I received this email and know you are going to have an absolute fiesta of recommendations. We’ve talked about YA books, including this post from 2005** about YA books that Candy loved. We’ve talked YA romance before, too, but since there is SO much to choose from, what would you recommend for a 13 year old reader who is becoming interested in romance?
I’ve been a big reader since I was a little girl so it has been a joy
watching one of my nieces become an avid reader. Knowing I am the big
reader in the family, she has come to me for book recs.There are so many more choices out there for a young girl compared to
when I was her age. And the books I read now are definitely for adults
only so I was hoping you or your huge readership could provide some
recommendations. Then I could take a look at those and decide which
books to get her. My niece is 13 and here is a bit of her recent
reading history to give you an idea of what she does(n’t) like.A friend of hers has the Twilight books so she read that series
already. She told me she liked the books, book 4 was weird and she is
team Jacob – although that was mainly after she saw the movie and
Taylor Lautner 🙂She liked the Mediator series by Meg Cabot even though she started
with book 5 (apparently she does not have series OCD like me!) so if
there’s a particular book in a series you thought was awesome, please
share 🙂She told me she tried but couldn’t get into the Harry Potter books.
She is currently reading the 1st Percy Jackson book and she said she
is enjoying it. Then she said she wanted to read more love stories.
Another romance reader in the making.Any recommendations you and the SBTB community come up with will be
greatly appreciated.Sincerely,
Rec-less in the Bookstore
So, what books do you suggest? I’d suggest the 1-800-WHERE-R-U series by Meg Cabot, which I think of as the “Lightning Girl” series, and books by Jennifer Echols, especially Going Too Far, and Caridad Ferrer. But I lean very much toward YA romance in a contemporary setting, and am not as familiar with what is hot screaming awesome in YA paranormal. What do you recommend?
** That entry is from 2005, the first year of Smart Bitches, Trashy Books. And our 6th Anniversary is tomorrow – WOOOO! Come on back for fun and merriment!
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
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.
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 😀
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!