16th through 19th Century

Bray, Libba – A Great and Terrible Beauty (403 pages) After the suspicious death of her mother in 1895, sixteen-year-old Gemma returns to England, after many years in India, to attend a finishing school where she becomes aware of her magical powers and ability to see into the spirit world.  (N)

Cadnum, Michael – Ship of Fire (197 pages) In 1587, sailing to Spain on board Sir Francis Drake's ship "Elizabeth Bonaventure," seventeen-year-old surgeon's apprentice Thomas Spyre finds that, with the sudden death of his master, he must take over as ship's surgeon and prove his skill not only as a doctor but also as a fighter when he is enlisted by Drake to face battle.  (N)

Crichton, Michael - The Great Train Robbery  (266 pages) - In 1855, mysterious master criminal Edward Pierce plans and carries out, with three accomplices, the impossible robbery of the monthly London-to-Paris train carrying gold bullion for the British Army in the Crimea.

Curry, Louise – The Black Canary (279 pages) As the child of two musicians, twelve-year-old James has no interest in music until he discovers a portal to seventeenth-century London in his uncle's basement, and finds himself in a situation where his beautiful voice and the fact that he is biracial might serve him well.  (N)

Gavin, Jamila – The Blood Stone (340 pages) A tale of adventure and menace set in seventeenth-century Venice.  Filippo must bring a diamond of incredible worth—the “Ocean of the Moon,” or the “bloodstone”—to his father’s captors. Can Filippo save his father, or will the dangerous people who covet the fabulous stone kill Filippo before he can reach his goal?  (K)

Gavin, Jamila – Coram Boy (327 pages) In the mid-eighteenth century, an unsavory character and his simpleton son become involved in the lives of a wealthy English family when that family's eldest son is disinherited because of his love of music. (N)

Gerstein, Mordiacai - Victor   (258 pages) - A novel based on the work of Dr. Jean Marc Itard who spent the years shortly after the French Revolution working with a "savage" boy whom he called Victor, trying to prove he was not an idiot and to teach him how to live in human society.  (N)

Hand, Elizabeth - Anna and the King: A Novelization (297 pages) - Journeying to Siam to serve as governess to the king's royal children, a young widow transforms the life of the proud ruler of the exotic Asian country.  (N)

Hawes, Louise – The Vanishing Point (226 pages) Presents the story of a young girl of Bologna who worked in her father's all-male painting studio and came to enjoy more fame than any female artist before her.  (N)

Hearn, Julie – The Minister’s Daughter (263 pages)  Set in 1645 England, the arrival of a strict minister and his beautiful but cruel daughter change the lives of the local healer and her granddaughter, Nell, forever.  A rousing historical fantasy.  (K)

Hearn, Julie – Sign of the Raven (328 pages) In the basement of his grandmother's home in London where his mother is recuperating from cancer, twelve-year-old Tom discovers a path to the past where, in the year 1717, a "fairy child" and her friends desperately need his help.  (N)

Heneghan, James – The Grave (245 pages) A thirteen-year-old foster child, drawn mysteriously to the site of a mass grave, suddenly finds himself in Ireland in 1845.  (N)

Holeman, Linda – Search of the Moon King’s Daughter  (307 pages) After her father dies, Emmaline and her family move to a mill town in Victorian England, but when her mother becomes addicted to pain killers and sells her son for money, Emmaline must travel to London to get her brother back.  (N)

Holub, Josef – An Innocent Soldier (231 pages) A sixteen-year-old farmhand is tricked into fighting in the Napoleonic Wars by the farmer for whom he works, who secretly substitutes him for the farmer's own son.  (N)

Hooper, Amy – At the Sign of the Sugared Plum (169 pages) In June 1665, excited at the prospect of coming to London to work at her sister Sarah's candy shop, teenaged Hannah is unconcerned about rumors of Plague until, as the hot summer advances and increasing numbers of people succumb to the disease, she and Sarah find themselves trapped in the city with no means of escape.  (N)

Jennings, Patrick – The Wolving Time (197 pages) In France during a time of witch-hunts, in a village with a corrupt priest, thirteen-year-old Lazlo longs to be able to turn into a wolf as his parents can, but also desires the friendship of a village girl.  (N)

Lawlor, Laurie – Dead Reckoning: A Pirate Voyage with Captain Drake (254 pages) Emmet, a fifteen-year-old orphan, learns hard lessons about survival when he sails from England in 1577 as a servant aboard the Golden Hind--the ship of his cousin, the explorer and pirate Francis Drake--on its three-year circumnavigation of the world.  (N)

Lester, Julius - Othello: A Novel (151 pages) – A retelling of the famous Shakespearean tale in novel form—with twists and turns not written in the original play.  (K)

Meyer, Caroline – Beware, Princess Elizabeth (214 pages) After the death of her father, King Henry VIII, in 1547, thirteen-year-old Elizabeth must endure the political intrigues and dangers of the reigns of her half-brother Edward and her half-sister Mary before finally becoming Queen of England eleven years later.  (N)

Meyer, Caroline – Marie, Dancing  (255 pages)  Fourteen-year-old dancer, Marie van Goethem finds relief from her poverty-stricken existence and her alcoholic mother only when she’s dancing. When the famous artist, Edgar Degas, hires her to pose for his work, Marie’s life begins to transform—but for the better?  (K)

Meyer, L.A. – Bloody Jack (278 pages) Reduced to begging and thievery in the streets of London, a thirteen-year-old orphan disguises herself as a boy and connives her way onto a British warship set for high sea adventure in search of pirates.  (N)

Michael, Livi – The Whispering Road (328 pages) In Victorian England, poverty-stricken, orphaned siblings Joe and Annie escape from the abusive farmer they work for and try to survive in Manchester, with help from a friendly tramp, a mysterious dog-woman, and a renegade printer who supports the rights of the poor.  (N)

Morgan, Nicola – Fleshmarket (208 pages) In nineteenth-century Scotland, following the death of his mother during surgery, Robbie decides to take revenge on the surgeon who performed the operation, Dr. Robert Knox, and in the process, makes a gruesome discovery about the lengths the medical profession will go to advance its knowledge of anatomy.  (N)

Napoli, Donna Jo – Daughter of Venice (274 pages) Frustrated with the restrictions her gender imposes on her life, fourteen-year-old Donata, disguised as a boy, sneaks out of her noble family's house to roam the streets of late sixteenth-century Venice and then must confront the repercussions of her actions.  (N)

Orczy, Emmuska - The Scarlet Pimpernel   (306 pages) – During the terror-filled days of the French Revolution, an Englishman leads aristocrats to safety from the bloodshed.  (K)  

Priestly, Chris – Death and the Arrow (161 pages)  After his friend Will, a pickpocket in London in 1715, is murdered as part of a series of mysterious deaths, fifteen-year-old Tom Marlowe asks his friend Dr. Harker to help find the killer. (N)

Rinaldi, Ann – Nine Days a Queen (226 pages) Lady Jane Grey, who at sixteen was Queen of England for nine days before being executed, recounts her life story from the age of nine.  (N)

Torrey, Michele – To the Edge of the World (233 pages) In 1519, after the death of his parents, fourteen-year-old Mateo Macias becomes cabin boy to Ferdinand Magellan on a dangerous journey in search of a route to the fabled Spice Islands.  (N)

Torrey, Michele – Voyage of Plunder (200 pages) Fourteen-year-old Daniel's life is turned upside down when his father's merchant ship is plundered by pirates in 1696 and Daniel is forced to stay aboard the pirate ship as a hostage.  (N)

Turnball, Ann – No Shame, No Fear (293 pages) In England in 1662, a time of religious persecution, fifteen-year-old Susanna, a poor country girl and a Quaker, and seventeen-year-old William, a wealthy Anglican, meet and fall in love against all odds.  (N)

Updale, Eleanor – Montmorency: Thief, Liar, Gentleman (232 pages) In Victorian London, after his life is saved by a young physician, a thief utilizes the knowledge he gains in prison and from the scientific lectures he attends as the physician's case study exhibit to create a new, highly successful, double life for himself.  (N)

Wallace, Karen – The Unrivalled Spangles (219 pages) Longing to give up the nineteenth-century English circus life she was born into, sixteen-year-old Ellen Spangle secretly prepares to be a governess and is courted by a wealthy young man until two tragedies lead her to reevaluate her plans.  (N)

Wrede, Patricia C. and Caroline Stevermer – Sorcery and Cecelia, Or The Enchanted Chocolate Pot (320 pages) In 1817 in England, two young cousins, Cecilia living in the country and Kate in London, write letters to keep each other informed of their exploits, which take a sinister turn when they find themselves confronted by evil wizards.  (N)

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Key

(N) = Synopsis by Novelist                   
(LC)= Synospis taken from Library Catalog
(K)= Synopsis written by librarian             
(A)= Synopsis taken from amazon.com