Are ya ready, guyz?!
@Keturah: I didn't hear of her until 6th grade, and I started way out of order
Take your standard magic Europe fantasy
Make the primary protagonists girls
That's the Tortall universe, which is YA
She also has the Emelan universe, which is more geared to younger kids, but even that one isn't full of fluff
Tortall is the older of the two, starting with Alanna. Her quartet is followed by Daine's by several years, while Daine's quartet is almost immediately followed by Kel's. Then Aly gets a duo that's set shortly after Kel's quartet, and after those four girls/women, we start bouncing around in time. Back 200 years to Beka, currently a bit before Alanna's for Numair, who is the first male main protagonist we have, and his books are currently in the works, with only Tempests and Slaughter, the first book, out now
Connected is Spy's Guide, which acts as an in-character collection of letters, reports, and the like on how Tortall and lands of the modern time is like
Also Tortall and Other Lands, where we see some familiar characters return, and meet new ones in other lands
Emelan doesn't have any brand spanking new books out, but she has one or two in the works. This one follows four kids, three girls, one boy (flipping the usual ratio of 1:3 girl:boy), who have had some traumatic experiences before the books even started. One deals with a plague, riots, and being stuck in a magically hidden storeroom, where she expects to die. One is orphaned by a storm and her people cast her out. One, due to her extremely volatile magic, was cast out by her family. And the last? His mom was murdered when he was about four, so he spent about six years as a thief before being caught thrice. Earthquake, pirates, wildfires out of control, and a plague, all within their first year together. The next quartet finds them four years later, accredited mages at 13/14, and finding their first students (keep in mind most don't become accredited mages in this series until almost 30, to tell you how strong they are and how much control they have over their magics)
There's a few standalone books for Emelan, some involving the main four, some involving their students
Um, yeah. I'm a fan. Barring my hair being too long and being a twig rather than muscular, I look a lot like Kel
Put ya guns awn!