Smart Bitches, Trashy Books

My 13-year-old niece and I both love Alyxandra Harvey’s series of paranormal romance/adventures, the Drake Chronicles, which starts with Hearts at Stake. Fun vampires, lots of sword fights (where the women tend to win!), great banter, strong female friendships, and romantic comedy. Perfect!

A great resource for young adult fiction reviews is:
http://thebooksmugglers.com
They review a TON of it and write very detailed, excellent reviews.
I don’t know that a 13 year old needs to be limited to young adult selections.  I read a lot of more mature romances when I was 12 and 13 and I didn’t turn out too bad!  :)

Terry Pratchett’s Tiffany Aching books are great for this age. There’s a sort of gentle romance, mostly in the last book, but they’re not strictly speaking romances. Still, they’re great fun. The first, Wee Free Men, is simply a romp, but they get more thought-provoking after that.

I highly recommend the Gallagher Girl series by Ally Carter—early high school girls at a secret spy school just for girls, with a little romance arc thrown in. Fantastic! (And very low on the sexual activity, kissing is about it.)

The other two “gods and humans” books after Percy Jackson are written partly in a female point of view—“The Lost Hero” (although she should read this after she finishes the Percy Jackson series, if she’s enjoying it) and “The Red Pyramid.” The Lost Hero has a little romance in it, although it isn’t the focus of the book.

I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention my favorite series at that age, which has a very long romance arc: Anne of Green Gables. L.M. Montgomery’s two-book series “The Story Girl” has some lovely and also sad romance stories in it (it’s about a girl who tells spellbinding stories, and she does so numerous times in each book).

I can’t wait to read through the rest of the recommendations!

Having tracked down the Ru Emerson “Nedeo” 3 book series via used books on Amazon for my teen age neice one Christmas, I can certainly recommend that author’s non Xenia works but especially that young heroine who has to rebuild her country, provide for her people and get married to provide an heir.  Although the protagonist in my all time favorite romance, “The Blue Castle” is older, any young person would enjoy how she learns to live her own life and find love in the face of learning she is dying.  L. M. Montgomery is the author and she also wrote the Anne of Green Gables series as well as the series of books about Emily of New Moon, both of which have great love stories at their center.  I also love Robin McKinley’s the “Black Dragon” and the “Blue Sword” and “Beauty”, and anything by Tamora Pierce is great.

Oh, oh, Patricia McKillip!! _The Changeling Sea_ is my fav, then _Alphabet of Thorn_ and _Harrowing the Dragon_ and on from there
Also:
_The Raven Ring_ by Patricia Wrede
_The Corinthian_ and _Arabella_by Georgette Heyer (any of hers, really)
_The Ladies of Mandrigyn_ by Barbara Hambly

In the interest of full disclosure, I’m a Youth Services librarian so this is something I’m super passionate about.
I have to second Hearts at Stake and the rest of the books in that series - they’re so much fun. 
Anna and the French Kiss by Stephanie Perkins is a great contemporary romance that just came out in December.  Most of the book takes place in Paris, where the main character attends boarding school for American students, which makes things even more fun.  It’s a friends first sort of romance, and watching the friendship develop is half the fun.  The main boy, by the way, is very swoonworthy.
Matched by Ally Condie came out recently and it’s a dystopian sort of story.  In this future earth, young people are matched with their mates at their matching ceremonies, and this is an event generally looked forward to.  A picture of their match is shown, so all can see each matched pair.  Cassie, however, sees a second face flash ever so briefly on the screen, and this leads her to begin questioning Society for the first time.  Who is her match?  This one does have a bit of sometimes slow paced world building but the payoff it nice.
Graceling and Fire by Kristin Cashore are both awesome action-y romances set in a fantasy land.  They’re set in the same world, but are companion books, not direct sequels or anything like that. Katsa, the MC in Graceling has very little experience with men and anything that evolves is mostly alluded to.  In Fire, however, the MC Fire’s physical attractiveness is a key plot point and she is sexually active throughout the book (though nothing super explicit), so it’s probably fine for most 13 year olds, but just an FYI.  In both books, the MC is a very strong female character who knows how to defend herself.
As a last note, this might be the librarian in me, but as far as slowly built up serious romances go, Anne Shirley and Gilbert Blythe from Anne of Green Gables and Anne of Avonlea (plus the other books) will always be a favorite of mine.

Our own Caridad Ferrer! I’ve only read her first two but loved the books and the new sounds hot. These are more real-life type stories rather than paranormal.

Here’s her site

When I was a teenage, I loved the Kissed by an Angel Trilogy by Elizabeth Chandler. To this day, I still go back and read those books every once and a while.

They’re not really romantic per say but I really like the Generation Dead books - http://www.gendead.com/

They’re zombie books but different. Only teenagers come back from the dead and they don’t eat people. They act like us, just slower, and they don’t have to eat or anything. People hate them and even try to rekill them. The books focus on one girl, a goth who in the first book develops a crush on one of the reanimated teenage boys. Especially when he tries out for the football team.

teh percy jackson ones have some romance elments in them too!  gets more obvious as the kids get older (in the same way it did in the harry Potter books) but age appropriate

i second the suggestion to read all the percy before ‘the lost hero’.  the lost hero is the beginning of a new series of books with the characters from percy and it builds on the events in the percy books.

looking forward to many new suggestions :)

I read a lot of the YA romance my 15 year old sister reads, because a lot of the books I read on my own are too adult to share yet.

I read and enjoyed Shiver by Maggie Stiefvater, but I have to caution that I think they’re meant more for slightly older teens (15 or 16), because some of the content is a bit mature (though tasteful).

I’m still in the process of reading Rachel Vincent’s Soul Screamer series.  I’m on book two, and so far I like them a lot.

My sister really loves Kelley Armstrong’s Darkest Powers series. I havent read them yet, but I’ve read her adult books so I can vouche for her excellent writing style.

Huge second for Terry Pratchett’s Tiffany Aching series, which are hysterically funny as audio books ready by Stephen Briggs.

Also, Sabriel by Garth Nix is the first in his Abhorsen trilogy: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sabriel Tim C.urry narrates the audio version sublimely, too.

Both series are outstanding for YA and every one else, with just the right amount of light-handed romance.

I would second the Tamora Pierce recommendation.  My favorites of hers are Trickster’s Choice and Trickster’s Queen.  Sharon Shinn always has elements of romance in her books and I loved loved loved The Safe-Keeper’s Secret, The Truth-Teller’s Tale, and the Dream-Makers Magic.

I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith is another book I would recommend.  Not the typical happy ending, but a wonderful book.

Happy Reading!

Take her to the library/book store and let her pick her own. By 13 I was reading whatever my heart desired and I’m not an ax murderer. (Read Jackie Collins, Stephen King, Micheal Crichton, Clive Cussler + whatever Harlequins Grandma had lying around.)

This way she’ll also be able to figure out what she likes and is more likely to try a variety earlier.

I was also allowed to pick my own music too.

If she comes across something she’s too inexperienced to understand she’ll either figure it out or it’ll go over her head.

/my son is 13 and is allowed his own choices - A student & never arrested ;-)

I definitely recommend the House of Night Series by P.C Cast and her daughter Kristin. I think it is a great read for any age. Not so much “romance” as a bunch of “i love him, no him! oh my, my heart fluttered when HE walked in” Some teenage angst and uncertainty, but what teenager hasn’t felt that?

Plus its a nice long series to hopeully keep her going for a while.

I don’t have any specific recs, but I’ve got some advice:

You should pretty much always read whatever you gift to a person at that age. There is a lot of YA that is triggery and romanticizes a lot of gross behavior, and parents/guardians/friends should recognize it for what it is.

I heartily second the Heyer recommendation.  For YA historicals, Michelle Moran’s Cleopatra’s Daughter is excellent.  Jennifer Donnelly’s Revolution is stunning—contemporary and historical.  I’m halfway through Libba Bray’s trilogy that begins with A Great and Terrible Beauty, and it’s wonderful.  It’s Victorian paranormal, but not the usual vamps and weres.

Sorry for the long comment, but, goodness, I like YA romance.

I definitely agree with the Tamora Pierce recommendation. I loved her books about Kel, the second lady knight in Pierce’s world - the first book is First Test, I believe. Then, if she likes Pierce, I’d recommend Kristin Cashore’s Graceling.

If she likes werewolves and other supernatural creatures in her romance, she might like Kelley Armstrong’s YA series, which begins with The Summoning - the romance is light, but there are lots of supernatural beings if she especially likes that. Unfortunately, Armstrong has written way more books for adults, and, from the sounds of things, those are probably not appropriate for her.

There’s also Blood and Chocolate by Annette Curtis Klause (a YA book). The main character is a teenage werewolf who falls in love with a human, a big no-no. There’s a potential red flag with this one - the guy she’s actually supposed to be with (and who she does end up with) is another werewolf who is, I think, 22. So there’s an age difference factor, since she’s 16.

More (very short) paranormal romance: anything by L.J. Smith. Her Vampire Diaries books (the ones the TV show is based on) are too angsty for me now, but I loved them when I was a teen. Then there are her Night World books, several of which are still favorites of mine: Daughters of Darkness (romance between a human girl and a vampire - the big surprise here is that there isn’t a HEA in the traditional sense) and Soulmate (features an angsty vampire hero and a human girl). The first book in the series is Secret Vampire, which features a terminally ill human girl who secretly loves her childhood friend, who is actually a vampire. Yes, this was my guilty pleasure reading.

Also, not strictly romance, although there’s a little of that, if she ends up liking Pierce and Cashore, she might want to try Robin McKinley’s The Blue Sword. The heroine in that one is awesome..

I don’t have any specific recs, but I’ve got some advice:
You should pretty much always read whatever you gift to a person at that age. There is a lot of YA that is triggery and romanticizes a lot of gross behavior, and parents/guardians/friends should recognize it for what it is.

That’s why I read with my lil sis.

In the interest of full disclosure, I was reading adult romance by age 14. It didn’t mess me up. In fact I think the message that stuck most was that sex would be better with the right person, in a responsible situation, so I waited.

None the less, in the position of an adult role model, you should know exactly what your recommending.

The ones I’ve read and loved in the past few months include-
Drought by Pam Bachorz
Unearthly by Cynthia Hand
Paranormalcy by Kiersten White
Halo by Alexandra Adornetto
Hush Hush by Becca Fitzpatrick
Hearts at Stake by Alyxandra Harvey
Raven and Wolfe by Skyla Dawn Cameron
Firelight by Sophie Jordan
Dead Beautiful by Yvonne Woon
Eon by Alison Goodman
The Touch Series by Stolarz
Once a Witch by MacCullough

The Forgotten Beasts of Eld by Patricia A. McKillip

The Blue Sword by Robin McKinley (really, any of her books)

Anything by Georgette Heyer or Rosemary Sutcliff.

The Belgariad series by David (& Leigh) Eddings. I found this fantasy series at thirteen myself, and it gives me such warm fuzzies to reread it. (It starts with Pawn of Prophesy.)

It’s not YA, but one of the first books I tackled in my early teen-hood was Gone With the Wind.  Nothing like an epic, historical soap opera to suck a teen in.

Georgette Heyer, definitely!  Also Eva Ibbotson, especially The Secret Countess (sometimes titled The Countess Below Stairs).

My favorites:

Shannon Hale - Princess Academy and Book of a Thousand Days are my favorite of hers
Rumor Godden - Listen to the Nightingale
Patricia C. Wrede - Dealing with Dragons series
Diana Wynne Jones - Howl’s Moving Castle, but pretty much anything by her is great
Libba Bray - Series that begins with the book A Great and Terrible Beauty
Gail Carson Levine - Ella Enchanted and numerous others
Robin McKinley - Beauty is a particular favorite, but again, you can’t really go wrong here
Sharon Creech - Absolutely Normal Chaos

Also: Pride and Prejudice was BIG with me at 13, as were Austen’s other works. And of course, the Anne of Green Gables books are classic

Isobel Carr and others have got in ahead of me with Georgette Heyer!  I’m sure this young girl would enjoy Heyer’s wit and her memorable characters.  She may also be old enough to enjoy Jane Austen, by the sound of it.  Pride and Prejudice or Northager Abbey first.  At her age, I was more into adventure than romance, and I would certainly have enjoyed Mary Stewart, who combines the two, at 13, but most of her books were first published when I was already older than that. 
What I mainly wanted to say was how delightful it is to hear of a keen and focused young reader with an aunt who is committed to giving her practical and intelligent guidance in her choice of reading.
:-)

She was mentioned once before, but almost anything by Robin McKinley comes highly, highly recommended - The Blue Sword, The Hero and the Crown, Beauty, Rose Daughter, and Spindles End would be the ones I’d start a young reader with. She’s an amazing author who creates wonderfully rich characters… and the heroine doesn’t just sit around and wait to be rescued—she gets up and actively participates.

Crown Duel by Sherwood Smith
The Hero and the Crown and The Blue Sword by Robin McKinley
Sharon Lee and Steve Miller Liaden series
All are fantasy genre, with romantic plots and suitable to young readers.

Having graduated relatively recently from YA to adult, I would make the following recommendations (sorry for how long this comment is!):

Anything written by Sarah Dessen is great, especially This Lullaby and The Truth About Forever. She usually writes female characters who are struggling with some issue (abandonment, parental death etc) who find their own strength, and good, healthy romance along the way.

I love the Percy Jackson series, and got all my friends in college to read it (just don’t watch the movie, it butchered the book!)

Scott Westerfeld’s Midnighters and Uglies series are also slighty sci-fi, with dashes of romance, and very good.

She may also like L. A. Meyer’s Bloody Jack series, which starts with a young orphaned girl from the streets of 19th century London, who masquerades as a boy to get a job as a ship’s boy, thereby starting a whirlwind trip that incorporates action, adventure, romance, friendship and coming-of-age. There’s currently 8 books in the series (and counting) and Jacky has a special place in my heart.

If you think that she’s ready, introduce her to Malorie Blackman’s Noughts and Crosses series, which gives amazing insight into issues to race, and involves romance, adventure, journeys into adulthood etc, but can be a little dark and you might want to wait a few years to give her that one.

I adoredBlood & Chocolate  when I was a teenager, and I think the age difference is not such a big deal- I never dated older guys, but my friends sure did.

Other recommendations (most come by way of Forever Young Adult):

Perfect Chemistry, Simone Elkeles
Not That Kind of Girl, Siobhan Vivian
The Truth About Forever, Sarah Dessen
Sweethearts, Sara Zarr

The first two contain sex scenes, but they’re not particularly explicit- no discussions of manhoods- AND they talk about condoms! The last two are just amazing, although it might be hard to justify calling Sweethearts a romance (slow burn, deep love- but no kissing).

asked51? Yes, please!

Second on The Belgariad by David Eddings. I still reread them. And if she likes them, there are spinoffs. If she likes those, she might like Eragon by Christopher Paolini.

*cracks fingers*

Shiver (series) by Maggie Stiefvater - Beautifully written werewolf (all the time) romances.  Hot hot hot without being too hot and much more romantic and sensical than Twilight. (One bit of sex, but it exemplifies the importance of how it should be done with the right person in the right circumstances - read the book if you need to judge it for yourself) Other werewolf exclusive books:  Claire de Lune by Christine Johnson and Raised by Wolves by Jennifer Lynn Barnes (RBW is very good)

Vampire Academy (series) by Richelle Mead -  YA Urban fantasy-ish read with a SMOKINGLY AWESOME romance that flys off the pages and is just OOH.  Also really action packed and progresses 10x better than Twilight ever did.  (MC is 18, guy is several years older.  Read if it’s a bother - though I believe they wait until she is old enough)
Other vampire exclusive books:  Morganville Vampire series by Rachel Caine, Vampire Kisses series by Ellen Schreiber

The Iron Fey (series) by Julie Kagawa -  Fae romance with a lot of action.  Reads like an anime/manga with sword fighting and scepters and tons of Fae creatures.  Probably one of my favorite series - and the paperbacks are nice if you are on a budget!  Also see the Soul Screamers series by Rachel Vincent - Harlequin Teen publishes good stuff.  Other Fae books:  Wicked Lovely series by Melissa Marr and

Everlasting (series)  by Angie Frazier -  Historical fiction that is kind of like an Indiana Jones adventure.  Adored it.  Very cute, lots to interest a reader who normally wouldn’t read the genre, and the romance had me weak in the knees.  Other historical/magic series:  Bewitching Season by Melissa Doyle

Second the Libba Bray Trilogy.  Some of the best written YA I’ve ever come across with depth and a romance that is completely appropriate. 

Angel-book wise, there is Halo (a lot like Twilight - relationship very possessive and is pretty much a Christian/Catholic fiction book without the label), Hush,Hush (with a real alpha hero that is subject to interpretation - but really enjoyable), Fallen (not read - slower pace from what I gather). 

For the books I’ve missed:  Kelly Armstrong’s Darkest Powers (The Summoning, ect.) series is romantic, Anna and the French Kiss is probably the best contemporary YA romance out there, House of Night (really guilty pleasure, though, and while it shows paganism as something more normative, the sexual description comes off as a little distasteful), L.J.Smith (another guilty pleasure - very formulamatic and not very well written).

Alyxandra Harvey’s Hearts At Stake series (formula to romance, but fun and Buffy-esque), Tiffany Aching series by Terry Pratchett (oh so perfect with a hint of romance), The Ghost and the Goth by Stacey Kade (ghost cheerleader and slightly-goth boy fall in love, cute and always appropriate), and the Sweep series (now in bindups) by Cate Tiernan (Wicca in a needed positive light, much romance, very addicting). 

Email me if you need more - although that should get you a good starting place.  :)

get51 -  Get 51 books and let her read them ALL (not really :D)

Oops, I forgot to mention what IS the problem with Blood & Chocolate. I recommended it to one of my students last year, and she liked it- except for the fact that the 22 year old had been dating the heroine’s mother. I hadn’t minded as a teen, but definitely icky.

family54? geeze, it’s like it can read my mind.

Aw, thanks for the recs, Sarah & hollygee! I’m seeing so many great things recommended here—I have to second the Alyxandra Harvey recs: my thirteen year-old daughter ADORES them, as well as the Gallagher Girls series.  I’ve got Revolution on my own TBR list, because I’ve heard such great things about it as well as another of Donnelly’s books, A Northern Light, and of course, I’m a complete fangirl of Jen Echols as well.

Another author to look at for gentle, historical romances is Eva Ibbotson.  Her books were published years ago, as adult novels, but these days, they’ve been repackaged and are shelved in YA because the protagonists and situations fit into the age range.

Upthread, Pamelia said:

I don’t know that a 13 year old needs to be limited to young adult selections.  I read a lot of more mature romances when I was 12 and 13 and I didn’t turn out too bad!  :)

Me too, Pamelia. Perhaps I was precocious, but I roamed the adult stacks at will starting at age 10. I devoured category romances, single title romances, adult fantasy, science fiction, horror…
YYoungerReader’sMaturityMV, but I think a lot of teenagers, even younger teenagers, can handle more nuanced subject matter than we think they can. Yes, even some love scenes. ;-)

Perhaps Harlequin Presents category romance might be worth considering?

yes, yes, yes on the Robin McKinley! my personal favorites are The Blue Sword and Hero and the Crown, but the other series/books are good as well.

I literally JUST finished re-reading Wee Free Men, and I too enjoy the Tiffany Aching series, but it definitely is lighter on the love-story aspects. Tamora Pierce is also great, although I would definitely suggest reading through the Alanna and/or Daine books before gifting them if you’re concerned about content screening, as there are mild sexytimes in them.  I’d hesitantly suggest Anne McCaffrey’s Dragonsong/Dragonsinger/Dragondrums trilogy, which takes place in the same world as her more well-known Pern books, but is less adult (at least to my recollection - I read the trilogy first, and didn’t get to the others until a few years later). These are more fantasy than paranormal, though.

Philip Pullman’s ‘Ruby in the Smoke’ trilogy (plus The Tin Soldier), while not at all paranormal, is wonderful, and does have romantic elements as well as (what I remember from being 13 as) a compelling story. And finally, I remember first discovering Elizabeth Peters’ Amelia Peabody series when I was 13 and loving it; however, the mystery (and Egyptology) elements definitely outweigh the romantic ones, and it is assuredly NOT a YA series or aimed specifically at young adults (not that this is a bad thing at all!).

Am getting a little nostalgic thinking about all these books, although, admittedly, I have re-read the majority of them in the past year (excepting the Philip Pullman series and Dragondrums)...I wish the niece the best of luck!

Upthread, Pamelia said:

I don’t know that a 13 year old needs to be limited to young adult selections.  I read a lot of more mature romances when I was 12 and 13 and I didn’t turn out too bad!  :)

Me too, Pamelia. Perhaps I was precocious, but I roamed the adult stacks at will starting at age 10. I devoured category romances, single title romances, adult fantasy, science fiction, horror…

I was the same way.  I pretty much skipped from The Giver/school-related books straight to adult fiction.  My mother told me I wasn’t allowed to read Sydney Sheldon, but mostly everything else was game. (I think she was just happy I was reading—I wasn’t very big into reading most of my life, then one of our elderly neighbors gave me some of her Harlequin cast-offs, and the rest was history.)

I think the only YA’s I ever really read (other than Harry Potter) were the series based on the Angel t.v. show.  I read a couple of Buffy and Charmed books too.

I would also concur with Caridad Ferrer- I have given all three of her books to my high school library highly recommended.

Also, Maria V. Snyder- the Study and Glass trilogies.  Though they are not YA books, they are extremely well written.  I read them and loved them, and one of my high school students asked me for something new to read and devoured them.  My “Study” books have been lent out based on word of mouth 3 or 4 times in the last couple years.  She also came out with a YA series last year- Inside Out is the first book.  The second book comes out this spring.

My 14 year old niece is hooked on the following:
Blue Bloods series by Melissa de la Cruz
House of Night by P.C. & Kristin Cast
She also likes Meg Cabot’s YA books including Avalon High

My other 14 year old niece got hooked on Lauren Kate’s Fallen series.

Neither one of them was able to even finish the first book of the Twilight series though.

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).

Perhaps I was precocious, but I roamed the adult stacks at will starting at age 10.

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.

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.”

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)

I suggest

Something, Maybe

by Elizabeth Scott. It’s about a girl whose parents who are truly embarrassing (her dad’s a Hugh Hefner type, her mom’s an aging playboy bunny who does live internet shows in lingerie). Meanwhile, she’s got a crush on this one guy, and can’t figure out why she can’t stop thinking about this other guy, who she swears is not her type. A fun read, and insightful too.

The Kingdom series by Cynthia Voigt (Jackaroo, On Fortune’s Wheel, Wings of the Falcon and Elske—they’re pretty loosely related and can be read as stand alone books, the first two are by far my favorite)
Young Wizards series by Diane Duane
Sorcery & Cecilia by Patricia Wrede & Caroline Stevermer (and sequels)
North of Beautiful and Girl Overboard by Justina Chen Headley
If I Stay by Gayle Forman
Books of Bayern series by Shannon Hale
and finally Jane Eyre was my all time favorite at that age (still is one of them)

This topic really excites me.  As a younger reader (though older than 13), most of my reading has been YA, but I’ve been branching into adult romance (as my presence at this site indicates). 
I agree with SO MANY of the above recommendations—Cabot, Mead, Perkins, McCaffrey, McKinley, Pierce, Cashore, Clare, Black, Lockhart, Dessen, Elkeles, Leguin…I’m sure there are a million more I could find in the above comments. 

I don’t think I’ve seen Sarah Rees Brennan’s name mentioned yet, but I really enjoyed her first two books, The Demon’s Lexicon and The Demon’s Covenant, and am eagerly awaiting the conclusion to the trilogy.  It’s YA Urban Fantasy, gets a bit dark in parts, but it’s also really funny.  Plus, British Isles setting, so, you know, awesome accents. 

I read Jane by April Lindner recently, which was good, even though I’ve never read the original Jane Eyre (I’ll get there eventually!). 

Michele Jaffe’s YA books Bad Kitty and Kitty Kitty are hilarious, though not paranormal, but I’m hoping she’ll get to write more in that series soon.  I haven’t read Rosebush yet, but it’s on my mental TBR pile. 

Kiersten White’s debut YA paranormal, Paranormalcy, was FANTASTIC.  Loved it.  There’s romance, but just kissing, and the heroine is great. It’s the first in a trilogy.

I know there was another author I was thinking of earlier that I hadn’t seen mentioned, but it’s escaping my brain at the moment.  (I’ll probably remember right after I post.)

Also, if she does start reading adult romance, she’ll be fine, I promise.

yay YA novels - love YA novels dun think you could ever be too old for them

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.

I don’t think you could ever be too young for ella enchanted. I love this one and the related follow up book Fairest. Pretty sure I was about 16 when I first read it and I’m 25 and still read it all the time - that being said i do have a growing “princess” collection - ella enchanted, howl’s moving castle, a little princess, the little white horse, princess diaries set and I would like to expand but need the space first :)

most of my recomendations are already listed - philip pullman (his dark materials series), gail carson levine, diana wynne jones, meg cabot, libra gray,

oh not a romance story but a beautiful fantasy story is the ink heart trilogy by Cornelia Funke.

for a darker fantasy - The child thief by brom (a retelling of peter pan) again no real romance but an interesting take on peter pan

YA Librarian here and I want to second many of the books already mentioned here:

Another big YES to Tamora Pierce. I devoured the Songs of the Lioness quartet in a weekend.

Kelley Armstrong’s YA novels are as fantastic as her adult ones.

Sarah Dessen - Catching the Moon is probalby one of the best coming of age stories I’ve ever read.

I can’t gush enough about Kristin Cashore. I can’t wait for Bitterblue

Suzanne Collins, David Eddings (I read the Belgariad and Mallorean series three times each), Maria Snyder (love her), Anne McCaffrey, Michelle Jaffe (Bad Kitty had me laughing out loud), John Green (amazing, amazing, amazing), Mercedes Lackey, and Amelia Atwater-Rhodes.

I want to add Melissa Marr’s faerie series that begins with Wicked Lovely.

Popular at my library, but I haven’t read yet are Carrie Jones and Alyson Noel and their series.

I also highly recommend Libba Bray’s series that starts with A Great and Terrible Beauty.  I picked up the book not realizing it was YA and was completely sucked in.  Completely!

A lot of the books I loved growing up have already been mentioned, but I just wanted to add “Animorphs” by K. A. Applegate. They were so awesome when I was younger and there are a ton of books in the series, which I liked because I hated when series ended too soon or the author stopped writing.

You guys are great! *adding all the new recs to my list*

Thank you so, so much!!

@Rebecca WHat was poorly plotted about Little Women?
I consider the first one (Little Women + Good Wives) lovely!!!!!
I admit Jo’s Boys was weak.
Also in terms of Other Alcott I adore an Old Fashioned Girl !! This one is pre Little Women, unlike Eight Cousins and Rose in Bloom which were written as response on how to raise girls!!!
(Atleast the first one was.) An Old Fashioned Girl was actually Alcott’s most popular book during her lifetime.

One of the first books that comes to mind for me is The Two Princesses of Bamarre by Gail Carson Levine (author of Ella Enchanted). Sweet love story, fun read, and I read it in my college years and enjoyed it.

The Young Wizard series by Diane Duane is more sci-fi/fantasy than romantic, but it is one of my favorite young adult series ever, and has a kick-butt, no-nonsense NEEEEERD heroine going everywhere from libraries to the depths of the ocean to Ireland to other planets to other realities.

The Last Vampire series by Christopher Pike is young adult vampire fiction with Hindu mythology influences and a central theme of romance. I read it at about 10 and it seemed really racy, but I don’t think it ever went beyond vague euphemisms, fading to black, and nudity.

Neil Gaiman’s The Graveyard Book isn’t quite a love story, but it is romantic. I haven’t read Stardust yet, but Neil Gaiman is one of my favorite authors ever and that one IS a love story. I have seen the movie, and it was fun if not particularly deep. She also might enjoy Coraline.

Wake by Lisa McMann is a very good book as well: misfit girl with the ability to see other people’s dreams but never dream herself, with an unusual love interest. I haven’t yet read the sequel, Fade. Might be a little too grown up for your niece, because it deals with some sensitive subjects.

Patricia Wrede’s Enchanted Forest Chronicles (starting with Dealing with Dragons) is a humorous satire of fairy tales with occasional romance thrown in (particularly in the latter three books).

I did enjoy Shiver by Maggie Stiefvater. Not the best werewolf love story out there, but sweet and an enjoyable read.

I also recommend anything by Tamora Pierce. I particularly enjoyed her Immortals and Circle of Magic series.

My first romance when I was 13 was Mara, Daughter of the Nile, by Eloise Jarvis McGraw.  A little older, but still relevant I think. (a little tame, compared to some stuff I read later, like my Mom’s Violet Winspear novels).

I disagree with some of the bitchery . As her aunt, I strongly recommend staying age-appropriate. It could cause some serious family problems if you introduced her to adult books her parents didn’t think she was ready for. That is a parental call.

Though not a romance, my favorite book at 13 (and one of my top 10 now.) is Scott O’Dell’s Island of the Blue Dolphin.

Have fun!

I didn’t actually care for Annette Curtis Klause’s Blood and Chocolate for a number of reasons, but I adored her The Silver Kiss—it’s age appropriate for a young teen, romantic (although the ending is bittersweet), and with a lovely hero and relatable heroine.  Simon is a vampire seeking to avenge his mother’s death 300 years before, and Zoe is a teenage girl somewhat adrift as her father tends to her severely ill mother.  Zoe and Simon provide solace and comfort to each other in a world that too often seems remote and cruel, and I thought this was a poignant, lovely book.

I’d also highly recommend the Thief series by Meg Whalen Turner.  The romance is subtle and doesn’t begin until the second book, but the first is a great adventure story and introduces Eugenides, the Thief.  Not a paranormal but takes place in an alternate history that appears to be something of ancient Greece with a few medieval aspects to it.  Definitely worth checking out.

Another YA librarian here. :)

I second Sorcery and Cecelia, and the sequel, The Grand Tour, is good too - fyi, it does have some (post-wedding) sexxoring. Any Diana Wynne Jones you can find (sadly, some of her books are out of print) - my favorite romantic ones are Year of the Griffin and Deep Secret. If she wants romance fiction that’s not sci-fi/fantasy, the Princess Diaries series is funny and has several romances among the characters. Actually, Sherwood Smith’s A Posse of Princesses reminded me of a fantasy version of the Princess Diaries.

read53 - I would have to read 53 YA books a week to keep up with all the stuff being published!

Katie Maxwell has a wonderful voice that is perfect for YA books.  (She writes for adults as Katie MacAlister and I can’t recommend these enough.)  Specific YA books my daughter and I have enjoyed are Got Fangs? and Circus of the Darned.  Her books are usually either paranormal or contemporary romance.  Some of her YA characters are even about to grow up into her adult series.

Most of my suggestions have come up already (Libba Bray, Suzanne Collins, Megan Whalen Turner, Eva Ibbotson, Georgette Heyer, Robin McKinley, etc), but I just discovered a fantastic YA series a few weeks ago and am happy to recommend it here. The author is Julia Golding and the first book is The Diamond of Drury Lane.

It’s set in the 1790s, with an absolutely delightful protagonist named Cat Royal, a ward of the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane. I’m very much reminded of Eva Ibbotson, actually, in the way Golding fills out her supporting cast.

Most of these are repetitions, but I’m all for reinforcement. :)

Georgette Heyer
Meredith Ann Pierce - The Darkangel Trilogy
Diana Wynne Jones - Howl’s Moving Castle, Deep Secrets
Maggie Stiefvater - Shiver
Rachel Caine - Morganville Vampires series
Juliet Mariller - Sevenwaters Trilogy
Jaclyn Moriarty - Feeling Sorry for Celia, Finding Cassie Crazy/The year of Secret Assigments. These are light and funny but very good, written entirely in notes, letters, emails, diaries, signs.
Melina Marchetta - Looking for Alibrandi, Saving Francesa and most especially On the Jellicoe Road.
Sarah Beth Durst - Ice
Sarah Rees Brennan - The Demon’s Lexicon
Robin Mckinley - pretty much everything she’s written
Meg Cabot - The Princess Diaries (I’ve read quite a few of her books, and I think these are still the best)
Holly Black
Scott Westerfield

And don’t read Becca Fitzpatrick’s Hush, Hush.

I remembered what I forgot earlier!

Diana Peterfreund‘s ongoing series about unicorn hunters, with Rampant and Ascendant already out. Yes, unicorn hunters. These are not rainbow-farting unicorns, but blood-thirsty, vicious unicorns. The world building is fantastic, with links to actual history and mythology.  The heroine, Astrid, is wonderful as well, and refuses to give up on her own dreams despite being dragged into unicorn hunting.  I will admit that the books get darker in places, and part of the requirement for being a unicorn hunter is to be a female and a virgin, a topic which the books address from multiple perspectives.  (In the first few chapters of Rampant, Astrid’s (icky) boyfriend, pre-unicorn hunting, wants to have sex with her, but she resists…and then he gets attacked by a unicorn.  The whole book might be worth reading for that scene alone, really.)

Also, it’s set in Rome.  *happy sigh*

I am reading this thread with my public library’s homepage open on another tab and everytime I encounter something for the TBR list I just sock a hold on it.  So much easier than updating the list!

I work in a high school library and most of these authors are familiar to me, even if I haven’t read every one.  Many are favorites.  Just want to reiterate Heyer, Collins (Hunger Games is outstanding but extremely violent), Bujold (Vorkosigan series to start), John Green, and Pratchett (Tiffany Aching and also the three stories featuring Susan Sto Helit, though when it comes to the Disc world it’s hard to stop at just one.)  Though only Heyer is pure romance, most have some sort of love story woven into the plot. 

I also want to mention since no one else did:
Louise Rennison series starting with Angus, Thongs, and Full Frontal Snogging--very funny British series written in the form of a journal.
Mary Stewart’s The Moonspinners, the first romance I remember reading (tells you how old I am; I guess it would be practically a historical now)
The Scarlet Pimpernel by Baroness Orczy and its sequels
Stranger at Wildings and most anything else by Madeline Brent

The last three are older books and not YA, but all deal with youngish protagonists and are definitely romances. Well maybe the “demmed elusive Pimpernel” ain’t so young, but I recall it being exciting and definitely sigh-worthy when I first read it in my salad days.  Loved Sabatini’s Scaramouche too.

My first romance when I was 13 was Mara, Daughter of the Nile, by Eloise Jarvis McGraw.

OMG, Sue, you just helped me remember a book I loved as a teen but could not remember the freaking title of. I just looked at this one Amazon, and the cover confirmed it. Yes! This may be one that doesn’t stand up to a reread now that I’m older, but I’m so adding this to my ILL requests.

When I was her age, I was reading books for adults, but now that I’m an adult I’ve re-discovered ya.  Is it just me, or has ya really improved over the last fifteen or twenty years (well, you know, aside from the classics)?

Repeat suggestions cuz they’re just so good:  Hunger Games trilogy, LM Montgomery (Anne!), Howl’s Moving Castle (and Howl books Castle in the Air and House of Many Ways), and Sweethearts by Zarr is a FANTASTIC suggestion for that age.

New suggestions*: I’ve always loved Daddy Long Legs by Jean Webster.  It’s a super easy read with a long build up romance, but is really a coming of age story.  I Capture The Castle by Dodie Smith is the best modern(ish) coming of age story I’ve read.  The Time Travelers quartet by Carolyn Cooney is very Rated G, but still an intense romance with the time travel adventure.  I’ve only read The Forbidden Game set by LJ Smith, but that was not too mature themed, has adventure and romance, and has a mesmerising bad-guy I kinda wish was real.

*Don’t hold me to this, I might have missed something above :)

I highly recommend The Sky is Everywhere by Jandy Newton.  It’s wonderful, romantic and real.  I read a lot of YA and this book really stands out.

Also, Anna and the French Kiss by Stephanie Perkins, St. Claire is every girls ideal guy, and he’s not a jerk.

Both books left me blissed out for hours when I was finished.  These are must reads for any girl

Almost everyone I wanted to mention has been named - I think I noticed one of Margaret Mahy’s titles and definitely read lots of my favorites.

Lately I have read Naomi Novik’s dragon books - while not exactly romance, they are still about forming a relationship with someone you love (your dragon) and maintaining the relationship while having absolutely amazing adventures (Fight on ships is the Napoleonic Wars, go to China, back to England, transported to Australia as a prisoner). There is actual human romance in the book, but Temeraire is really central to the series. I wish that there were 5 times as many, Novik is definitely on my automatic buy list.

Irma Walker - these may be impossible to get, but I loved them. They are sci-fi romance and they are a bit strange.

Charlotte MacLeod - in fact let me yell it from the rafters - one of my absolute favorite authors. Her adult mysteries are PG enough for a 13 year old but each series has a central romance between nice people who you actually like. The YA books are actually more serious, because she found a very comic voice while writing the books for adults. (Almost PG Wodehouse at some points.) I recommend her YA romances and her adult mysteries.

I went through a whole lot of Phyllis Whitney’s books. Very formulaic, but there were so many and they were usually OK - I read really fast, so having enough books became an issue, especially at the little library near my grandparents over the summer. They may not be to most kid’s taste, but I did love reading them and they were a pretty safe read.

I like Caroline Stevemeres books without Patricia Wrede as well as the ones with her.
Tanith Lee is sometimes out of print, but there was way more than “Silver Metal Lover”. The Princess of the World, Sabella, Red as Blood. Mercedes Lackey, Tamora Pierce, Meredith Ann Pierce, Robin McKinley - there was a time when I just went to the H-P bookshelves first at any library. Any library that I hadn’t been in before might have a Heyer I hadn’t yet read. 

At thirteen everyone in my grade was reading “Flowers in the Attic” and yet we mostly survived. I wouldn’t recommend it to anyone, but there was a certain charm to reading something so clearly unacceptable. They are definitely icky and you would think my entire generation would all be ax murderers after reading that tripe. Yet, society marches on. Sort of.

Wait - Madeline L’engle.

Can’t forget her.

and if you can find Tanith Lee’s “Dark Castle, White Horse” - read it.

Joan Wolf’s first person regency romances are pretty fun and they have been reissuing some of them lately.

I don’t think I have anything to recommend that hasn’t already been recommended, but YES to: L.M. Montgomery, Louisa May Alcott, Jane Austen, Madeleine L’Engle, Maureen Johnson, Patricia C. Wrede (the Enchanted Forest Chronicles), Wrede and Caroline Stevermer (Sorcery & Cecelia and its two sequels), Jean Webster (both Daddy-Long-Legs and its sequel Dear Enemy as well as the Patty books; they’re available for free on Project Gutenberg), and Svetlana Chmakova (Dramacon really is completely filled with awesome, even if you don’t normally read manga).

Also, @noozie, DFTBA! Are you on the Ning? I am so excited to find another Nerdfighter here!

For purely contemporary YA Fiction I would have to say these are my favourites even now that I’ve left school.

Feeling Sorry for Celia by Jaclyn Moriarty
Raincheck on Timbuktu by Kirsten Murphy
Saving Francesca by Melina Marchetta
Winter by John Marsden

I’m not entirely sure in Kirsten Murphy’s case but all the others have written other books that are fantastic but these four are my absolute favourite. Happy reading.

I would recommend Stephanie Dray’s Lily of the Nile. It follows Cleopatra Selene after the death of her parents, Cleopatra and Mark Antony. She and her brothers are taken captive to Rome by Caesar Augustus. I just finished reading it and it’s one of those books that pulls you in and you literally can not put it down. Selene is 10 at the start of the book and you get to watch her grow into a young woman. She learns how to use her wits and how to play the ‘game’ of Rome while staying true to her Egyptian heritage. I love, love, love it!

Cakes: As her aunt, I strongly recommend staying age-appropriate. It could cause some serious family problems if you introduced her to adult books her parents didn’t think she was ready for. That is a parental call.

Seconded, and a nuance I missed on my first read-through.  Though it sounds like Rec-less is doing a great job, asking for age-appropriate recs and saying she (he?) will take a look at the suggestions before deciding.

Also, A Little Love Song by Michelle Magorian (she’s best known for Goodnight Mister Tom but her other novels are equally good).  This is the only one I’d class as a romance, though.

i still have a lot of books i read when i was that age, & still read. Most of these are Sci-Fi-ish but she might like them if she’s read Percy Jackson
Decoy Princess by Dawn Cook
Cry of Icemark by Stuart Hill
Green Rider by Kristen Britain - that is actually a trilogy (well so far)First Rider’s Call & High King’s Tomb are the other two out now. Blackveil comes out in hardcover next month.
On Fortune’s Wheel by Cynthia Voigt - there in one scene in it that her parents might object to but it IS shelved in the YA section at the library.
Acorna by Anne McCaffery & Margaret Ball - it’s a series of seven so make sure she get’s the first one other wise it won’t make any sense. 
Prophecy of the Stones by Flavia Bujor is really good but it doesn’t have any romance to it.
Oh! the Twitches series by H.B. Gilmour & Co.
the Nancy Drew Files where always a big hit too.

I hope this will help. Good Luck!

oh man, what a time to be asleep at the wheel . . .

sorry for joining in late but I love these books:

His Dark Materials trilogy by Philip Pullman
Gallagher Girls by Ally Carter
Cay Royal series by Julia Donaldson
Just read As You Wish by Jackson Pearce, that was fun.
...
and
...
am I allowed to recommend my books?
What the heck - Ondine: The Summer of Shambles and Ondine: The Autumn Palace. It’s a comedy romance. With a ferret :-D

Eek, I keep thinking of more…
Modern - Chloe Neill has a great YA book about a school that happens to be heavy on magic. Firespell.

Judy Bolton - these are out of print, mysteries based on real world events in Pennsylvania. Judy is like Nancy Drew but actually human. Her friends seem more real and her boyfriend/husband is a doll. They are by Margaret Sutton and written 1937 - 1962.

Cherry Ames - nurse stories 1943-1968 - by Helen Wells with a bit of romance. I probably only read the first 5 - 10

books by Janet Lambert (involve the Parrish family, Cinda Hollister, Campbells) 1941 - 1969
These may be too out of date. The Janet Lambert are almost impossible to recommend since the attitudes sometimes make me crazy, but they featured New Jersey and New York and somehow spoke to me even though I was reading them 10-30 years after they were written. [I was born in ‘69 so none of these were new.]  But they still address the same things that the Vampire Academy books (and similar books) are dealing with - fitting in and making friends, finding someone you love, dealing with school when it is not the most important thing going on in your life, death of loved ones. Just no vampires. And the making out is much more mild.

She died in the town I spent my summers in as a kid, so I suspect our library had more of her books than was usual.

These are the books that I actually buy in hard copy (and even hardcover) using ebay so I can have a bit of my teenage summers to keep with me.

I was allowed to read anything at whatever age I liked, but I am old enough that my pre-adult days were before “old-skool romance” with its rapiness, and modern romance with its explicitness, became widely available.  So although I’d still like to say a 13 year old should be allowed to read anything, I’d also say that there are definitely things that I wouldn’t want to deliberately put in front of her.  (She’ll probably find them for herself in due course, if so inclined.)

I think the best advice above is to make a wide variety of books available and let her choose.  I have fond memories of the weekly Saturday morning trip to the public library while my mother was shopping, and also of book tokens at Christmas and birthdays and the joy of being able to turn up at the cashier in the bookshop with a pile of new reading.

One idea which hasn’t been mentioned is to go back to the adult fiction bestsellers of earlier decades - it avoids the hypersex problem of some modern books and provides good storytelling in what is often at a suitable standard for teenagers to read.  Jane Austen, Georgette Heyer and Mary Stewart are all good examples of this principle who are mentioned above, but there are also male writers such as James Hilton and Neville Shute who could be great “historical” reads for a teenager, and romantic in its wider sense.  I also have a fondness for Patricia Wentworth, who wrote “cozy” English country house murder mysteries with a side of romance and had one of the first female professional dectectives - Miss Silver.

Oh geez.  I just looked at my post again and am horrified by the typos and grammatical errors.  Please forgive me!  I’m going to blame it on my iPhone and lack of sleep.  Now that I’m awake and on a real computer, I will second the recommendations of Madeleine L’Engle’s books.  I believe she’s got mainly teenage protaganists and a lot of the later books in the series have a romantic theme to them.  I prefer the Vicki Austin family books but I do like the ones featuring Poly (not a typo) O’Keefe as well.

Verification: types69 ..........  Obviously I can’t handle typing anything that complex.

I just skimmed the comments here but I didn’t see anyone mention P.C. and Kristin Cast’s tremedously popular House of Night Series. P.C. Cast also wrote a fantasy romance called Elphame’s Choice, released by Harlequin Teen, but it was previously released as an adult title so there’s been some controversy over it.

I’m sure you know that some authors write for more than one audience, and not all of that author’s work is going to be appropriate for every teen. Some, like Meg Cabot and Katie MacAlister, write under another name (not terribly hard to uncover) and some write under the same name, like P.C. Cast. It’s important to be aware of this because teens are no dummies and if they like an author they will track down everything they can find no matter what name it’s written under. I’m in total agreement with JamiSings on Generation Dead- it was a top pick for us the year it was published.

As a teen, I loved Marion Chesney’s regencies, but they may be difficult to find now. Some other greats at that age- Lois Duncan, Cynthia Voight, Madeleine L’Engle (she’d probably prefer the Austin books if she likes a little romance), Julian Thompson, M.E. Kerr, Annette Curtis Klause (especially The Silver Kiss) Robin McKinley (especially The Hero and the Crown and The Blue Sword) and Francesca Lia Block (if she has a taste for the surreal) I loved The Princess Bride by William Goldman, which is about a thousand times better than the book.  I read I, Robot by Asimov at that time as well- far from a romance, but Susan Calvin is one of my favorite women in SF. I also did read V.C. Andrews at that age, but I think that’s a recommendation probably best made by a peer rather than an aunt.

Tricia Mills has two YA books out. Both are contemporary settings and have strong romantic themes. Heartbreak River is fantastic. It has some themes (alcohol consumption and off-page sex) that may make it appropriate for older teens, but I thought it was a great read. I haven’t had the opportunity to read Winter Longing yet, but I’ve heard only positive things about it. The teens in Mills’ books deal with life, loss (a father in the first book, a first love in the second), and finding love that helps them get through. Highly recommend.

Anything by Sarah Dessen (Lock and Key; Along for the Ride, etc.)
Jacqueline Woodson’s If You Come Softly is very popular with my 7th-8th grade students.
Blood and Chocolate is a new-found hit here, too.

i LOVED the Mediator series by Meg Cabot.  they were GREAT.
ANYTHING by Diana Wynne Jones is AWESOME.  I would recommend starting with The Dalemark Quartet. 
She should try the Dragon’s Milk trilogy by Susan Fletcher.
When I was 13, I really liked most books by Lloyd Alexander (like The Black Cauldron, The Marvelous Misadventures of Sebastian, etc.).  They had tinges of romance and Arthurian legend. 
And The Lost Years of Merlin by T.A. Baron.

~lAUra

Sharon Shinn for the win!  All of her YA fantasies are full of awesome.  Some titles: Summers at Castle Auburn, General Winston’s Daughter, The Truth-teller/Secret Keeper/Dream Maker trilogy.

I’m also a big fan of Maggie Stiefvater—Shiver, Lament, Linger, etc.

I’m just going to put down authors who you can read any of their wonderful books you choose.

Ally Carter writes about girls that are 15 or so that are spies-in-training and thieves etc…so the books are exciting and well written.

Tamora Pierce makes up wonderful fantasy lands with strong heroines.

Sharon Shinn makes a stunning fantasy world that I wish I could be in (and has cute romance).

Megan Whalen Turner writes a series that is almost historical fiction that is so wonderful that I am currently rereading it AGAIN instead of doing homework.

Sarah Dessen is fabulous but deals with some heavy subjects (Just read them first to make sure you think they are fine for your niece).

Garth Nix writes wonderful adventures with complex characters.

I LOVE Diana Wynne Jones and Terry Pratchett for the same reason—they write the most…different fantasy novels I’ve ever read and keep me coming back for more.

Shannon Hale writes stories that read like fairy tales and are really enjoyable—13 is probably the right age, if I remember correctly.

‘Goodnight Mr. Tom’ by Michelle Magorian made me cry—its a wonderful book about world war II.

Also, I know that Jane Austen is a bit difficult for a 13 year old but…I just love her so much.  Its worth a shot!

The Hunger Games series is excellent.  Not necessarily romance, but very well written with an exciting plot.  Collins’ heroine is smart, resourceful, and strong.  She doesn’t put up with too much b.s..  A great role-model for any 13 year old girl. I’m middle-aged and I loved these books.

I reccomend the Morganville Vampire series by Rachel Caine. I to the first four for my neice for Christmas and she enjoyed them. I told her if she was going to read about vampires, she might as well read something good.
Also, the latest incarnation of Nancy Drew is pretty good. The graphic novels are, too. Not sure how many books are in the series, though.

I thought of another great Y.A. series (although I was much older when I read it) - Marianne Curley’s Guardians of Time - The Named, The Dark and The Key - romance, magic, epic adventure.

I would recommend Sarah Dessen, Phyllis Reynold Naylor, Joan Lowery Nixon, Garth Nix

Some of these have already been mentioned, but as an English major who owns a bookshop with a huge YA section I couldn’t NOT comment.

* The Sally Lockhart Mysteries, which someone has already plugged, are amazing and perfect for that age. A little sexy, a little romantic, a lot of adventure… so well written. I just re-read the series (and I’m 24) and I loved them all over again.

* This may sound strange, but: the Anne of Green Gables series. Lots of folks don’t know but the series continues for several books, ending with my favorite, Rilla of Ingleside, a WWI-era story featuring romance and heartbreak and a very plucky heroine.

* As has been said by others, Robin McKinley, although not all her books are created equal and she’ll probably read through them in a minute. My favorite for that age would be Sunshine, a vampire book before vampire books were The Thing.

* Neil Gaiman would be a good choice, I think almost any of his novels would work but I’m thinking specifically Stardust—there’s a little sex but not more than a 13 year old could handle.

i have to second so many of the recommendations here, especially L. M. Montgomery’s The Blue Castle recommended by @Susan Neace. That’s still my favourite romance of all time. I reread it at least twice a year. And it’s Montgomery, so there are no sex scenes, just tons of swoon.
I read everything in Montgomery’s catalogue, and the Anne books are especially re-readable.
As a teen, I read tons of adult fiction - I think I read more YA now than I did as a YA, which is why I love the Forever Young Adult blog.
If she’s into mysteries, Agatha Christie is always a good bet. And some of my favs of hers were also romances: The Man in the Brown Suit and The Secret of Chimneys.
I second Tamora Pierce like whoa. I started with the Alana books (recommended to me by a twelve year old camper when I was her 18 year old counsellor).
The Hunger Games (for post-apocalyptic dystopia with an amazingly kick-ass teen heroine)
Sweethearts (for wonderful contemporary swoon)
The Belgariad and The Mallorean (for fantasy on an epic scale that’s totally readable, and will give you a life-long crush on Garion)
Anything by Philip Pullman, Garth Nix, Georgette Heyer, Meg Cabot, Sarah Dessen and Robin McKinley. I also love Neil Gaiman, but would follow @Katie Dickson’s recommendation and start with Stardust or The Graveyard Book instead of American Gods or The Anansi Boys.
For old-school books I loved as a teen, I’d go with T. H. White and George MacDonald for fantasy/fairy tale and the Nancy Drew or Trixie Beldan books for still great teen girl detectives.

And thanks to everyone else’s recommendations, I have a lot to add to my TBR pile!

Sunshine=awesome, such a great story!

I read the first few Soul Screamer books recently and really liked the characters, but some of their decision making bugged me (as the parent of a teen).  I don’t think she gets overly descriptive with the sexoring, but if memory serves some of the characters are or have recently been getting it on.  I wouldn’t feel squicky about handing them over to my 15yo step-daughter, but for 13 I’d have to glance over them again.

As far as the “should young teens read adult romance” back and forth goes…

I’d like to chime in and say “OF COURSE if they are so inclined…BUT I’M NOT GOING TO GIVE IT TO THEM.”

If my stepdaughter finds a book on her own, I’m not going to rip it out of her hands.  On the other hand, I’m not passing her copies of Nicole Jordan’s “Courtship Wars” books either.

Diana Wynne Jones is awesome.  Howl’s Moving Castle, The Charmed Lives of Christopher Chant, even Conrad’s Fate would be good ones to start.

The Sherwood Ring by Elizabeth Pope is beautiful and very moving.

The Hollow Kingdom by Clare Dunkle is also excellent.  Very strong young heroine trying to avoid becoming wife of Goblin King (who is strong and determined without being an asshole about it).

There are so many great suggestions, but I can see that one of my favorite books isn’t named yet - I recommend The Perilous Gard by Elizabeth Marie Pope.

I didn’t read all of the comments to see if anyone recommended these yet, but Cassandra Clare has a series called The Mortal Instruments that is pure awesome.  City of Bones, City of Glass, and City of Ashes are the titles, and a new one coming out in April (OMG I can’t wait!!!)

Try
Suzanne Collins Hunger Games series
Gena Showalter Intertwined series
Sherrilyn Kenyon Chronicles of Nick series
James Patterson Angel Experiment series

Lauren mentioned Agatha Christie a few posts up, and many of hers are great reads.  Unchallenging in terms of style and language, but with clever plots, some intriguing settings, and also, because of her long career, full of interesting 20thC social history to absorb painlessly.  Also, on the detective-story tack, Patricia Wentworth (who has been mentioned), and Ngaio Marsh, who was a most elegant writer — much more so than Christie.  As was Dorothy L. Sayers.  Mary Stewart wrote beautifully and vividly, too, and her romantic suspense books are so exciting!

I understand why many of you are recommending books that are specifically written for adolescents and deal with fantasy and modern mythology, and I realise that there is a huge choice of this material available now, some no doubt very well written, but I think that reality-based contemporary fiction published for adults between 40 and 100 years ago is also well worth the attention of a bright 13-year-old.  It is safe from the ‘explicit sex’ danger of recent adult fiction, and will also widen the young reader’s horizons on some 20thC history issues.
;-)

Hunger Games all day.  I also liked Matched by Ally Condie and it makes an interesting counterpoint to the Hunger Games.

Someone else mentioned The Mortal Instruments and I would add to that the companion series to them, The Infernal Devices.  I read the first one of those back in November and loved every second.

I re-read the first two Anne books a few months ago.  They hold up.  I’d also recommend the Emily Starr books, also by L.M. Montgomery.  I read those at that age till my copies fell apart.  Then I bought more and read them again (my allowance never lasted long).

I stand by the list I left here earlier, but it started me thinking about some of the best romance storylines from books I read as a child an young teen.  I wrote a post about it, with a list of my seven favorite childhood book crushes:
http://elizabethcornwell.com/?p=736
I know I’m pluggin myself, but it’s totally relevant, I swear! : )

A POSSSE OF PRINCESSES by Sherwood Smith is absolutely excellent; a group of princesses are brought together, one of which is to be chosen by the prince. Then one of the girls is kidnapped. Instead of standing around, these princesses go out to rescue her. It’s very good.

Alright then!

I remember reading Amelia Atwater Rhodes vampire books when I was 13, it was pretty cool because the writer was actually 13 when she started writing, most of her stuff is pretty PG

I would also suggest Eoin Colfer’s Artemis Fowl Series
And I would strongly suggest any of Nancy Farmers books along with
Series of Unfortunate Events by Lemony Snicket

doesn’t like Harry Potter eh? (Inwardly cringe* and sigh “All to her own, I guess”)

Also I’d get her started on the classics, Jane Austen, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle the works!

I remember being 13, the best you can do for a kid at that time is to get them reading in as much diversity as possible, moderation doesn’t exist when it comes down to reading.
looking39 OMG! That’s 13 times 3… not sure what that means.

I know there have been plenty of great recommendations, but I just had to add my two cents.  I would like to second Isobel Carr’s suggestion of Rosemary Sutcliff, specifically “The Mark of the Horse Lord”.

It’s got swordfights and chariot battles, murder and intrigue, old prophets and a coming of age story. It’s got revenge and romance, gladiators and usurpers, slaves earning their freedom, and an imposter who becomes the mask he was wearing. Everything a growing girl needs, really.

The book has a strong emphasis on friendship, and much of the story involves the main character earning the trust of his compatriots. I didn’t date at all throughout my high school years; I loved this book because it contained so many relationships I could relate to. I wasn’t interested in romance books until after I fell in love myself.

Thanks to everyone who replied, you’ve expanded my reading list!

Bella at Midnight by Diane Stanley (awesome fairy tale retelling)

Enthusiasm by Polly Shulman (I think someone already mentioned it, but I second it!)

The Gemma Doyle Triology by Libba Bray (A Great and Terrible Beauty, Rebel Angels,  The Sweet Far Thing)—historical fiction, romance, and fantasy combined!

Uprising by Margaret Peterson Haddix (I don’t know that this fits the criteria, but it is one of my favorites historical novels!)

My 8th grade girls (I teach 7-8 grade drama and 10th writing) can’t get enough of Nicholas Sparks.

Oh, just saw that someone mentioned Agatha Christie!  When I taught 8th grade English, we read And Then There Were None, and my students—non-readers included—LOVED it.

If your niece was Team Jacob, then I second the several recommendations for Kelley Armstrong’s Darkest Powers series, starting with The Summoning.

I still think New Zealand author Margaret Mahy’s The Changeover is one of the best books I’ve ever read—and re-read, and re-read…A teen must save her little brother from an evil spirit. Simply the best teen paranormal romance I’ve ever read.

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.

Dragon’s Bait and Companions of the Night were very memorable. Good suggestions. Loved seeing my old faves show up in this thread.

—Plus, I’ve added so many new free samples to my nook based on this discussion! Thanks to everyone

I want to second (third, fourth) Melissa Marr’s Wicked Lovely series and anything by Madeleine L’Engle. The Austin series were some of my favorites as a teen and so were the later O’Keefe books, especially A House Like a Lotus.

Somebody may have recommended these already (probably has, I saw “140 comments” and bagged on reading them—so far), but the Septimus Heap books are good. 

Bess

These may not be in print anymore, but does anyone else recall the Sunset Island books?  Loved them in the eighth grade.  There are a ton of other books I’d like to recommend, but sadly I don’t remember the names or authors (Me from 15 years ago: “I don’t need to keep all these books about teens in high school. I’m a grown up in COLLEGE now.” Adult me: SMACK!) Would anyone else love to see a HABO on YA books?

My two cents—Andre Norton was the writer that actually got me started reading romance.  Practically every book she wrote had a romance in it.  Her stories are fantasy or sci fi and there are a lot of them.  I love the Witch World series and most feature strong young heroines, romance and adventure.

I’d recommend against the Mortal Instruments series—they get really pretentious and Canon Sue-ish, and generally read like bad fanfiction (considering that Cassie Clare is best known on the Internet for her Harry Potter fanfiction The Draco Trilogy, it figures).

I would, however, thoroughly second all the recommendations of works by Kristin Cashore and Holly Black. Graceling was the first book I ever read where I felt totally safe from any unfortunate implications regarding gender, and it was a totally affirming thing to read as a young woman who wants a relationship but never marriage. And Holly Black’s works are gorgeously crafted and really tap into a teenager’s mind.

Another one I don’t think anyone’s mentioned yet is I Am Morgan le Fay by Nancy Springer—there’s definitely romance, but it doesn’t play out in a typical romance novel manner. I read it for the first time when I was eleven and it remains one of my favorite books seven years later.

I recommend Keturah and Lord Death: great fantasy romance!

My sister-in-law is 15 (oh my gosh, time flies) and I’ve been loaning her books from my collection as well as buying her books and putting stuff on order for her at the library.  She loved Twilight, Francesca Lia Block’s Dangerous Angels books, Megan Mcafferty’s Jessica Darling series, and (to my dismay, we’ve had a lot of discussions about Zoey’s use of “slut” as a pejorative) the House of Night series.

Recently, I’ve gotten her Beautiful Creatures, Pride and Prejudice (after she said she loved Mr. Darcy, Vampire), the Georgia Nicholson series, and I just started reading Graceling, so I’m sure that’s the next title I’ll slip her way.

I work in a middle school (grades 5-8) library.  I’m a romance lover so I always try to make sure that we are well stocked with young-audience love stories.

Here are some worth checking out…  Haven’t included all the authors, sorry!

Mara Daughter of the Nile - Historical fiction adventure.  Set in ancient Egypt.  Slave becomes a spy and a double agent, falls for one of her “handlers”.  Easily one of my favorite books as a girl.

The Perilous Gard - Another historical fiction adventure.  Fantasy this time, it’s a take on Tam Lin.  Bit of a slow start but has a swoon-tastic ending.

Dairy Queen - Haven’t read it (yet!) but the students say it’s amazing.

A Song for Summer (Eva Ibbotson)  - See above.

The Countess Beneath Stars (Eva Ibbotson) - Super cute but a little denser than it needs to be at times.  An upstairs/downstairs romance.

The Silver Kiss - Vampire romance, scary, sad, lovely. (as mentioned by others)

Puppy Love (Katie Krulik) - Haven’t read yet, kids love it.

Wildwood Dancing - Haven’t read yet, kids love it.

I want to thank the bitchery for this awesome thread, which has made me discover YA romance. These recommendations have been realy great! In the last few weeks I’ve been reading a number of the books mentioned above and loved most of them. I particularly enjoyed Richelle Mead’s vampire series (awesome romance) and Anna and the French Kiss.

I’m also loving these recommendations (and I’m far from being a teen) and hopefully, I’m not too late to the party, but I just realized I’ve recently read one that I love and adore and can recommend.

Death Cloud by Andrew Lane. Young Sherlock Holmes. I loved it and my kids are reading it now and both enjoying it. So good if you know nothing about Sherlock, and so good if you know lots. Really enjoyable. 

consider62: I have a least 62 more books to consider reading… :)

Oh, and Carola Dunn’s Daisy Dalrymple series is awesome as well.