Okay, but in fairness, you should really also blame Diana Wynne Jones. She keeps writing new books. I can’t help it if she continues to be amazing.

(DO NOT BLAME HER REALLY. It might jinx her. I want her to live forever.)

Yeah, I love Howl too. To read about! He’d be awful to live with. Possibly my favorite ever line from DWJ is Howl’s saying “My shining dishonesty will be the salvation of me.” 🙂

Now I have another book to read.

I blame you.

Yes, You.

Also, Howl’s, Castle, and House (you should know the series by my stupid shortenings) are the best series! I keep coming back to them again and again. (Especially Howl)

I haven’t read her, no. But being similar to Diana Wynne Jones is a matchless recommendation for me! I’ve heard of Mahy before, I think, but I don’t think I’ve ever read a book by her.

Hm, I wouldn’t necessarily start with Enchanted Glass, if it’s your first Jones. It’s worth reading – I enjoyed it a lot – but it’s not Jones’s best book. Howl’s Moving Castle or Charmed Life would probably be good for starting out.

I love having a nice book reserved for the weekend. It’s such a cozy feeling when Saturday morning dawns, if I have a particular much-anticipated new book to read.

Oh, good, I’m looking forward to seeing what you think! I liked it a lot, it was good to have a standalone from her after the last few that have been set in various same-worlds-as-before.

I know what you mean about the cameos – but I generally like them. I always think it’s fun when someone was previously a point-of-view character, and we get to see them from someone else’s perspective. Howl’s exactly the same whoever’s looking at him, but Sophie is quite different from Charmain’s perspective (or Abdullah’s in Castle in the Air) than she was in her own mind in Howl’s Moving Castle.

Sorry, that reference to the glass was misleading. Enchanted Glass isn’t a sequel/companion book to Deep Secret, not even set in the same universe. There’s some strange, twisty glass in Deep Secret, which the protagonist Maree says is plainly magical, but nothing happens with it. Enchanted Glass features glass that is described in a similar way.

But I absolutely recommend you read Deep Secret! It’s very good, one of my favorites. You should read it straightaway, and if you do not like it, you should give it some time and read it again. It’s delightful! It features a fantasy/sci-fi convention! (The kind where people convene. Not the kind that is typical.)

Were they disappointed? Not enough Howl in it for them?

Diana Wynne Jones doesn’t really do that many traditional sequels. Actually I don’t think she’s done any. She has books with overlapping characters, but no sequels in the sense I think of it, with one book a continuation of another book’s story.

They’re her two newest ones, that’s maybe why you haven’t heard of them. I was glad I ended up enjoying them – I wasn’t crazy about the book before this one, The Pinhoe Egg.