Jessica recommends....

I'm halfway through "A College of Magics" by Caroline Stevermer, and it's wonderful. It's like a combination of Evelyn Waugh and Harry Potter, with Murder on the Orient Express, if that makes any sense! I also highly recommend her joint effort with Patricia C. Wrede: "Sorcery and Cecelia", which leads one to Wrede's "Mairelon the Magician" and "The Magician's Ward".