Get ready to lose yourself in a world of petticoats, secret societies and balls! You're in for some truly incredible adventures through the past.
The books in the list below all have one thing in common: they turn history - and everything we think we know about it - on its head! Drawing on well-loved tropes, building fantasy worlds into the past and even spinning famous classics into new and completely unexpected stories stories, these historical fiction series are the best of YA.
From solving murder mysteries to sizzling romance and even demon hunting, there is something for every book lover. Scroll down to find your next favourite books.
Georgina Atwell
Toppsta
2025-06-03
2024-06-03
Best Historical Fiction Books for Teens
The Agency for Scandal Series
Welcome to Aviary, a female-led investigative agency that specialises in digging up scandal on powerful men. Our protagonists are Isobel Stanhope, Marigold Bloom and Felicity Vane, and in each book in the series, one of our leading ladies must go under cover get to the bottom of dangerous, illicit business affairs. You can count on them to right any wrongs their keen eyes can spot. But things aren't ever so black-and-white, especially when some of their male counterparts under investigation are quite the distraction. So, step into the nineteenth century for some enemies-to-lover romance, forced proximity, fake dating, and all the romance tropes while fighting crime and blackmailing wrongdoers.
Are you ready for your first season in Regency London? Expect extravagant balls and swoon-worthy first encounters, but also lots of scandals, fantastic leading ladies with big dreams and so much more! Throughout the books, we meet different main characters, who all find themselves entering the Season with anything but the desire to find a match. Thalia dreams to find success as a poet, Charis hopes to earn her place among the scientific elite, Kalliope wishes to be crowned fashionista of the season, and Eleanor desperately wants independence. Will each of these protagonists win their hearts' desires, or will their heart take over?
Isabel Ibanez's Secrets of the Nile duology is a New York Times bestseller with its lush historical fantasy setting in Egypt, so much adventure, and a rivals-to-lovers romance that's impossible not to fall for. Our story begins with Bolivian-Argentinian Inez Olivera, a young girl belonging to the glittering upper society of nineteenth century Buenos Aires. But then her parents mysteriously die, and she is left in the care of a strange guardian and his assistant, Whit, who has his own motives to be near Inez. (And, spoiler, their chemistry leaps off the page!) Together with them, she sails to Cairo in search of answers, only to uncover a world of magic linked to her late father's ring ... and the real reason behind her parents' death.
Bridgerton fans and lovers of historical fiction in general with absolutely love this New York Times bestselling and Stonewall Honor award-winning trilogy by Mackenzi Lee. This series is set in 18th century Britain and follows the love life and adventures of three siblings, Adrian, Monty and Felicity, with each book focusing on one sibling and the particular challenges they face. Monty is on a Grand Tour of Europe with his best friend/secret crush Percy. Felicity wants to avoid getting proposed to and become a doctor. And Adrian is learning to manage his anxiety whilst in pursuit for some answers that would explain certain family secrets.
What if some of the famous historical figures we've romanticised over the years had a past far more adventurous than we could ever imagine? For example, say Mary Shelley and Ada Lovelace were fae. Calamity Jane was a werewolf hunter. Mary, Queen of Scots, was a shapeshifter. And the infamous lady pirate, Mary Read, was a mermaid. Each of these women are so much more than what history teaches us, each with their own intricate stories of adventure, danger and passion. The books in this series are all standalones and do not require reading in any particular order, so just start from whichever title inspires you most!
Reimagining the iconic settings, characters and romances created by Jane Austen, the books in this trilogy are clever whodunit retellings of her most loved stories. In Pride and Premeditation, Lizzie Bennet is an aspiring lawyer trying to prove her detective skills by solving a murder case, despite the interference of Mr. Fitzwilliam Darcy, the stern young heir to the prestigious firm Pemberley Associates. Sense and Second-Degree Murder sees a young Elinor Dashwood aspiring to be a scientist, and using her skills to solve her own father's death. And finally, in Manslaughter Park, Fanny Price sets herself the task to solve the murder of her uncle Sir Thomas Bertram.
The Stalking Jack the Ripper series is a firm favourite among all lovers of YA historical fiction, drawing on the most famous horror stories that have haunted pop culture across the years. The books begin with a young girl called Audrey Rose Wadsworth, who discovers that her passion for forensic medicine can help solve the string of murders attributed to Jack the Ripper. And after she's solved one crime, it's her job to get to the bottom of all the other deadly myths and legends that to this day fascinate us. The series continues as she travels to Romania and uncovers the real Dracula, saves passengers on the RMS Etruria and unmasks the famous White City Devil serial killer. And while she fights crime, a beautiful love story blossoms in the background that will have you swooning and kicking your legs with excitement.
The Mary Quinn Mystery books are colourful, action-packed Victorian detective novels centred around the exploits of "agent" Mary Quinn, a young girl whose story begins as she is rescued from the gallows by a woman masquerading as a prison warden. She is taken to Miss Scrimshaw's Academy for Girls, which, Mary learns, is a front for a private investigation agency. In her new role, she is catapulted into the family home of the Thorolds to investigate some shady business dealings, then sets out to uncover the truth behind a suspicious death at St Stephen's Tower, better known as the clock tower of the Houses of Parliament. And as the books progress, Mary uncovers mystery after mystery, gaining her reputation as an excellent agent, and even helping the Queen herself investigate some royal happenings that aren't adding up.
Fans of Buffy the Vampire Slayer and anything set in Regency times will love this YA historical fiction fantasy trilogy. It's 1812 and we're in London, where a young lady called Helen Wrexhall discovers an entire cabal of demons, also called Deceivers, infiltrating every level of society, and meets Lord Carlston, who is one of the few able to stop them from getting away with their crimes. Throughout the books, she delves deeper into the layers of the society she so thinks she knows, and eventually will join the demon-hunting Dark Days Club and to hone her Reclaimer powers, which can fight off the Deceivers and ultimately, she hopes, defeat the elusive Grand Deceiver.
