The past is never boring in these historical page-turners!


Book cover for Alex and Eliza: A Love Story

Alex and Eliza: A Love Story

De la Cruz, Melissa
Call Number: YA

The Schuyler family’s ball is where Alexander and Eliza cross paths for the first time, their attraction is instantaneous. Eliza, the daughter from a distinguished family and Alexander, George Washington’s dazzling right-hand man, struggle to begin a new relationship during the American Revolution. As Alex battles to find his place, it is Eliza’s loyalty and strength that cement their maturing relationship.

Book cover for Anastasia and her sisters

Anastasia and her sisters

Meyer, Carolyn, 1935-
Call Number: YA

The daughter of Russian Tsar Nicholas, Anastasia Romanov lives in unimaginable luxury and suffocating captivity. However, when the Russian people rise up and rebel against the aristocracy, Anastasia’s world is threatened.

Book cover for Belle epoque

Belle epoque

Ross, Elizabeth (Elizabeth Anne).
Call Number: YA

Set in the glamorous, bohemian world of 1880s Paris, this book is about a girl who takes a job with an unusual talent agency that provides “beauty foils” to wealthy aristocrats - hire a plain friend to accompany you to debutante balls and become instantly more attractive!

Book cover for Chain of Gold

Chain of Gold

Clare, Cassandra
Call Number: YA

Cordelia, a Shadowhunter, and her family return to London at the turn of the 20th century with hopes of saving their family’s reputation after her father is arrested. Cordelia is reunited with childhood friends and is drawn into the glamourous world of the supernatural until demon attacks on London set them on a dark journey to not only save London but all Shadowhunters.

Book cover for Code name Verity

Code name Verity

Wein, Elizabeth.
Call Number: YA

After two British girls, a pilot and a spy, crash their plane in Nazi-occupied France, the spy is captured and imprisoned by the Germans. She is forced to give up her secrets and reveal her mission in writing. Instead, she tells the story of her friend Maddie, the pilot of the crashed plane, whom she assumes is dead. But nothing can be assumed in this story, and nothing is as it seems.

Book cover for Daughter of the Pirate King

Daughter of the Pirate King

Levenseller, Tricia
Call Number: YA

Alosa, a fiery pirate captain, is sent on a mission to recover an elusive treasure map by her father, the Pirate King. To recover the map, she organizes her own abduction and is taken aboard the very ship she needs to search. All is going according to plan until Alosa encounters the one thing she did not account for on this mission, Riden, Captain Draxen’s First Mate and brother.

Book cover for Dead to me

Dead to me

McCoy, Mary, 1976-
Call Number: YA

Sixteen-year-old Alice is pulled into a world of dangerous movie stars, corrupt police officers, and tough-talking private eyes as she searches for the person who tried to kill her older sister in this mystery set in 1940s Hollywood. This is LAPL Librarian Mary McCoy's first novel.

Book cover for Flygirl

Flygirl

Smith, Sherri L.

During World War II, 18-year-old Ida Mae Jones passes for white so she can join the Women's Airforce Service Pilots (WASPs), serve her country, and fulfill her lifelong dream of flying. Smith tells a riveting story about a little-known chapter of World War II history, set against the backdrop of Jim Crow America.

Book cover for The Fountains of Silence

The Fountains of Silence

Sepetys, Ruta
Call Number: YA

American teenager Daniel travels to Spain following the Spanish civil war in hopes of reconnecting with his mother’s homeland through photography. While exploring Madrid Daniel befriends Ana, a Spaniard who shows him the true Spain under General Franco’s fascist regime.

Book cover for The game of love and death

The game of love and death

Brockenbrough, Martha,
Call Number: YA

For centuries, Love and Death have played a game with human pawns: if the humans choose each other against all odds, Love wins; if they don't, Death wins and the players' lives are forfeit. Love has never won, but likes his chances with the players Henry, a white boy adopted by a wealthy family, and Flora, an African-American girl who can sing jazz and fix airplanes. With smart writing, a unique concept, and a dreamy 1930s Seattle setting, this ambitious story will stay with you long after the last page. 

Book cover for The Gentleman's Guide to Vice and Virtue

The Gentleman's Guide to Vice and Virtue

Lee, Mackenzi
Call Number: YA

Henry Montague is heading out with his best friend and crush, Percy, on a tour of the continent. One last grand adventure before he is to return home, prepare to take over the family estate and ultimately take his father’s position as Lord. Monty intends to make the most of his 18th century road trip, until a series of his infamous shenanigans lead them to be hunted across Europe.

Book cover for Girl in the Blue Coat

Girl in the Blue Coat

Hesse, Monica
Call Number: YA

In 1943 Nazi-occupied Amsterdam, teenage Hanneke—a 'finder' of black market goods—is tasked with finding a Jewish girl a customer had been hiding, who has seemingly vanished into thin air, and is pulled into a web of resistance activities and secrets as she attempts to solve the mystery and save the missing girl.

Book cover for Lies We Tell Ourselves

Lies We Tell Ourselves

Talley, Robin
Call Number: YA

As one of the first African American students to attend Jefferson High School in 1959 Virginia, Sarah faces discrimination and abuse on a daily basis. When she and the white daughter of a rabid segregationist are forced to work together on a school project, however, the two girls begin to realize they have feelings for one another.

Book cover for Lovely War

Lovely War

Berry, Julie
Call Number: YA

Spellbinding from page one, this multilayered saga of love, war and fate is told from the point of view of the Greek gods and goddesses who relay the story of the unlikely romances of two young couples that span countries and the ongoing pressures of World War I. A beautiful mix of historical fiction and romance that covers themes of race, music, prejudice and survival about four individuals during World War I and beyond. Teens and adults will be swept up in the story.

 

Book cover for My Lady Jane

My Lady Jane

Hand, Cynthia
Call Number: YA

Jane Grey has just been married off and named the heir to the English throne. If that is not bad enough, she is caught in the midst of feud between the Eðians, shapeshifters, Verities, non-shapeshifters and left in the crosshairs of the true heir, Bloody Mary.

Book cover for Never fall down : a boy soldier's story of survival

Never fall down : a boy soldier's story of survival

McCormick, Patricia, 1956-
Call Number: YA

The haunting tale of Arn, who finds out how far he will have to go to survive the takeover of his village by the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia in the 1970s. Death is a constant companion and he wonders why he is spared and if he can keep his humanity in the midst of such confusion and turmoil.

Book cover for Out of the Easy

Out of the Easy

Sepetys, Ruta.
Call Number: YA

Life’s not easy in the “Big Easy” for 17-year-old, Josie Moraine, who works two jobs and dreams of going to a prestigious college. She wants a better life for herself rather than to follow in her mother’s footsteps. Her plans to escape New Orleans, her mother, and everybody who looks down on her for being the daughter of a prostitute, is thwarted when her mom skips town following a mysterious murder of a stranger, leaving Josie in debt with the mob.

Book cover for Prisoner of night and fog

Prisoner of night and fog

Blankman, Anne.
Call Number: YA

Set in 1930s Munich, 17-year-old Gretchen is her Uncle Dolf’s favorite. But with the help of a young Jewish reporter who’s asking questions about her father’s death years ago (while he was protecting his comrade Adolf Hitler), Gretchen begins to see her family, her party, and her Uncle Dolf in a new light.

Book cover for Stalking Jack the Ripper

Stalking Jack the Ripper

Maniscalco, Kerri
Call Number: YA

Audrey Rose Wadsworth is a Lady, born into the lap of nobility in the late 19th century. But Audrey Rose refuses to accept societal expectations or limitations to her gender, she takes up an apprenticeship in her uncle’s forensic medical laboratory much to her family’s dismay. It is in this laboratory that she comes face to face with the gruesome murder victims of London’s most notorious serial killer.

Book cover for Under a painted sky

Under a painted sky

Lee, Stacey (Stacey Heather).
Call Number: YA

Two teenage girls - one of them Chinese American, the other African American - on the run from the law disguise themselves as boys and set out on the Oregon Trail in this tale of adventure and friendship set during the Gold Rush.