Lego Elves sets were released earlier this year - very quietly I thought as didn't see any hype about them and not linked to any film or book. We were actually in the lego shop in DLP in February when we saw them but my daughter wasn't interested at the time.
For her birthday in June we bought her The Pegasus Sleigh set, she absolutely loved it and then spent some birthday money on Naida's Epic Adventure Ship, it has totally captured her imagination....
I have now ordered the book (due to be released in August ) and Skyra's castle set both for Christmas as I think these Lego sets are really lovely and the play value in our house already has been huge.
They are more girl orientated I think but do have a couple of boy elves in the series ( Farran and Johnny Baker) so not totally gender specific as is Lego Friends in my opinion. Farran in particular talks to the animals and is very nature orientated. There is an animated episode on u tube / lego elves website explaining the story behind the keys/ elves/ portals. ( I don't want this post to be a mumsnet argument over gender specific lego!) 
The point of the post really is that 8/9/10 years can be quite a difficult age to buy actual toys for and I think these sets are great - my daughter is an avid reader and hopefully as she gets into books like the Hobbit / fantasy she will carry on enjoying this Lego for a long time. Even the artwork on the boxes is quite special.
I think they are also quite good value for money (in Lego terms) as the larger sets aren't too expensive I presume because there are no royalties to pay as with Disney/Star Wars set.
Hope this post maybe helps people stuck for ideas.