[BenG]

I nominate Sorcerer to the Crown by Zen Cho, a fantasy set in Regency England.
One of the better fantasy books I've read lately. The author describes it as Georgette Heyer with magic and a dash of humor, but it's not a romance. I think it may get some attention during award season next year.

Apparently it's first in a series but the book wraps everything up pretty neatly. Any sequel would have to be another adventure.

371 pages.

Goodreads

And the first chapter: http://www.npr.org/books/titles/4366...-crown#excerpt

Spoiler:

Magic and mayhem collide with the British elite in this whimsical and sparkling debut.

At his wit’s end, Zacharias Wythe, freed slave, eminently proficient magician, and Sorcerer Royal of the Unnatural Philosophers—one of the most respected organizations throughout all of Britain—ventures to the border of Fairyland to discover why England’s magical stocks are drying up.

But when his adventure brings him in contact with a most unusual comrade, a woman with immense power and an unfathomable gift, he sets on a path which will alter the nature of sorcery in all of Britain—and the world at large…