New YA historical fiction in 2010-2011

Author

Anna Godbersen

The year is 1929. New York is ruled by the Bright Young Things: Flappers and socialites seeking thrills and chasing dreams in the anything-goes era of the Roaring Twenties.

Letty Larkspur and Cordelia Grey escaped their small Midwestern town for New York's glittering metropolis. All Letty...

Author	Susanne Dunlap
ISBN	1599904209

For Anastasia Romanov, life as the privileged daughter of Russia's last tsar is about to be torn apart by the bloodshed of revolution. Ousted from the imperial palace when the Bolsheviks seize control of the government, Anastasia and her family are exiled to Siberia. But even while the rebels debate...

Author	Y.S. Lee
ISBN	0763649686

Now nearly a full-fledged member of the Agency, the all-female detective unit operating out of Miss Scrimshaw's Academy for Girls, Mary Quinn is back for another action-packed adventure. Disguised as a poor apprentice builder and a boy, she must brave the grimy underbelly of Victorian London - as...

Author	Melanie Dickerson
ISBN	0310721431

Two Hearts. One Hope.

Rose has been appointed as a healer's apprentice at Hagenheim Castle, a rare opportunity for a woodcutter's daughter like her. While she often feels uneasy at the sight of blood, Rose is determined to prove herself capable. Failure will mean returning home to marry the...

Author	Stephanie Hemphill
ISBN	0061853291

I was so surprised to see that this book has received so many low ratings. Set during the Salem witch trials, Wicked Girls is told from the point of view of the ultimate mean girls, Mercy, Margaret and Ann. They set into motion a series of events that leads to their neighbors living in fear, being sent to jail...

Author	Libba Bray
ISBN	0385733410

Ah, Christmas! Gemma Doyle is looking forward to a holiday from Spence Academy, spending time with her friends in the city, attending ritzy balls, and on a somber note, tending to her ailing father. As she prepares to ring in the New Year, 1896, a handsome young man, Lord Denby, has set his sights on Gemma,...

Author

Angie Frazier

Sailing aboard her father's ship is all seventeen-year-old Camille Rowen has ever wanted. But as a lady in 1855 San Francisco, her future is set: marry a man she doesn't love in order to preseve her social standing. On her last voyage before the wedding, Camille learns the mother she has always believed...

Author	Lisa M. Klein
ISBN	1599905078

Lady Catherine is one of Queen Elizabeth's favorite court maidens until her forbidden romance with Sir Walter Ralegh is discovered. In a bitter twist of irony, the jealous queen banishes Cate to Ralegh's colony of Roanoke, in the New World. Ralegh pledges to come for Cate, but as the months stretch out,...

Author	Libba Bray
ISBN	0385730306

It has been a year of change since Gemma Doyle arrived at the foreboding Spence Academy. Her mother murdered, her father a laudanum addict, Gemma has relied on an unsuspected strength and has discovered an ability to travel to an enchanted world called the realms, where dark magic runs wild. Despite...

Author	Cora Harrison
ISBN	0385739400

When shy Jenny Cooper goes to stay with her cousin Jane Austen, she knows nothing of the world of beautiful dresses, dances, secrets, gossip, and romance that Jane inhabits. At fifteen, Jane is already a sharp observer of the customs of courtship. So when Jenny falls utterly in love with Captain Thomas...

Author	Anna Godbersen
ISBN	0061626317

New Beginnings.
Shocking Revelations.
Unexpected Endings.

As spring turns into summer, Elizabeth relishes her new roles as a young wife, while her sister, Diana, searches for adventure abroad. But when a surprising clue about their father's death comes to light, the Holland girls...

Author	Eve Edwards
ISBN	0141327308

England, 1582

ELLIE - Lady Eleanor Rodriguez of San Jaime - is in possession of a gold-seeking father, a worthless title and a feisty spirit that captivates the elite of the Queen's court, and none other than the handsome new Earl of Dorset . . .

WILLIAM LACEY has inherited his father's...

Author	Jessica Day George
ISBN	1599903229

A tale of twelve princesses doomed to dance until dawn…

Galen is a young soldier returning from war; Rose is one of twelve princesses condemned to dance each night for the King Under Stone. Together Galen and Rose will search for a way to break the curse that forces the princesses to dance...

Author	Esther M. Friesner
ISBN	0375856579

Ancient Egypt springs to life in this enthralling sequel to "Sphinx's Princess." As she did in "Nobody's Princess" and "Nobody's Prize," author Esther Friesner offers readers a fresh look at an iconic figure, blending historical fiction and mythology in a heady concoction.
"Hunted" . . . Overnight,...

Author	Susan Coventry
ISBN	0805089926

Joan's mother is Queen Eleanor of Aquitaine, the most beautiful woman in the world. Her father is Henry II, the king of England and a renowned military leader. She loves them both, so what is she to do when she's forced to choose between them? As her parents' arguments grow ever more vicious, Joan begins...

Author	Patricia Elliott
ISBN	0340956771

Eugenie de Boncoeur has fled the violence of the French Revolution to find sanctuary in England at the home of her cousin, Hetta. At first, the two girls find themselves at loggerheads: Hetta can't understand Eugenie's preoccupation with clothes and appearance, and scorns her politics. Soon, however,...

Author

Sally Gardner

The winds of change are blowing through Paris in the winter of 1789, both for France and for our hero, a striking and mysterious Gypsy boy named Yann Margoza. He was born with a gift for knowing what people are thinking and an uncanny ability to throw his voice, and he has been using those skills while working...

Author	Esther M. Friesner
ISBN	0375856544

Nefertiti was far more than just a pretty face.

Nefertiti may be the dutiful daughter of a commoner, but her inquisitive mind often gets her into situations that are far from ordinary, like receiving secret lessons from a scribe. And she’s the kind of girl who acts first, and apologizes...

Author	Saundra Mitchell
ISBN	0547482477

It’s the summer of 1889, and Amelia van den Broek is new to Baltimore and eager to take in all the pleasures the city has to offer. But her gaiety is interrupted by disturbing, dreamlike visions she has only at sunset—visions that offer glimpses of the future. Soon, friends and strangers alike call...

Author	Lauren Baratz-Logsted
ISBN	1599905132

Lucy Sexton is stunned when a disheveled woman appears at the door one day...a woman who bears an uncanny resemblance to Lucy's own beautiful mother. It turns out the two women are identical twins, separated at birth, and raised in dramatically different circumstances. Lucy's mother quickly resolves...

Author	Lauren Baratz-Logsted
ISBN	0547223080

When Will and Bet were four, tragic circumstances brought them to the same house, to be raised by a wealthy gentleman as brother and sister. Now sixteen, they've both enjoyed a privileged upbringing thus far. But not all is well in their household. Because she's a girl, Bet's world is contained within...

Author	Anna Godbersen
ISBN	0061962686

For the bright young things of 1929, the beautiful days seem endless, filled with romance and heartbreak, adventure and intrigue, friendship and rivalry.

After a month in New York, Cordelia Grey and Letty Larkspur are small-town girls no longer. They spend their afternoons with Astrid Donal...

Author	Emily Whitman
ISBN	0061724521

When Addy is swept back in time, she couldn't be happier to leave her miserable life behind. Now she's mistaken for Lady Matilda, the pampered ward of the king. If Addy can play her part, she'll have glorious gowns, jewels, and something she's always longed for the respect and admiration of others. But...

Author

Esther M. Friesner

In this rousing sequel to Nobody’s Princess, young Helen of Sparta is not about to be left behind when her older brothers head off to join the quest for the Golden Fleece. Accompanied by her friend Milo, and disguised as a boy herself, Helen sets out to join the crew of heroes aboard the massive ship known...

Author	Sarah Miller
ISBN	1416983406

Olga, Tatiana, Maria, and Anastasia. Like the fingers on a hand--first headstrong Olga; then Tatiana, the tallest; Maria the most hopeful for a ring; and Anastasia, the smallest. These are the daughters of Tsar Nicholas II, grand duchesses living a life steeped in tradition and privilege. They are...

Author	Clare B. Dunkle
ISBN	0805091165

Young Tabby Aykroyd has been brought to the dusty mansion of Seldom House to be nursemaid to a foundling boy. He is a savage little creature, but the Yorkshire moors harbor far worse, as Tabby soon discovers. Why do scores of dead maids and masters haunt Seldom House with a jealous devotion that extends...

Author	Celia Rees
ISBN	1599904861

Young and beautiful Violetta may be of royal blood, but her kingdom is in shambles when she arrives in London on a mysterious mission. Her journey has been long and her adventures many, but it is not until she meets the playwright William Shakespeare that she gets to tell the entire story from beginning...

Author	Susanne Dunlap
ISBN	1599905655

It's 1854 and sixteen-year-old Molly would give anything to change her circumstances as a lowly servant in a posh London house. So when she hears of an opportunity to join the nurses who will be traveling with Florence Nightingale to the Crimea, she jumps at the chance. The work is grueling, the hospital...

Author	Barbara Quick
ISBN	0061448877

Alessandra is desperate to escape.

Desperate to escape her stepmother, who's locked her away for a year; to escape the cloister that awaits her and the marriage plans that have been made for her; to escape the expectations that limit her and every other girl in fourteenth-century Italy. There's...

Author	K.M. Grant
ISBN	1849164088

Belle's Song is one of the oddest young adult books I have attempted to read all year because of the issues presented in it. I felt like this author combined modern-day issues with a Medieval setting. Twas quite strange and rather disappointing. I really wanted to read the tale of a journey to Canterbury,...

Author	Jessica Day George
ISBN	1599904780

Hoping to escape the troubles in her kingdom, Princess Poppy reluctantly agrees to take part in a royal exchange program, whereby young princes and princesses travel to each other's countries in the name of better political alliances--and potential marriages. It's got the makings of a fairy tale--until...

Author	Anne Osterlund
ISBN	0142405795

Princess Aurelia is next in line to rule the kingdom of Tyralt, but she would rather be one of the common folk, free to learn and roam and . . . not marry the next tyrannical prince that comes courting. Naturally, the king wants Aurelia to marry for political power. Aurelia wants to marry for love. And someone...

Author	M.J. Putney
ISBN	0312622848

At sixteen, Lady Victoria Mansfield, youngest daughter of the earl and countess of Fairmount, is destined for a charmed life and her choice of mates worthy of her status. Then she makes a terrifying discovery that will ruin her life and disgrace her family forever. Tory's blood is tainted... by magic.

...

Author	Janet Fox
ISBN	0142414131

Sixteen-year-old Maggie Bennet's life is in tatters. Her mother has disappeared, and is presumed dead. The next thing she knows, her father has dragged Maggie away from their elegant Newport home, off on some mad excursion to Yellowstone in Montana. Torn from the only life she's ever known, away from...

Author	Elizabeth C. Bunce
ISBN	0545136059

Digger thrives as a spy and sneak-thief among the feuding religious factions of Gerse, dodging the Greenmen who have banned all magic. But when a routine job goes horribly wrong and her partner and lover Tegen is killed, she has to get out of the city, fast, and hides herself in a merry group of nobles to...

Author	Mary Hooper
ISBN	0747599130

Grace Parkes has just had to do a terrible thing. Having given birth to an illegitimate child, she has travelled to the famed Brookwood Cemetery to place her small infant's body in a rich lady's coffin. Following the advice of a kindly midwife, this is the only way that Grace can think of to give something...

Author	Marissa Doyle
ISBN	0805096329

From the author of Bewitching Season and Betraying Season comes a brand new regency romance with plenty of intrigue--and magic!

Sophie's entrance into London society isn't what she thought it would be: Mama isn't there to guide her. Papa is buried in his work fighting Napoleon. And worst of...

Author	Marthe Jocelyn
ISBN	0385907311

Three fates intertwine in this moving and passionate love story set in Victorian London.

Mary Finn: country girl, maid to a lord in London

Caden Tucker: liar, scoundrel, and heart's delight

James Nelligan: age six, tossed into a herd of boys

When Mary Finn falls...

Author	Julie Chibbaro
ISBN	0689857381

A mysterious outbreak of typhoid fever is sweeping New York. Could the city’s future rest with its most unlikely scientist? If Prudence Galewski is ever going to get out of Mrs. Browning’s esteemed School for Girls, she must demonstrate her refinement and charm by securing a job appropriate for...

Author	Julie Berry
ISBN	1599903342

When Lucinda Chapdelaine was a small child, her parents left for the royal ball and never returned. Ever since, Lucinda has been stuck in perpetual servitude at her evil aunt's jewelry store. Then, on the very same day, a mysterious visitor and an even more bizarre piece of jewelry both enter the shop,...

Author	Jane Eagland
ISBN	0330511394

Since she was twelve, Meriel Garland has lived with her grandfather in London, exiled from her beloved India following the death of her mother. Now sixteen, Meriel chafes against the strict regime of tests and study that her grandfather imposes on her. Escaping, she discovers a world outside her narrow...

Author

Elizabeth C. Bunce

Prisons, poisons, and passions combine in a gorgeously written fantasy noir.

As a pickpocket, Digger expects to spend a night in jail every now and then. But she doesn't expect to find Lord Durrel Decath there as well--or to hear he's soon to be executed for killing his wife.

Durrel...

Author	Michaela MacColl
ISBN	0811873005

London, 1838. Sixteen-year-old Liza's dreams of her society debut are dashed when her parents are killed in an accident. Penniless, she accepts the position of lady's maid to young Princess Victoria and steps unwittingly into the gossipy intrigue of the servant's world below-stairs as well as the...

Author	Lucy Jago
ISBN	1408803763

Cess works caring for the chickens at Montacute House but on her thirteenth birthday everything changes. She finds a precious locket hidden in the chicken coop and is convinced someone has placed it there for her to find. But the day is overshadowed by fear as a boy's body is found by the river, and then...

Author	Eve Edwards
ISBN	0141327332

1584 - Surrey, England

When Lady Jane Rievaulx begins service to the Queen at Richmond Palace, she is thrilled at the court's newest arrival . . . Master James Lacey.

Despite her previous courtship with his older brother, James is the man she truly loves. And for his part, he cannot...

Author	Theresa Breslin
ISBN	0385617038

Zarita, only daughter of the town magistrate, lives a life of wealth and privilege. Indulged by her parents, she is free to spend her days as she pleases, enjoying herself in the company of an eligible young nobleman, horse riding, or leisurely studying the arts.

Saulo, son of a family reduced...

Author	Joanne Dahme
ISBN	0762437383

Rose Dugan is a young and beautiful woman living in Philadelphia in the late 19th century passionate about keeping Philadelphia's water reservoir clean and healthy. But when Rose starts receiving threatening letters, warning her to convince her husband to shut down his plans for a water filtration...

Author	Marissa Doyle
ISBN	0805082514

In 1837 London, young daughters of viscounts pined for handsome, titled husbands, not careers. And certainly not careers in magic. At least, most of them didn't.

Shy, studious Persephone Leland would far rather devote herself to her secret magic studies than enter society and look for a suitable...

Author	Judy Blundell
ISBN	0545221269

From National Book Award winner Judy Blundell, the tale of a sixteen-year-old girl caught in a mix of love, mystery, Broadway glamour, and Mob retribution in 1950 New York. When Kit Corrigan arrives in New York City, she doesn't have much. She's fled from her family in Providence, Rhode Island, and she's...

Author	Shannon Hale
ISBN	1599908735

Coming down from the mountain to a new life in the city is a thrill to Miri. She and her princess academy friends have been brought to Asland to help the future princess Britta prepare for her wedding.There, Miri also has a chance to attend school-at the Queen's Castle. But as Miri befriends students who...

Author	Eve Edwards
ISBN	0141337346

I really loved the first two books, The Other Countess and The Queen’s Lady, so I fully expected to feel the same way about The Rogue’s Princess. And I did!

Of all of the Lacey brothers we’ve heard from so far, I think that Kit may be my favourite. I thought that it would take a lot to knock kind...

Author	Esther M. Friesner
ISBN	0670012459

It's 1910, and thirteen-year-old Raisa has just traveled alone from a small Polish shtetl all the way to New York City. It's overwhelming, awe-inspiring, and even dangerous, especially when she discovers that her sister has disappeared and she must now fend for herself. She finds work in the Triangle...

Author	Marie-Louise Jensen
ISBN	0192728814

I promise I tried not to dismiss this out of hand. It's actually probably great for someone who doesn't know much about the Scandinavian peoples that are all too often just called "Vikings". Pedantry: you were not automatically a Viking if you were, say, Icelandic during that period. You were a Viking...

Author	M.J. Putney
ISBN	0312622856

The Irregulars return home to 1803 England safely, but their worldview has changed. Not only have their heroic efforts at Dunkirk given them pride and confidence but their dangerous mission has increased their magical powers.

Tory delights in the ever deepening bond she shares with Allarde...

Author	Karen Cushman
ISBN	0547231849

Fans of Karen Cushman's witty, satisfying novels will welcome Meggy Swann,newly come to London with her only friend, a goose named Louise. Meggy's mother was glad to be rid of her; her father, who sent for her, doesn't want her after all. Meggy is appalled by London,dirty and noisy, full of rogues and...

Author	Gwenn Wright
ISBN	1461053005

Not all romances are fairytales.

The von Strassenbergs' saga begins in 1877, when Katherine Demure, brimming over with discontentment, is swept into the arms of the mysterious Viktor von Strassenberg who is newly arrived from Europe with dark rumors preceding him. Hoping to find love and...

Author	Lisa Fiedler
ISBN	0805075003

Shakespeare's classic retold from another perspective

Rosaline won't let anyone or anything get in the way of her future as a healer. That is, until she meets Benvolio. Where Romeo's words had been hollow and unfounded, Benvolio's are filled with sincerity and true love. Now Rosaline finds...

Author	Celia Rees
ISBN	1599902036

It's England, 1783. When the rich and beautiful Sovay isn't sitting for portraits, she's donning a man's cloak and robbing travelers—in broad daylight. But in a time when political allegiances between France and England are strained, a rogue bandit is not the only thing travelers fear. Spies abound,...

Author	Mary Hooper
ISBN	0747599211

Velvet is an orphan. She struggles to make ends meet by working in a steam, laundry, where the work is back-breaking and exhausting. So when she attracts the attention of the glamorous clairvoyant Madame Savoya, she cannot believe her good fortune.

Raised to the status of lady's maid, Velvet...

Author	Mary Hoffman
ISBN	1599907003

Michelangelo's statue, David, is famous around the world. Millions flock to Italy every year to admire the physical perfection of the young man captured within the marble. But the identity of the model has never been known . . . until now.

In this epic tale, acclaimed author Mary Hoffman imagines...

Author	Jessica Day George
ISBN	1599906465

When Petunia, the youngest of King Gregor's twelve dancing daughters, is invited to visit an elderly friend in the neighboring country of Westfalin, she welcomes the change of scenery. But in order to reach Westfalin, Petunia must pass through a forest where strange two-legged wolves are rumored...

Author	Ann Rinaldi
ISBN	0547260679

Cornelia Greene is fed up with gossip about her mother. Caty Littlefield Greene was once a beautiful young bride who lifted the troops’ spirits at Valley Forge, but Cornelia knows that rumors of Caty’s past indiscretions hurt Nathanael Greene, Cornelia’s adored father. Yet Caty claims that...

Author	Barbara Haworth-Attard
ISBN	0002008211

Dee is feeding the chickens the morning that bones are discovered on the mountain. Something doesn't feel right—and her feeling is confirmed when local police show her a ring that they found with the bones, a ring belonging to Mary Ann Simpson, who disappeared four years earlier. Other girls, Dee...

Author	Ellen Emerson White
ISBN	0590962736

Of the Titanic story, I always find it most difficult to get through reading or hearing about the crew who sacrificed their lives. What amazes me most is that the band selflessly played through the entire ordeal without rushing to the lifeboats and trying to save themselves. If there was one thing I could...

Author	Ann Rinaldi
ISBN	0547389809

As Confederate and Union soldiers take over their town, the local residents can do little more than hunker down in their homes while cannon and gunfire explode around them. But the battles are not only fought between soldiers. At home, fourteen-year-old Tacy and her disabled brother lock horns as David...

Author	Beth Kephart
ISBN	1606840800

It is 1876, the year of the Centennial in Philadelphia. Katherine has lost her twin sister Anna in a tragic skating accident.  One wickedly hot September day, Katherine sets out for the exhibition grounds to cut short the haunted life she no longer wants to live.

Filled with vivid detail that...

Author

Maile Meloy

It’s 1952 and the Scott family has just moved from Los Angeles to London. Here, fourteen-year-old Janie meets a mysterious apothecary and his son, Benjamin Burrows—a fascinating boy who’s not afraid to stand up to authority and dreams of becoming a spy. When Benjamin’s father is kidnapped,...

Author	Dianne Hofmeyr
ISBN	1416910670

*no spoilers were harmed in the making of this review*

"I hope my story will soon enough be carved in stone so the truth will be known to all" ~Isikara

Hey guys, so I finished Eye of the Moon by Dianne Hofmeyr. I will be honest with you, really the only thing that I liked about this novel was...

Author	Noni Carter
ISBN	1416984801

Brutally kidnapped from her African village and shipped to America, Ayanna Bahati struggles to come to terms with her new life as a slave. Rising from the cotton fields to her master's house, Anna is threatened by the increasingly dangerous world of the plantation. Risking everything, she escapes...

Author	Tina Boscha
ISBN	1466292075

At fifteen, Leen De Graaf likes everything she shouldn't: smoking cigarettes, wearing red lipstick, driving illegally, and working in the fields. It seems the only thing she shares with her fellow Dutchmen is a fear of the German soldiers stationed nearby and a frantic wish for the war to end. When a...

Author	Leslie Cannold
ISBN	1921758082

What if the man you loved betrayed your brother?

Two thousand years ago, while a young Jewish preacher from Nazareth was gathering followers among the people of Galilee, his sister swept floors and dreamed of learning to read.

In Leslie Cannold’s story, it is the women of Nazareth...