I received this email and know you are going to have an absolute fiesta of recommendations. We’ve talked about YA books, including this post from 2005** about YA books that Candy loved. We’ve talked YA romance before, too, but since there is SO much to choose from, what would you recommend for a 13 year old reader who is becoming interested in romance?
I’ve been a big reader since I was a little girl so it has been a joy
watching one of my nieces become an avid reader. Knowing I am the big
reader in the family, she has come to me for book recs.There are so many more choices out there for a young girl compared to
when I was her age. And the books I read now are definitely for adults
only so I was hoping you or your huge readership could provide some
recommendations. Then I could take a look at those and decide which
books to get her. My niece is 13 and here is a bit of her recent
reading history to give you an idea of what she does(n’t) like.A friend of hers has the Twilight books so she read that series
already. She told me she liked the books, book 4 was weird and she is
team Jacob – although that was mainly after she saw the movie and
Taylor Lautner 🙂She liked the Mediator series by Meg Cabot even though she started
with book 5 (apparently she does not have series OCD like me!) so if
there’s a particular book in a series you thought was awesome, please
share 🙂She told me she tried but couldn’t get into the Harry Potter books.
She is currently reading the 1st Percy Jackson book and she said she
is enjoying it. Then she said she wanted to read more love stories.
Another romance reader in the making.Any recommendations you and the SBTB community come up with will be
greatly appreciated.Sincerely,
Rec-less in the Bookstore
So, what books do you suggest? I’d suggest the 1-800-WHERE-R-U series by Meg Cabot, which I think of as the “Lightning Girl” series, and books by Jennifer Echols, especially Going Too Far, and Caridad Ferrer. But I lean very much toward YA romance in a contemporary setting, and am not as familiar with what is hot screaming awesome in YA paranormal. What do you recommend?
** That entry is from 2005, the first year of Smart Bitches, Trashy Books. And our 6th Anniversary is tomorrow – WOOOO! Come on back for fun and merriment!
The Mediator series really is awesome, I’m glad to see it mentioned! Although there’s apparently rumors about it getting a film deal and I’m worried it’ll get neutered and become a new Twilight (as it’s another series about a girl in love with a supernatural being, although Suze is MUCH, MUCH more assertive, independent, and confident than Bella).
It’s difficult to find nowadays as it didn’t really pick up Stateside and it’s about a dozen years old right now, but in fantasy/action/romance category I loved the Broken Sky series, by Chris Wooding (The Haunting of Alaizabel Cray by the same author is also excellent, except the female character does tend to veer off into Mary Sue territory. I’d definitely go for Broken Sky first).
Me too. For the good reason that ‘young adult’ fiction had not really been invented at the time! There were ‘children’s books’ and ‘books’…
A bright 13-year-old can certainly read many purely adult books with pleasure, but because so much adult fiction now contains a degree of sexual detail that might be unsuitable for a young adolescent (detail that was illegal even in adult fiction 60 years ago), I think young people require help and guidance much more than my generation did. We could safely read anything we could actually understand and enjoy, even when it was aimed at adult readers. Now adults probably do need to monitor the reading of youngsters a bit more carefully.
I think I’d started reading “real” romances by the time I was 13 (ie Jude Deveraux) but if you don’t feel she’s ready for the sex scenes then have you given her any of the wonderful Georgette Heyer’s books yet? Great romances. Very funny. Two of my favorites that maybe a 13 yo would like are The Grand Sophy and The Talisman Ring.
Another great YA book which I always try to pimp in these discussions if Mara Daughter of the Nile by Eloise J. McGraw. It’s set in ancient Egypt during the struggles between Thutmose and Hatshepsut. The heroine is a strong, clever slavegirl forced to become a double agent. There is a GREAT romance in this book, probably one of my favorites of all time.
Has your niece tried any Gail Carson Levine? Ella Enchanted (which is a really unique riff on Cinderella) was always my favorite of hers but it might be a little young for your niece now. Great romance, though, very sweet. The Two Princesses of Bamarre was another favorite of from Levine. It’s about two sisters, one brave, the other meek, and the meek one has to go on a quest to save her sister, even though it’s the last thing she wants to do. This one is geared at slightly older young readers (like 13). There’s a very sweet romance in Two Princesses too.
And, finally, since she liked Percy Jackson, maybe she’d be interested in my new book Heir to the Underworld (by E.D. Walker)? It’s got Greek gods running all over the place, adventure, a brave young heroine and a romance.
Good luck. I hope your niece can find many more books she likes from this comment thread. 🙂
I had several choices for her
I recommended anything by LM Montgomery
Also Little Women
(both are enjoyed for readers of all ages)
Also
Maud Hart Lovelace’s Betsy series aka. (Betsy-Tacy)
The ones where their children might be too young for her. But starting with her freshman year these books have been re-released (recently) for adults so I think she would like them.
Also I was sorry that she couldn’t get into Harry Potter then I remembered I had the same problem. Tell her to give them a second chance and maybe the first one on tape. I read the first two with my dad. (I was like eleven I think) (Ron and Hermoine are one of my favorite couples of all time.)
Anyway Avon had a series they discontinued when I was in middle school called Avon True Romance for Teens
All the books were titled stuff
like (girls name) and the (description of guy) I loved some of these
They were twelve books and eight authors all together, but they maybe hard to find. You could look for used copies.
They were all written by regular romance writers but for teens so they are appropriate.
Some of the writers namely
Meg Cabot and Beverly Jenkins have reissued them as part of their books. Meg Cabot’s she might be familiar
Beverly Jenkins changed from (Belle and the Beau) and (Josephine and the soldier) to Belle and Josephine (these two books are plot connected (meg cabot’s aren’t).
I believe the content is the same which make them appropriate for a thirteen year old which I was when I read them.
I am not sure if the others were reissued but they were lovely. I particularly loved kathryn smith’s books. I know they sound like adult books but they were written with teens in mind. Look on Amazon for used copies.
Sorry in advance for the long post.
For historical fantasy/regency fantasy I’d suggest Patricia Wrede’s Mairelon the Magician and Magician’s Ward, recently republished in one volume as A Matter of Magic.
Also Elizabeth Scarborough’s series Songs of the Seashell archives, starting with Song of Sorcery and The Unicorn Creed. I liked The Unicorn Creed the best, and wasn’t crazy about the two later books.
Moving away from fantasy, and into straight historical, I’d suggest the very under-rated Geoffrey Trease. The most romantic of his books are Popinjay Stairs (restoration London, with a red-haired playwright heroine and a sailor hero), and Victory at Valmy published in the UK as “Thunder over Valmy” (a marvelous French Revolution love story about a peasant boy who becomes a painter, and the poor but aristocratic girl whose portrait he paints, with a villain stolen straight from A Tale of Two Cities.))
In terms of “classics” a 13 year old with a good vocabulary might enjoy Rose in Bloom (more of a romance) and the book that comes before it (more of a children’s book) Eight Cousins, or the Aunt Hill by Louisa May Alcott. Don’t worry, they’re not as sickly sweet or as poorly plotted as Little Women.
Probably hard to find since I’m sure it’s out of print, but Elizabeth Friermood’s Circus Sequins is a story about a girl who joins a traveling circus around the outbreak of WWI, and has a nice double romance, including the main character, the two boys she is torn between, and the main character’s cousin, who has no trouble finding love, but has problems with parental opposition. It’s a bit old fashioned, but I really enjoyed it as a young teen.
Casting my vote for the Hunger Games trilogy by Suzanne Collins: The Hunger Games, Catching Fire, and Mockingjay. I just finished them, and got teary at the end of the last one—-good sign, in my book—-and there is lots to recommend:
smart, strong heroine (no TSTL here!)
ongoing, realistic love story
family relationships are a focus
lessons learned (but no overt preaching)
2 references to sex in the final book, but very oblique with no details
It’s got kind of a post-apocalyptic, Terminator-ish setting, but the people are recognizabe; apparently we don’t change much, no matter what our circumstances;)
Seconding GWTW for oldskool reading. I read it the first time when I was 8 and am rereading it for the umpteenth time right now, and it holds up! Yeah, Miss Scarlett ftw!
I also agree that 13 is old enough to start branching into adult books; if she doesn’t understand it, she can ask you or another adult (my poor cousin had to explain a wet dream to 10-yr-old me when I was in my Judy Blume phase…oooh, Judy Blume’s a good one, too: Tiger Eyes), but the relationship aspect will appeal to the melodrama-queen in her. BUT: I also have a pretty intense memory of 12-yr-old me reading Pet Sematary alone in the house during a rain & thunderstorm, so hopefully she’ll pick better times & places than li’l me did!
section82: is that like Area 51? I wanna go, but only if Mulder’s my tourguide;)
I will second The Forgotten Beasts of Eld by Patricia A. McKillip. I loved that book!
There’s a series of books that are retellings of fairy tales, like Arabian Nights, Beauty and the Beast, etc. It’s not all by the same author, but it is the “Once Upon a Time” series. I remember really liked Midnight Pearls by Debbie Viguie and Sunlight and Shadow The Storyteller’s Daughter by Cameron Dokey, though all of them were fun. Outside of the series, I really liked Cameron Dokey’s How NOT to Spend Your Senior Year. And I second the vote for the 1-800-WHERERU series, because I loveloveloved that.
A couple that haven’t been mentioned:
Madeline L’Engle wrote some great romances, like “Camilla” and “Both Were Young,” and I think the last two of the Vicky Austin series had a strong theme of reconciling romantic longing and self discovery.
“Howl’s Moving Castle” and “Fire and Hemlock” by Diana Wynne Jones.
If she hasn’t already, she should try reading manga (Japanese comic books). A lot of libraries have them, now, and there are some good, offbeat romances. Popular ones include “Fruit Basket,” “Ouran High School Host Club,” “Vampire Knight,” and “Kamikaze Kaitou Jeanne.”
Thank you all so much for the great recs! I’ve made a list of everything and will start picking a few for her to start with.
Holly Black! Anything by Holly Black. I adore her writing. I started out with the Tithe, and RAN back to the bookstore to pick up the other two in the series, Valiant and Ironside. White Cat is the first book in a new series about curse workers, the second book is due to come out soon. White Cat is my most favorite book of 2010. Very smart and well written books.
Kifah
What are the odds you’ll look this far down in the comments? Slim. But it sounds like your niece has pretty good innate taste if she’s 13 and already has a sense that Breaking Dawn is INSANE. So here are a couple of my picks from the better-than-average YA that don’t involve any explicit sex but are definitely not twee or talking-down-to-the-reader (*cough* Tale of Despereaux *cough*).
Megan Whalen Turner’s books: The Thief, The Queen of Attolia, The King of Attolia, A Conspiracy of Kings. Twilight was a fun little teenage-fantasy diversion (until it got seriously screwy in those later books), but I was—and still am—seriously obsessed with these books. I particularly love the queens, who are fantastic, strong female characters. These immediately made it into my small collection of NEVER-TO-BE-DONATED books.
Tanith Lee: Piratica. Hugely romantic, sweeping adventure and again, a fantastic strong female lead.
Terry Pratchett: The Wee Free Men & the following books in the Tiffany Aching series. Tiffany is Pratchett’s magnum opus, IMHO, and quite possibly my all-time favorite YA heroine. If I ever have daughters (or sons) I am totally reading these books to them.
Enthusiasm by Polly Shulman, about two HS girls on a Jane Austen kick, searching for their very own Mr Darcys, is the smartest, funnest YA romance I have read in a long time.
I definitely agree with Trickster’s Choice and Trickster’s Queen by Tamora Pierce. And with anything by L. J. Smith.
She might also like the Darkangel Trilogy by Meredith Ann Pierce. Or Monster High by Lisi Harrison. Or the Kiki Strike books by Kirsten Miller.
I think I started with books in the adult section of the library when I was 14, although the first books for adults I read were actually ones I swiped from my parents’ bookshelves in secret when I was 13 (I was on a horror kick and graduated from Christopher Pike into Stephen King – I even tried to attempt my mom’s German copy of Pet Sematary, although my vocab turned out to not be up to the task). Ann Maxwell’s Dancer books (the editions that were marketed as romance, even though the series is more soft sci-fi) were my gateway into romance novels for adults – I think Diana Gabaldon’s Outlander was my very first romance with descriptive sex scenes. My mom had listened to the abridged version of the book and was horrified when she finally read the unabridged version and realized what I’d been reading, lol.
Anyway, back to listing books:
–Hawksong by Amelia Atwater-Rhodes – I didn’t like the writing much, but vague memories tell me the style is similar to Stephenie Meyer, so maybe your niece won’t mind. In this book, there are two kingdoms, one of beings that can turn into birds, another of beings that can turn into serpents. In order to end hostilities between them, a marriage is arranged between the princess (?) of the bird people and the ruler (?) of the serpent people. Whatever problems I had with the writing, I remember enjoying the setup.
–Dragonflight by Anne McCaffrey – The first in her Pern series. Not very much like any of the books listed in the recommendation request, but she might like it if she’d like a fantasy/sci-fi sort of series. As a teen, I actually enjoyed McCaffrey’s books about Menolly more (first is Dragonsong), possibly because I was closer in age to the main character and I thought it was awesome that she was able to survive out in the wilderness, with her family turned against her, all on her own.
– Patricia Wrede’s Mairelon the Magician books – Oh, yes, I second (third? fourth?) this recommendation! The romance is very light, and doesn’t really develop until the second book, but I remember loving it as a teen.
– The Darkangel by Meredith Ann Pierce – This is the first of a trilogy. It’s been so long since I last read this that I can’t actually remember much about it, other than that I LOVED it as a teen and that it was very angsty. If I remember right, it’s a romance between a human girl and a vampire.
I totally second Blood & Chocolate—that squick factor is hardly worth mentioning. I found the scene with the hand far squickier, and I think a healthy 13-yo will not be negatively impacted by either.
Also second Georgette Heyer, Robin McKinley, and Patricia McKillip. And Patricia Wrede.
I would recommend:
Tanya Huff: especially the Keeper Chronicles and the Quarters series.
Judith Tarr: A Wind in Cairo and the Hound & the Falcon trilogy. If she likes them, there’s a lot more.
Barbara Hambly: the Darwath series, Starhawk & Sunwolf, the Windrose chronicles. Again, there’s a lot more to move on to.
Lois McMaster Bujold: oh my goodness, everything!
Patricia Briggs: the Hob’s Bargain, and she can branch out from there.
Mercedes Lackey: I don’t know if they’re still available, but I really enjoyed the SERRAted Edge books and several of the Valdemar trilogies when I was younger. I find her a little lecturish these days.
Elizabeth George Spear: The Witch of Blackbird Pond and the Bronze Bow. LOVED them when I was 12-14 ish.
Pamela Dean: Tam Lin. Loved it.
reached63? NO! That’s still decades away! I keep telling you, I’m PREMATURELY grey.
Well I’ve got a doozie of a rec list for you:
The Stravaganza series by Mary Hoffman
Almost any book by Catherine Fisher especially her Oracle trilogy and Corbenic.
Cathy’s. . . trilogy (the first book is Cathy’s book) by Stewart, Weisman, and Brigg
The Artemis Fowl series by Eoin Colfer
Seven Tears into the Sea by Terri Farley
Virals by Kathy Reichs
The Redwall series by Brian Jaques
I’m surprised nobody else has rec’d this but His Dark Materials trilogy by Phillip Pullman
I’ll probably think of more books later, but that’s all I’ve got for now.
Yay, a manga fan – I’d resisted including them in my lists, although I’m usually all about the manga recs. Even if the local public library doesn’t have them, if you can get stuff via ILL it usually isn’t very hard to get them. The main problems are that long series – and I think all the ones you listed are long – can be excruciating to wait for, and it can sometimes be difficult to get exactly the volumes you want (word of advice to manga newbies, reading manga volume out of order isn’t a good idea – in most cases, that’d be like reading chapters of a novel out of order).
Whoops! Kinda went off into memories of my own favourite reads and ignored the brief. Sorry about that.
Also, I too was never restricted in what I could read. I know I definitely devoured Sergeanne Golon’s Angelique series long before I ever found YA, and it didn’t scar me too much.
I don’t know how she feels about historicals, but I LOVED Ann Rinaldi as a teenager. (Early teenager, more like, but nonetheless) I still read Time Enough For Drums when it catches my eye on my shelf.
I work for a teen lit magazine, and we’re all about the precocious readers. A few of my favorites are the Lioness Rampant series by Tamora Pierce, Shiver (and its sequel, Linger) by Maggie Stiefvater, Graceling by Kristin Cashore, and Ash by Malinda Lo. They all have positive female role models and shiveringly good love stories.
She might be a bit old for this now, but my very favorite chapter book as a preteen, before I decided I was going to read Grown Up Literature, was Jane-Emily by Patricia Clapp. It’s a ghost story with a really excellent romance element. (Oh man, I’m still looking for my own Dr. Frost!) It was just released in a new edition—hurrah!
The mag I work for is Teen Ink, byt the way—they publish writing and art by teenagers. It’s pretty boss, if I do say so myself. http://teenink.com/
A couple of super romantic YA favorites I’ve read in the last year:
Impossible by Nancy Werlin – Inspired by the folk song “Scarborough Fair.”
Jane by April Lindner – modern retelling of Jan Eyre. The Mr. Rochester analog is a rock star and is super yummy.
Beastly by Alex Flinn – Beauty and the Beast set in high school. I’m a bit worried about the movie version that’s about to be released, but the book is great.
TAMORA PIERCE!!!!! She is my all-time favorite author. I come back to her books at least once a year. These are my go-to books when I don’t know what I want to read. I would start with Alanna, then make my way chronologically through the series.
When I was around this age I found The Impertinent Miss Bancroft and The Incorrigible Sophia by Karla Hocker. These are two out of three book series, but I don’t think the third book actually exists. I like to refer to these books as murder mystery light. These are Regencies, and it is because of these books that I got into reading romance. Amazing books!
I don’t know much about teen paranormal, but as for teen fantasy, Charles de Lint is a must. I have read the short story version of Little GRRL Lost, and loved it. I heard the full legnth novel is awesome, too. Others I like are The Onion Girl and most especially, Forests of the Heart. Both of these are so, so good.
I also think i was 13 when I discovered Mercedes Lackey with The Serpent’s Shadow. I also recommend the rest of the Elemental Masters series are retellings of farie tales; my favorite is Phoenix and Ashes, a retelling of the Cinderella story. Also, her Five Hundred Kingdoms books are based on farie tales, but in a way that the farie tales describe how things actually happen. The first book in this series is The Fairy Godmother. I also aboslutely adore her Valdemar/Velgarth series. Some of these are on the darker side; I am pretty sure that it was one of these books that Lackey described as dropping a mountain on the character, having him crawl out form under it, and then repeating the process. These books are in connected trilogies, but each trilogy can be read alone.
One last book. This isn’t fantasy or romance, but one of the books that I am reading for my representing adolescence class in King of the Screw-ups by K.L. Going. A teen-aged boy is thrown out of his house and he goes to live with his “Aunt Pete” who is a gay glam-rocker DJ in upstate New York. This is the only book that i have really enjoyed from this class.
As a teen myself, I’ve sort of drifted away from YA books and more into romance, but I do occasionally read some sometimes and there are some that I love:
– A Company of Swans, Magic Flutes and The Secret Countess by Eva Ibbotson. She does have other YA books, but these are the best
– Heist Society by Ally Carter which is a really unique and exciting book, though less on the romance than others. I do like the Gallagher Girls series, but not as much
– I still love Meg Cabot’s books: The Princess Diaries, Mediator series (all of them are amazing) and the Missing series are really good YA romances
– The Mortal Instruments series by Cassandra Clare is absolutely amazing
– Tuck Everlasting by Natalie Babbits is poignant and a beautiful story
– The Gemma Doyle trilogy by Libba Bray is a really good series and worth reading, but quite heavy going compared to some of the others mentioned above.
– Everything by Sarah Dessen will tend to be amazing but I’ve found that this depends upon personal preference. Some of her books are ‘issue’ books which not everyone likes. Overall, really good.
– If I Stay by Gayle Forman is one of my favourite stand alone teen novels. Again, leans towards an ‘issue’ book, but with some romantic tendencies
– The first three books of the Stravaganza series by Mary Hoffman are really really good, but I’ve found that books four and five have become quite repetitive
– Bad Kitty by Michelle Jaffe is a hilarious quick read
– Sarah Mlynowski’s Magic in Manhattan series is also really funny and gives a humorous perspective on life as a witch
I’m a big fan of Katie MacAlister’s books for young adults (written as Katie Maxwell. There’s a whole series written in the form of e-mails about a 15 or 16 year old girl from Seattle who moves to England with her family. First book is the Year My Life Went Down the Loo. Can’t remember all the other titles off the top of my head. Those aren’t paranormal but she has two others, Got Fangs? and Circus of the Darned that are. Sadly the paranormal series is only 2 books but she’s carried the characters over into adult books. And the supernatural world in the YA books is the same as the one in her adult vampire (Dark Ones/Moravian) series.
If she likes Meg Cabot her “Boy” series is really good and not really explicit since it’s told in a more epistolary style.
I read a lot of YA, as well as romance. I was probably about 14 when I started reading the Harlequins from the exchange box at the library. I’d say let her choose, and be willing to discuss them with her. I remember hiding my reading material from my mother, absolutely certain she’d be shocked that I was reading Harlequins.
If she’s into fantasy, I absolutely reccommend Tamora Pierce, Sherwood Smith, Kristin Cashore, Megan Whalen Turner, Gail Carson Levine. Sarah Beth Durst has some good fantasy books as well. I’d also recommend Cameron Dokey’s books as part of the Once Upon A Time series & Jessica Day George’s princess books… Both authors write retellings of fairy tales that are excellent. Actually, in that vein there are a number of great retold fairy tales with strong female MCs.
If she’s not much of a fantasy reader, I’d suggest Sarah Dessen & Meg Cabot, Jane Austen (she’s not too young for those), the shoe books by Noel Streatfeild, though she may be a tad too old for them. Pullman’s Dark Materials Trilogy is good, though I found the Ruby Smoke trilogy to be ridiculous. I could barely get through the second book, didn’t even bother to finish the third. But it’s all according to taste.
For historical, I really like Louisa May Alcott’s Eight Cousins/Rose in Bloom, Little Women et al, LM Montgomery (especially the Blue Castle & the Emily trilogy), Maud Lovelace (Betsy/Tacy series).
Hope you find some stuff that appeals to her!
could36: sure, I could (and probably did) come up with 36 books for her to read. 🙂
I agree with Jo!
I loved the Scott Westerfield Uglies series, I also JUST finished Leviathan and Behemoth which are steam punk with a touch of romance.
I also liked the Jacky Faber books, they were a really fun read.
And there is always going to be a special place in my little 12 (I mean 26!) year old heart for Tamora Pierce. I have all of her books, like a crazy fan girl.
Seconding a lot of things people have already mentioned:
Tamora Pierce. YES. SO MUCH YES. If she likes supernatural stuff more than action/adventure, she might enjoy the second Tortall series (The Immortals quartet, starts with Wild Magic). My favorite will always be the Protector of the Small series (the ones with Kel).
Suzanne Collins, The Hunger Games—very dark, but very smart and engrossing.
Terry Pratchett—the Tiffany Aching series is beautiful, but I also really loved Nation, which is set in a non-magical world.
Lloyd Alexander—the Prydain series, starting with The Book of Three. They’re a little bit old-school, but very fun if you like reading about magic.
Francesca Lia Block—she writes what I’d call magical realism about teenagers. Her books deal with a lot of “grown-up” issues, but everyone I was friends with in high school SWORE by them (I didn’t read them until later).
Madeline L’Engle—I read my copy of A Wrinkle in Time down to the bone. Meg Murry is the best heroine ever.
I still read YA and I have a 15yo and a 12yo at home, so most of these recs are from our home library.
Kelley Armstrong – Darkest Powers series is young adult, starts with The Summoning. When Chloe starts seeing dead people, she’s sent to a group home for crazy teenagers. Paranormal with strong romantic elements. The romance is sweet and Chloe grows into a strong woman. KA’s adult stuff is very adult though, so I’d emphasize this isn’t blanket permission for her work.
David Eddings – The Belgariad, starts with Pawn of Prophecy. Garion is a simple farmboy swept up in a quest to save the world, along with Ce’Nedra, a spoiled runaway princess. Epic fantasy with romantic elements.
Diana Wynne Jones – Excellent author, I’d recommend anything of hers. Howl’s Moving Castle (much better than the movie) is the only one I can remember with romance, though. When Sophie is cursed with old age, she sets out on an adventure with the selfish wizard Howl. Childrens through young adult, fantasy.
Mercedes Lackey – Some of her books are more sexual than others. The Five Hundred Kingdom series is pretty chaste, starts with The Fairy Godmother. Elena is a fairy godmother, tasked with seeing her charges’ lives turn out all right. The Heralds of Valdemar series have fade-to-black sex scenes, starting with Arrows of the Queen. Talia is the Chosen One with a magic horse. I don’t recommend these to adult readers quality-wise, but I ate up all the melodrama and destiny cliches when I was 12.
Gail Carson Levine – Writes for children and young adult. Mostly fairy tale retellings. Ella Enchanted (much better than the movie) has a nice romance as a retelling of Cinderella , as do Fairest (Snow White) and The Two Princesses of Bamarre.
Anne McCaffrey – The Harper Hall Trilogy starting with Dragonsong is young adult, although there isn’t any romance. I would not let a 13yo read her adult series that do have romance, though, based on the rape scenes and domestic violence. Fantasy/science fiction blend, young adult (only Harper Hall).
Garth Nix – The Abhorsen Trilogy starting with Sabriel. Sabriel is a necromancer who helps maintain the balance between life and death. Young adult, fantasy, mild romance.
Tamora Pierce – Anything. Her Tortall series starts with Alanna The First Adventure, although I usually recommend skipping ahead to First Test because the quality of her writing improves vastly over time. Trickster’s Choice in particular has a strong romance. Fantasy.
Terry Pratchett – His Tiffany Aching series starting with The Wee Free Men has a mild romance in it. Tiffany is a witch who serves as doctor and mediator for her community. Young adult, fantasy.
Lili St. Crow – Strange Angels series starting with Strange Angels. Dru’s father is a vampire hunter, and when he dies Dru is in danger from his murderer. Young adult, urban fantasy/paranormal romance.
Maria V. Snyder – Inside Out is young adult, dystopian romance. The Study series starting with Poison Study is a fantasy romance that should be acceptable for a young adult, though.
Megan Whalen Turner – The Queen’s Thief series starting with The Thief. The romance is not introduced until later books in the series but they’re all worth reading.
Vivian Vande Velde – Most of her young adult books have a romance in them. She mostly writes stand-alones. Try Heir Apparent, Dragon’s Bait, Companions of the Night and A Hidden Magic.
Patricia C Wrede – The Enchanted Forest Chronicles starting with Dealing with Dragons. Romances are primary parts of the storylines in Searching and Talking. Fairy tale world, children to young adult.
Jane Yolen – The Pit Dragon Chronicles starting with Dragon’s Blood. A slave conspires to free himself by stealing a dragon and entering it in the dragon cock fights. He’s aided by another slave who knows more than she lets on.
About letting children read adult books, I read in the adult section starting at about 10 and I turned out fine. But there was a lot of stuff I read that really bothered me, sex scenes of dubious consent and “heroes” that treated their women like welcome mats, and I wasn’t old enough to process why it bothered me. Just because it doesn’t hurt you doesn’t mean it’s good for you either. I think any intelligent child who loves reading will encounter some kind of crap no matter what, and I’d rather filter the worst of it away from my kids.
I would recommend anything by John Green, though Looking for Alaska is quite wonderful and my favorite. There’s also Paper Towns, An Abundance of Katherines, and a book he’s co-written with David Lavithan, Will Grayson, Will Grayson. All of these books are excellent and thoughtful, but the greatest thing about discovering them was also discovering the online community that’s been started by John and his brother, Hank. I found Nerdfighters and the Vlogbrothers on YouTube, and the rest is history. Maureen Johnson is also an excellent choice, though I’ve only read a couple of her books. Also, I absolutely concur about Tamora Pierce—Alanna will forever be my role model. You know. Except for the cross-dressing thing.
ALSO! I spied a couple of manga recs up there! While I haven’t been keeping up with events in scanlation-land for a while now because I’ve fallen in love with pretty Korean men who make adorable romcoms, I can whole-heartedly recommend Kimi ni Todoke, High School Debut, and Ouran High School Host Club. The first is sweet, the second is adorable, and the third, uh, defies explanation. I dunno, you just have to read it (or, alternatively, watch the anime and just pick up the manga from volume 6 and onwards, like I did). If she wants something with a little more action, I would go for CLAMP (CardCaptor Sakura will forever be a favorite of mine, though most of what they write is a mand-fuck and a half) or even some of the bigger titles, like Bleach. Bleach is weird in that it’s got plenty of action and people swinging swords around, but it’s also got this romantic sensibility that missing in most other boys’ manga.
It isn’t really marketed as a romance, but Tanith Lee’s “Biting the Sun” is amazing and does have romance in it. It’s science fiction and takes place rather far into the future.
Far more of a love story is Lee’s “The Silver Metal Lover” but it’s a total tearjerker: the first time I read it I sobbed my way through the last 30 pages or so.
I adored Mercedes Lackey’s Valdemar series when I was younger, and while I’m not thrilled with her latest work I did love Fortune’s Fool. It’s very fractured fairytale, and is probably the best written of her 500 Kingdoms series.
Great Suggestions that brought back a lot of happy reading memories.
I haven’t seen it recommended above, but I would also recommend Ursula LeGuin’s Earthsea books (starts with the Wizard of Earthsea). I would also suggest Mary Brown’s, The Unlikely Ones (and the followup books – last published by Baen). Sharon Shinn’s Archangel and Mystic and Rider books are great as well.
I loved all of the L.M. Montgomery books and Geoffrey’s Trease’s Cue for Treason was one of my favourites (I just checked and it is now in ebook as well – off to shop 🙂 ).
I’m seconding any recs for:
The Hunger Games trilogy (I haven’t read it but my teenage son really liked it),
Rachel Caine’s Morganville Vampires are very good,
Vampire Academy by Richelle Mead is my fave YA series,
Maggie Stiefvater’s Shiver series is very good, and
I loved Perfect Chemistry and Rules of Attraction by Simone Elkeles.
Old Magic by Marianne Curley. It has a little magic and time travel but its a sweet romance and it’s still one of my favorite books.
Mostly I second a number of you folks up there: anything by Georgette Heyer (non-explicit and beautifully written), Robin McKinley’s Beauty and Spindle’s End (Rose Daughter got a little WTFish for me), Tanith Lee’s Piratica. Another one by Lee that is hard to find now but worth it is Silver Metal Lover, which is full of teen angst and forbidden love. NOT a happy ending but in context I was okay with that at that age. Another hard-to-find is War for the Oaks by Emma Bull which actually was the first urban fantasy story and started the whole genre. It too shows the difference between love with the wrong person and with the right person.
Shout out to the other mangaphiles out there! If you want excellent Western manga I cannot reccommend Svetlana Chmakova highly enough. Her Dramacon and Night School series are both beautifully written and drawn and have the added virtue of being short series (3 and 4 books, respectively)and thus easy to follow. Dramacon in particular is a sweet romance, about two teens who only meet once a year at an anime convention. The heroine is a wannabe manga author and she and her co-heroine both show a lot of guts in going for their dreams. The hero is physically scarred but at heart the kind of white knight we all wish we had.
This is more a recommendation to the 13 y old girl than to the topic starter.
Steal your mother’s romance novels, steal your grandmothers novels, steal your aunts novels. There’s nothing more fulfilling at that age as reading some forbidden romance under the sheets. We all did it, and it didn’t hurt anybody. Yes it might branch some topics you aren’t entirely ready for, but I’d rather have you come across it in fiction than in real live.
So by any means, read whatever romance novels you can grab your hands on. Laugh with what you find silly old fashioned behavior. Question what you don’t understand. Discuss with your friends. Read the steamy bits in secrecy.
Because Romance Novels are awesome. You’ll probably learn more than in school, or in YA books, and you’ll laugh about your interpretations 10 years from now.
Enjoy!
I teach middle school, and I have a few recommendations.
The absolute best book for middle school girls is The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks by E Lockhart. This book is just flat out awesome. I like to call it the Anti-Twilight b/c the hero, Frankie, is a girl with heart, moxie, and sass and she’s not going to let anybody push her around. She goes off to boarding school and finds out that she can’t be invited to join the secret society b/c she’s a girl. She discovers her boyfriend is the head of the society. She thinks he’s not so great at it, so she secretly siezes control of the club. It is AMAZING. I’ve had grown friends read it and love it!
Although it might not fit into your request, I read another great book last week 8th Grade Super Zero. It’s a really funny and heartwarming book about a boy who’s struggling to overcome his nerdy reputation. He is interested in a girl, but ends up falling for one of his best friends, so it has elements of romance. The other FANTASTICALLY AWESOME thing about this book is that it’s about a regular, middle class, black family. This is nearly impossible to find—-most black kids in books are in prison, or enslaved, or fighting poverty. It’s a really great read, and I’ve been recommending it to everyone I can.
Eileen Cook
http://www.eileencook.com/
What Would Emma Do ?
Getting Revenge on Lauren Wood
The Education of Hailey Kendrick
i swear by diane duane’s young wizardry series (starts with “so you want to be a wizard”). the characters, the worldbuilding, the premise for magic, the plot development and issues covered in each book…alls i can say is “them’s good eatin’!” plus as you progress through the series you can see duane grow/develop as an author even as the characters grow/develop as characters. whenever i reread them it’s like visiting an old friend, or falling in love all over again…
oh also, hell yeah for the recommendation of lee and miller’s liaden books. i think it was in the comments on this blog somewhere that someone described them as “georgette heyer in space”, and it’s a very apt description. they’re like pringles, you pick one up for a nibble and next thing you know you’ve hit the bottom of the tube.
Blue Castle by LM Montgomery (sweet love story)
Sloppy Firsts by Megan McCafferty (whipsmart high school narrator, hilarious, true to life teen experience. Has bad language and sexual references but the kid is 13, this is not news to her)
Eva Ibbotson (everything, especially Countess Below Stairs)
Hunger Games trilogy love love love it. (Maybe read Graceling before you give her that one…I saw it suggested above and while I liked it a lot, the cruelty to animals bothered me and I felt like it was more for a mature 15 than a 13 yo…I’m a teacher and a bit fussy about that stuff)