Garth Nix's Abhorsen Trilogy (Sabriel, Lirael, and Abhorsen) is set in a world that in some ways is very much like our own. The norther border of Ancelstierre (an England-like country), however, is heavily fortified because beyond its wall is the Old Kingdom, a land where magic is both commonplace and dangerous. While Charter Magic is a force that unites and stabilizes the Old Kingdom, Free Magic (and those who wield it unscrupulously) has the potential to tear it apart. A guardian of the Charter, the Abhorsen's powers blend both Free and Charter Magic. A special kind of necromancer, the Abhorsen doesn't bring the dead to life, but banishes them further and finally into Death.
I really enjoyed the Abhorsen books. They are engaging and fast-paced. The books' target audience is young adult and their protagonists are all teens (well, Lirael's protagonists appear as adult secondary characters in the other two books). The world that Nix creates is what makes the series stand out. Not only does Nix imagine the Old Kingdom and all of its mythos, but the texture of Death itself.
One of the things that was most interesting to me is that while Lirael and Abhorsen are clearly part of a series (Lirael ends with a horrible cliff-hanger), Sabriel (the 1st book) reads like a stand-alone novel. I wonder whether Nix wrote Sabriel as a stand-alone and then wrote the other two when the first was well received.
A unique and engaging mystery novel, 
Austrian Handke's latest to be translated into English is narrated not by Don Juan as its title would suggest, but by a lonely French innkeeper into whose garden the protagonist tumbles one day. The innkeeper becomes Don Juan's confidant and during his stay Don Juan recounts his previous week's adventures. Over the course of that "womanweek" Don Juan travels as far as Damascus and Norway encountering a new woman each day. At first Don Juan is like a mythological character. The narrator describes him as a veritable St. Francis, nourished by sorrow (he was orphaned by the loss of his only child), with the ability to magic rare and wonderful foodstuffs. The narrator's impression of Don Juan, however, changes after the week of storytelling has concluded. Whatever was awe-inspiring seems to dissipate and Don Juan becomes just a regular man with irritating quirks.
"He was going to lose the house and everything in it.
Set in Victorian London, 
When Elspeth Noblin dies of cancer, she leaves her London apartment to her twin nieces, Julia and Valentina. These two American girls never met their English aunt, only knew that their mother, too, was a twin, and Elspeth her sister. Julia and Valentina are semi-normal American teenagers — with seemingly little interest in college, finding jobs, or anything outside their cozy home in the suburbs of Chicago, and with an abnormally intense attachment to one another.