Lynness- a couple of quick reads

    I just finished a couple of quick fantasy reads that I thoroughly enjoyed.  My sister gave us a bag of second-hand books for Christmas (she knows us well) and in it were 2 Robin McKinley books, The Blue Sword and The Hero and the Crown, neither of which I had ever heard of (even though The Blue Sword was a 1983 (?) Newberry Honor book).  They were satisfying, were not weighed down with so much...story, I guess, as the likes of Elantris or Eldest, etc, but still detailed.  In both you find yourself near the last few chapters, wondering if there are really enough pages to finish the story or if it's going to need a sequel, but they both finish, right on cue.  The second book is really a prequel to the first, but far enough back that the characters are ancient history to the people of The Blue Sword and really, you could read them in either order.
    If you ever want a quick, clean, satisfying, good-always-wins-but-it's-a-long, hard road-type-fantasy-story, these are a good place to start!  I was hoping that one or the other had been made into a movie to watch for this month, but no.  They probably would've ruined it, anyway.