_The Will of the Empress_, and idiot publishers...

...or editors, or mapmakers.

• Type: Young adult Fantasy (Ages 13 and up? I'm not an expert.)
  
• Rating: PG (some violence, some adult relationships of various flavours alluded to, nothing graphic)
• Target Gender: Either (It's about 3 girls and a boy (well, young ladies and a young man), and there's enough intrigue, action, and romance to keep anyone interested, I think)
  

It's a young adult book, I'd guess targeted at the same age range as the Harry Potter or Diane Duane books.

The Will of the Empress is Tamora Pierce's new book,
set in the world of the Circle of Magic and The Circle
Opens series.

Good book! She created great characters, and it's been
fun watching them grow up over the last 8 books. They're
adults now, and their problems, conflicts, and situations
are all getting more adult as well.

I enjoyed it a lot.

EXCEPT...

!@$!@#$!@!@, some IDIOT put a major spoiler on the MAP
in the FRONT of the !@#$!@ book!!

ARRRRRGH!

I don't know if the blame goes to Pierce herself, or
to "L. Kubinyi", who created the map, or to someone
in Scholastic's production department. No clue. But
it's REALLY annoying to be reading a book, trying to
figure out who are the good guys and who are the bad
guys, when you know from the map that "so-and-so
ambushes the good guys here". And the book's trying
pretty hard to make so-and-so look like one of the
good guys, early on.

Idiots.

In any case, I heartily recommend the book, if you
liked the earlier Circle series. Just don't look
at the map. You don't need it anyhow, the action's
not that geographically complicated.