Magyk by Angie Sage
Fantasy; 564 pages
After learning that she is the Princess, Jenna is whisked from her home and carried toward safety by the ExtraOrdinary Wizard, her father and brother, and a young guard — pursued by agents of those who killed her mother ten years earlier.
Sam’s review:
Silas Heap, a magician, is a seventh son and was overjoyed when he and his wife, Sara, had a seventh son, Septimus. They are devastated when he dies, but comforted by the baby girl that Silas has been told to raise. He and Sara name the baby Jenna, and when the Queen is assassinated, her newborn daughter is missing, and the Extraordinary Wizard Alther Mella is killed, they realize that Jenna is the missing Princess but keep this knowledge to themselves. The story fast-forwards ten years to Jenna’s tenth birthday party, which is interrupted by a frantic Marcia, the new Extraordinary Wizard, who has learned that the evil Supreme Custodian has dispatched an assassin to kill the princess. What follows is a suspenseful chase full of entertaining characters, surprising plot twists, and some marvelous magic. The chase pulls along a number of characters, including a nearly frozen guard from the Young Army, Boy 412. They eventually arrive at their hiding spot, the Marram Marshes, home to the colorful witch Aunt Zelda, where the suspense continues along with the humorous interplay between the characters. The adventure through this fantastical world makes for fun, satisfying reading, with an ending that gives closure while leaving questions for the next book in this series of seven (of course). The last book in the series, Fyre, has just been published.