @ 9pm ET

Where: The TKA Chat Room

How Do You Chat: Visit the chat room here: http://client1.addonchat.com/sc.php?id=115545. Enter a username and password (this can be any combination). Your computer must be Java enabled to chat.