Best Teen Historical Fiction Part 1
Discover the best teen historical fiction books in Part 1 of our curated list. Immerse yourself in captivating stories from the past, perfect for young readers who love adventure, drama, and history.
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The Voyage of the Continental
by Katherine Kirkpatrick
In 1866, young orphan Emeline McCullough leaves her mill job in Lowell, Massachusetts, to head for Seattle, Washington, aboard the steamship Continental, writing in her diary about the intrigue, danger, and romance she encounters on her journey.
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At the Sign of the Sugared Plum
by Mary Hooper
As the Plague takes hold of seventeenth-century London and people flee the city, Hannah and her sister Sarah try to maintain Sarah's candy shop even with the possibility of their own demise growing ever closer.
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Petals in the Ashes
by Mary Hooper
This gripping account of London's Great Fire of 1666 is a worthy companion to At the Sign of the Sugared Plum. Only one year after the city suffered such terrible losses during the Plague, London is recovering and Hannah convinces her parents that, with her younger sister Anne's help, she can return to the city and manage the sweetmeats shop on her own. The girls are thrilled to be back in London, and Hannah even finds her old beau, Tom, alive and well and working for a magician. But her newfound happiness is short-lived as fires begin to spring up around the city and quickly move closer to their shop. Finally, Hannah and Anne are forced to abandon their home to save their lives. When the fires have abated, the girls return to find their shop in ruins. They also find Tom, beaten and injured after being chased by a mob that blamed the magician for starting the fire. Despite their losses, Hannah is sure that one day she will rebuild her shop and once again trade under the sign of the sugared plum.
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Caroline
by Willo Davis Roberts
When Caroline's brothers head West to find gold in California, she disguises herself as a boy and follows, but along the way she meets Dan Riddle and falls in love.
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Honor's Pledge
by Kristen Heitzmann
Family debt and a wartime pledge force Monte Farrel to set aside his love for Abbie Morgan in 1870s Colorado. Rocky Mountain Legacy book 1.
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Honor's Price
by Kristen Heitzmann
Arson, sabotage, and Monte's own drive for revenge threaten the life he and his new bride Abbie have established on the plains of Colorado.
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Honor's Quest
by Kristen Heitzmann
When tragedy strikes Abigail's ranch, she must find the courage to face the truth about the God she serves. Rocky Mountain Legacy book 3.
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Honor's Disguise
by Kristen Heitzmann
Worn from loss and sorrow, Abigail wonders if she will ever love again. And is Cole hiding dark secrets? Rocky Mountain Legacy book 4.
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Honor's Reward
by Kristen Heitzmann
Newly married, Abbie hopes she can forget the horrors from her past but will Cole risk his life to keep her safe? Rocky Mountain Legacy book 5.
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Sweet Boundless
by Kristen Heitzmann
Their vows seemed a tenuous bond at best, but it was all she had.... Awakening to a new landscape, Carina DiGratia Shepard is as transformed as the home she has embraced. The mining town of Crystal, Colorado, has lost its evil stranglehold, its surface cleansed by a devastating flood, its people both shattered and revitalized. Carina, too, now strolls its boardwalks a different woman. Married, though in title only. The habits of her rogue husband's solitary life still reign -- Quillan Shepard has left without word of his return, haunted by the parents who'd given him a name he despises and a heart unable to love. Disillusioned by her abandonment, Carina feels again the painful rejection that had driven her to Crystal. Choosing to respond with equal determination, she carves out an existence that provides the independence and identity she has long sought. But the call of the Rose Legacy still beckons...and Carina hopes its dark caverns hold the key to loosening the bitterness encircling her husband's soul.
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The Tender Vine
by Kristen Heitzmann
Carina returns home to unhappy parents because of her choice in a husband, which makes her husband uncomfortable and her former beau is determined to have her back.
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Timeless Love
by Judith O'Brien
Fifteen-year-old Samantha is transported back in time to 1553 and the court of the ailing King Edward VI. Suspecting that Edward has allergies, she is determined to save his life.
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Listening for Lions
by Gloria Whelan
The National Book Award-winning author of "Homeless Bird" sets this richly historical coming-of-age novel in British East Africa in 1919, and tells a breathtaking story of tragedy and deception, and one orphaned girl's triumph against all odds.
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A Time of Angels
by Karen Hesse
As World War I rages in Europe, an influenza epidemic devastates Boston, forcing fourteen-year-old Hannah to leave home. Dangerously ill, she finds herself in Vermont, where a German man takes her in and nurses her back to health. Relying on her vision of an angel to help her find her way home, Hannah is eventually reunited with her family. A mysterious element, daunting situations, and tenacious characters make this novel a rich and compelling read.
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Room in the Heart
by Sonia Levitin
Told from several points of view, this novel is based on the true story of how thousands of Denmark's Jews were saved from the Nazis, and reveals how the Danes fought back with courage and kindness.
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Escape from Egypt
by Sonia Levitin
When Moses comes to lead the Israelites to the Promised Land, Jesse, a Hebrew slave, finds his life changed by his growing faith in God and his attraction to the half-Egyptian, half-Syrian Jennat.
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Escape from Botany Bay
by Gerald Hausman
This novel tells the true story of Mary Bryant, a spirited girl in 18th century England, who is sentenced to a prison ship bound for Australia but makes a harrowing escape. Caught stealing a lady's bonnet in Cornwall, England, in 1786, 19-year-old Mary Broad is sentenced to seven years' incarceration on a prison ship bound for Australia. Amid squalid, dangerous conditions below decks, Mary fights for her life and her dignity, and her spirited, outspoken ways rally her fellow prisoners. She also attracts the attention of Watkin Tench, a marine who helps her get food and clothing and whose child she eventually bears. But Tench will not marry her, and Mary is betrothed to Will Bryant, another convict whom she'd known as a child.
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Paradise
by Joan Elizabeth Goodman
In 1542, eager to escape the French Huguenot household of her harsh father, sixteen-year-old Marguerite de la Rocque sails with her equally stern uncle, the Sieur de Roberval, to the New World, where she is left alone on an island with only her young Catholic lover and her chaperone to help her survive.
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Grange House
by Sarah Blake
When Maisie Thomas turns 17 in 1898, her visit to Grange House--a hotel on an island off the coast of Maine--marks a turning point in her life. As Maisie considers the attentions of two young men, Miss Grange tells her stories of her past. Death, diaries, letters and a ghostly apparition play a part in changing Maisie's life forever.
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Saratoga Secret
by Betsy Sterman
In 1777, as General Burgoyne and his British troops invade the Upper Hudson River Valley, sixteen-year-old Amity must carry a secret message to the Continental army to give warning of an impending attack.
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Fever 1793
by Laurie Halse Anderson
An epidemic of fever sweeps through the streets of 1793 Philadelphia in this novel from Laurie Halse Anderson where "the plot rages like the epidemic itself" (The New York Times Book Review). During the summer of 1793, Mattie Cook lives above the family coffee shop with her widowed mother and grandfather. Mattie spends her days avoiding chores and making plans to turn the family business into the finest Philadelphia has ever seen. But then the fever breaks out. Disease sweeps the streets, destroying everything in its path and turning Mattie's world upside down. At her feverish mother's insistence, Mattie flees the city with her grandfather. But she soon discovers that the sickness is everywhere, and Mattie must learn quickly how to survive in a city turned frantic with disease.
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North by Night
by Katherine Ayres
It's 1851 and Lucy Spencer's family is keeping a secret. Their Ohio home is a station on the Underground Railroad, the network of people and places that helps fugitive slaves escape to freedom in Canada. Lucy believes in what she and her family do to help the fugitives, even if it means putting herself in danger. So Lucy doesn't hesitate when she is asked to stay with the Widow Aurelia Mercer and help her with a family of runaway slaves hiding in her attic. And she learns so much from her experience--about growing up, love, and standing on her own. But what will Lucy do when she is asked to make the ultimate sacrifice and leave all she loves behind?
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Warriors of Alavna
by N.M. Browne
While walking through a yellow mist, two fifteen-year-old classmates are transported to a world that resembles Roman Britain during the first century A.D., where they witness real magic and join a tribe of Celtic warriors as they battle Roman invaders.
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A Northern Light
by Jennifer Donnelly
Set in 1906 against the backdrop of the murder that inspired Theodore Dreiser's "An American Tragedy," this Printz Honor Book effortlessly weaves romance, history, and a murder mystery into something moving, real, and wholly original.