Which Young Adult Historical Novels Have Strong Female Protagonists?

The family she spent eighteen years calling her own tossed her aside the second their real daughter showed up. Her fiancé dumped her. The elite circles that once welcomed her suddenly treated her like she didn't exist. Everyone was waiting for Rue to fall apart. Instead, she walked away. What nobody realizes is that Rue never needed the Sterling family's money, status, or approval. While her enemies celebrate her downfall, powerful tycoons, influential families, and dangerous men are lining up to earn her favor. The secrets she carries are worth fortunes—and the woman they cast aside is far more terrifying than any of them imagined. Now the people who betrayed her are about to learn a lesson they'll never forget: Throwing Rue away wasn't their biggest mistake. Making her their enemy was.

Have you ever read a story from the Villainess’s perspective? Leah Bellmoore was branded a villain, rejected by her chosen mate, and burned alive for crimes she didn’t commit. Then she wakes up a year in the past—before she ever stepped foot in Eclipse Academy and crossed paths with the heirs of the four great packs. The only problem? The memories of her previous life—the ones that could save her—are shattered, returning only in fragments with time. As each memory resurfaces, Leah uncovers the truth behind her murder, exposes the carefully buried secrets of Willow Rosante—the kingdom’s beloved golden girl who stole the life meant for her—and fights to reclaim everything that was taken from her. This time, she won’t be anyone’s sacrifice. She’ll rewrite fate before it kills her again.

She's a princess destined for a prince, but her heart yearns for the sea. Her voyage was only supposed to clear her mind and prepare her for marriage, but when her ship is boarded by pirates she finds herself face to face with a new purpose. The notorious Captain Gino and his crew have a reason for kidnapping her, but does she have what it takes to save her kingdom and everyone she loves? Will marrying Prince Sade be everything she needs in life, or will her infatuation with Gino be more than she can bear? With love and war on the line, how far will she go?

Her name was Vitatrix, the first empress of Rome. You won't see her in any of the history books, or hear her name in any ballad or song. She isn't even mentioned in myth or legend. Her mark on mankind was erased, because she was a woman. Long ago Rome's emperor died with out a son. His cousin, a roman senator ascended to the throne with out a legitimate heir, or so everyone thought. Fear started to grip the citizens of Rome as new threats rose from every corner of the empire. In the city of Clusium, a daughter that was born to the new roman emperor, hidden by his wife. All of this to protect her from the possible rage and discrimination from her own family. All because she was born a girl. In a world where men rule, can this sole female heir secure her rightful place? Or will her gender pull her down? Raised by the midwife that helped bring her into the world, a young Trix finds out who she truly is. She must return to a family she has never known and save the Roman Empire from anarchy. She must fight a corrupt senator, a secret society, and her own fears of the future. Together with her best friend, Hector, she will learn that not everyone can be trusted. Not all stories have a happy ever after. Will this one?

The dagger goes in before she understands her consort is the one holding it. ——— My consort is the one holding the blade. I fall into the Forbidden Zone with his voice in my ear — *You were never going to be the queen this kingdom needed, Rose is everything you are not* — and every stroke downward the Hollow drinks my color, my voice, my breath. As I sink through the dark I understand, in a rising tide of memory I can no longer outrun, what I refused to see: my cousin Rose has been his lover for three years. My uncle Rick has been my father's killer for seven months. I hit the Hollow's floor among the skeletons of seven women who came before me. I should die there. A black pearl pulses in the dark and asks me one question. I say yes. What rises from the Forbidden Zone is not the princess they pushed. My scales burn blood-red shot through with molten gold and piercing teal, edged in obsidian. My voice shatters coral when I choose. I can drain a merfolk's power until their scales grey to driftwood, and I can shift any being between human and merfolk form. But the pearl hungers. Black veins creep across my chest with every life I take. And the throne I want back? It was never the prize. It was the trap. ——— Will Irene become the villainess her kingdom fears? Or will she remember the girl they buried long enough to choose what kind of queen to be? And the older sister who has been waiting two hundred years to use her — what happens when Irene decides the family she was born into is not the one worth dying for?

Banished princess. Rising warrior. Chosen Luna. Aveline never expected to survive her exile. Cast from the High Realm and thrown through a violent portal, she lands in a world ruled by wolves, winter, and instincts she does not understand. The pack should fear her strange magic. Instead, they protect her. Especially Marek, the fierce Alpha who sees through her thorns and into her hidden fire. But Aveline carries a secret the wolves cannot ignore. The spark inside her is ancient, alive, and tied to the fate of both realms. When shadows pour through a forbidden gateway and a ruthless queen hunts her across worlds, Aveline must choose between the destiny she was born into… and the family she found in the snow. Battles ignite. Magic awakens. Hearts collide. And when the final war shatters the boundaries of the realms, Aveline stands alone at the center of it all, forced to decide where she truly belongs. The throne that once rejected her calls her home. The mate who loves her asks her to stay. The worlds demand her choice. In the end, Aveline chooses not duty, not prophecy, but love. And the life she builds as Luna of the wolf pack will change both realms forever. A sweeping fantasy romance filled with fierce wolves, devastating magic, found family, destiny rewritten, and a love powerful enough to bridge worlds.