From gowns to crowns, who can resist a good (often scandalous) story featuring royalty? Who can resist a sultry prince or a cold queen or a soft-hearted knight? Who can resist the balls or the gossip or the (often forbidden) love stories? I sure can’t! If you’re like me, you will not be able to put down these books that feature royalty!
14 YA Books about Royalty That Will Rule Your Shelves
Emma Carstairs, first introduced to the Shadowhunter world in the Mortal Instrument’s finale, City of Heavenly Fire, is now a young woman bent on discovering who murdered her parents. To make matters more complicated, Julian’s brother Mark is returned as a bargaining chip from the faeries, who want to know who is killing their kind. This book has everything you love about the Shadowhunter world: demons, warriors, and faerie royalty.
For centuries, the Eight Courts of Folk have lived among us, concealed by magic and bound by law to do no harm to humans. This arrangement has kept peace in the Courts—until a series of gruesome and ritualistic murders rocks the city of Toronto and threatens to expose faeries to the human world. Four queer teens, who each hold a key piece of the truth behind these murders, must form an alliance to track down the killer.
3. Tithe by Holly Black
Another book with faerie royalty! Tithe follows Kaye, a modern nomad who drifts from place to place with her mother’s rock band until an ominous attack forces them back to Kaye’s childhood home. Soon, Kaye finds herself the unwilling pawn in an ancient, violent power struggle between two rival faerie kingdoms.
In the vast palace of the empress lives an orphan girl called Nothing. She slips within the shadows of the Court, unseen except by the Great Demon of the palace and her true friend, Prince Kirin, heir to the throne. When Kirin is kidnapped, only Nothing and the prince’s bodyguard suspect that Kirin may have been taken by the Sorceress Who Eats Girls, a powerful woman who has plagued the land for decades.
Prince Tal is finally going on his long awaited coming-of-age tour. He can finally see his family’s kingdom after spending most of his life secluded in the palace hall, keeping his forbidden magic secret. Early on in his tour with his older brother, Tal meets a rogue-ish mystery boy, Athlen, who he can’t deny his connection to. In Deeper Waters is a story about magic, pirates, and young love.
Caterina LaValle must prove that she is still the queen of St. Rosetta’s Academy. After her ex-boyfriend humiliated her with his infidelity, Caterina knows she must replace him with someone even better, hotter, and way more famous! In comes the socially awkward, chess-lover Rahul Chopra. She is determined to turn this frog into a prince (and it works!) But every sweet fairy tale turns sour…
In a world ruled by fierce warrior queens, a grand empire was built upon the backs of Phoenix Riders—legendary heroes who soared through the sky on wings of fire—until a war between two sisters ripped it all apart. Sixteen years later, Veronyka is a war orphan who dreams of becoming a Phoenix Rider from the stories of old. After a shocking betrayal from her controlling sister, Veronyka strikes out alone to find the Riders—even if that means disguising herself as a boy to join their ranks.
Raised among the ruins of a conquered mountain nation, Maren dreams only of sharing a quiet life with her girlfriend Kaia—until the day Kaia is abducted by the Aurati, prophetic agents of the emperor, and forced to join their ranks. Desperate to save her, Maren hatches a plan to steal one of the emperor’s coveted dragons and storm the Aurati stronghold.
The Infinity Courts begins with Nami’s murder. When she wakes up, she learns she’s in a place called Infinity, where human consciousness goes when physical bodies die. She quickly discovers that Ophelia, a virtual assistant widely used by humans on Earth, has taken over the afterlife and is now posing as a queen, forcing humans into servitude the way she’d been forced to serve in the real world. Ophelia’s main goal? Eradicating human existence once and for all.
This clever retelling of the love affair between Anne Boleyn and King Henry VIII takes plan in a modern-day high school. A sizzling romance ignites between Henry, a perfectionist who has his life all figured out, and Anne, an outspoken, brazen girl. The issue? Anne is everything Henry should not want, and his mother, friends, and girlfriend warn him away from her. Will their forbidden love destroy them both?
Orphan Meg Fellowes makes her living picking pockets—until she steals from the wrong nobleman. Instead of rotting in prison like she expected, she’s whisked away to the court of Queen Elizabeth and pressed into royal service, where she joins four other remarkable girls in the Maids of Honor, the Queen’s secret society of protectors.
When a letter from her late mom sends Evie to Oxford on the adventure of a lifetime, she’s ready for an amazing first year of college. And it starts off with a bang—soon after setting foot on English soil, Evie falls for a boy, Edmund, who turns out to be a real prince. Second in line to the throne of England, in fact.
13. Alanna by Tamara Pierce
In a time when girls are forbidden to be warriors, Alanna of Trebond wants nothing more than to be a knight of the realm of Tortall. So, she finds a way to switch places with her twin brother, Thom. Disguised as a boy, Alanna begins her training as a page at the palace of King Roald. But the road to knighthood, as she discovers, is not an easy one.
Sixteen-year-old Elli was a small child when the Elders of Kupari chose her to succeed the Valtia, the queen who wields infinitely powerful ice and fire magic. Since then, Elli has lived in the temple, surrounded by priests, as she prepares for the day when the Valtia perishes and the magic finds a new home in her. But as war looms, she must align with the right side—before the kingdom and its magic are completely destroyed.
