By "recently-ish" I mean "I actually read most of these in the January-March range and kept thinking I'd give them proper writeups, but didn't ( Read more... )

Hexwood is a rather strange DWJ, even though the actual plot and characters are fairly normal for her ( Read more... )

Like many of the children of London at the dawn of WWII in 1939, Vivian Smith is being sent to the country for her safety. At the railway station, she meets a boy who she initially thinks is her cousin, Marty, but who she soon learns is not. The boy, in truth, is named Jonathan, and he and his friend, Sam, are from Time City, a city frozen in ( Read more... )

Howard lives a relatively typical (if seemingly more well-off than he realizes) life with his parents, annoying younger sister, called “Awful,” and the family’s au pair, Fifi. One day, a large, unnamed person who Fifi describes as “somebody’s goon” plants himself in the kitchen, announcing that he’s come to claim “Archer’s two thousand” from Howard ( Read more... )

Her parents having died when she was too young to remember them, Hayley Foss has been raised by her strict, commanding grandmother and her more mellow, agreeable grandfather. Her grandmother, who homeschooled Hayley, seems to be completely under the thumb of Hayley’s Uncle Jolyon, and her grandfather less so. Having been very sheltered and isolated ( Read more... )

Charmain Baker is a ridiculously sheltered young woman. Her mother doesn’t approve of her knowing how to do anything that isn’t “respectable,” and so she can’t cook, clean, mend, or do magic. Possibly partially as a result of that, she’s also a bookworm in the extreme, and hopes to be able to one day help in the royal library. When her great-aunt- ( Read more... )

Arianhrod (who prefers to be called Roddy) is the granddaughter of the weatherman of the Royal Progress of the Isle of Blest, which is a kind of moving royal court. When the Merlin (a magical protector of sorts, one of which the Arthurian Merlin may have been) dies and a new one takes his place, she learns that there may be a conspiracy surrounding ( Read more... )

Sirius, the immortal lord of the Dog Star, has been framed for the murder of a fellow Luminary. Normally, the sentence for the murder of a Luminary would be death, but due to Sirius’s status, he’s given a chance to escape that fate. If he can find the murder weapon, which landed on Earth, and determine the identity of the true killer, then he’ll be ( Read more... )

Rupert Venables is the magid (assigned magician/guardian) of Earth, and assigned the task of locating the heir of the recently deceased Koryfonic Emperor. This is a task made ridiculously difficult by layers and layers of secrets and codes, resulting in Rupert arranging for all the possible heirs to attend a fantasy convention so he can have them ( Read more... )

The complete list of books I read it 2008 is in poll form here.

( top books of the year )