Looking for fantasy books about wizards and magic

[Derek]

I was browsing Fictionpress one day and found a story called Mother of Learning. It's a fantasy story about a boy trapped in a time loop that lasts a few months before a cataclysmic event destroys him and his town. The story is about him growing stronger with his magic and figuring out what caused the calamity. Since then I've tried to find books like that and I haven't really found anything like that. Most time loop stories are pretty mundane and a lot of fantasy books about magic are cliche and don't take advantage of the potential. I'm especially sick of "love is the real magic" kind of schtick. So I guess I'm asking for recommendations for fantasy books about people who discover they have a talent for magic, and get stronger over time, and use magic to save the day. I'm very sick of multi-book sagas where all powerful mages don't do anything with their powers or worse, multi-book sagas where badass mages never use their powers at all (I'm looking at you Sword of Truth series). The Contractors was a pretty good book, I'm hoping to find more of stuff in that vein.

[Brooke]

The demon king

[puppitypup]

The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss

[Patty]

Dresden Files.

[Joseph]

J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter came straight to my mind when I saw your message title, but you've probably read it already, so I'd also like to suggest Lawrence Watt-Evans Annals of the Chosen trilogy, it starts with The Wizard Lord.

[Erin]

I loved the So You Want to Be a Wizard series by Diane Duane. It's set in modern times, if that's ok.

Also, 2 different series by Garth Nix.
There is the Keys to the Kingdom series, starting with Mister Monday

And then also the Abhorsen series, starting with Sabriel

[Scott]

Master of the Five Magics
Spellsinger

[Michele]

Patricia McKillip's Riddle of Stars trilogy, starting with The Riddle-Master of Hed

Guy Gavriel Kay's Fionavar trilogy, starting with The Summer Tree

The Memory, Sorrow and Thorn trilogy by Tad Williams; first book is The Dragonbone Chair

Ursula LeGuin's Earthsea books, starting with A Wizard of Earthsea

[Peter]

With a Single Spell by Lawrence Watt Evans is about an apprentice wizard whose master dies after teaching him only one very basic spell. He uses that spell and his wits and ends up learning quite a bit more magic.

[Ann aka Iftcan]

Actually, any of the Ethshar books (that's the series that Peter has suggested.) It's a series only in that all of the books are set in the same world (called, duh, Ethshar.) You can read one book and not worry about any of the others, since there is almost no interaction between any 2 books. Note I said "almost no" because there is a book where the MC from With a Single Spell makes a brief appearance in another book. The Spell of the Black Dagger is that book.

You might also try Quag Keep and it's follow up Return to Quag Keep. That's a series where RPG players from our world find themselves transported to another world.