(3) YA Seventeen-year-old Katherine seeks to avenge her Catholic father's death by masquerading as a male actor to kill Queen Elizabeth I. She and Toby, the closeted-bisexual royal spy charged with foiling the assassination, become mutually attracted while performing the leads in Shakespeare's Twelfth Night, a play of disguises, deception, gender, and love. Told via dual first-person narratives, this entertaining historical novel deals with many still-relevant topics. Bib.

Reviewer: Carolyn Shute

(3) YA Maids of Honor series. McGowan adds supernatural elements to this third entry in her clever court-intrigue/historical-romance series. Sophia, one of five women recruited to protect the young Queen Elizabeth I, can speak with angels and foresee the future. She must use her gifts to thwart a prophecy that predicts a death at court. References to Elizabethan superstitions add historical authenticity.

Reviewer: Megan Lynn Isaac

(4) K-3 Illustrated by Victor Juhasz. When the King and Queen of England visit in June 1939, First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt decides to introduce them to an American picnic staple: the hot dog. Juhasz's caricature figures range from giggle-worthy (the Queen eats hers with a fork and knife) to odd and unflattering (poor Eleanor). Kimmelman's amusing historical story delicately explains the Great Depression and touches on soon-to-follow WWII.

Reviewer: Chelsey Philpot

(3) YA Maids of Honor series. Beatrice, a spy in Queen Elizabeth's court, is forced to refuse a useful betrothal in order to seduce a Scotsman who holds the key to unmasking a rebellion. With the help of her fellow Maids of Honor, Beatrice uncovers his secrets and works to protect her own. McGowan tightly weaves politics and passions in this tale of friendship, family, love, and intrigue.

Reviewer: Megan Lynn Isaac

(3) YA Meg's life transforms after her skills as a pickpocket catch the eye of Queen Elizabeth's spymaster. Trained with four others to operate as a secret cadre of spies hidden among the queen's "Maids of Honor," Meg begins to question her own identity. Smartly researched (though populated by anachronistically modern-acting young women), McGowan's novel is full of inviting court intrigue, both political and romantic.

Reviewer: Megan Lynn Isaac

(3) YA Lacey Chronicles series. James Lacey, the second-oldest Lacey son, is the object of the widowed Lady Jane Rievaulx's affections in this diverting second series entry. Misunderstandings, Jane's vengeful and conniving relatives, and James's own internal struggles and voyage to America threaten their happiness. But all ends well in this carefully researched, vividly rendered period romance set in Queen Elizabeth I's court.

Reviewer: Cynthia K. Ritter

(4) YA Essential Lives series. These series entries, with straightforward writing and frequent sidebars and photos, are uneven in quality and interest level. Elizabeth I is particularly dry and requires background knowledge. Lucille Ball's colorful personality barely comes through in her volume (the pictures help), and the subtitle for Freud is odd (content is fine). Assange is current through 2011. Reading list, timeline, websites. Bib., glos., ind. Review covers these Essential Lives titles: Sigmund Freud, Lucille Ball, Julian Assange, and Elizabeth I.

Reviewer: Cyrisse Jaffee

(4) YA A dalliance between Sir Walter Ralegh and Lady Cate leads Queen Elizabeth to exile the young woman to the Roanoke Colony. As Cate struggles to survive, her attachments to England and Ralegh fade. Though the romance thread is unconvincing, the story, seen through the eyes of a Croatoan Indian, a colonist, and an imperialist explorer, provides thoughtful perspective on the Lost Colony.

Reviewer: Megan Lynn Isaac

(3) YA In this sequel to Day of the Assassins, Jack and Angus are now full members of VIGIL, the secret organization sworn to protect history's timeline. The teens must foil the Revisionists' new plot by going back to Renaissance England. The action remains fast paced in this adventure that combines historical with speculative fiction in a battle over humanity's past and future.

Reviewer: Antonio Trujillo

(2) YA After her guardian dies, Kat travels to London to discover the truth about her identity. Kat's striking resemblance to her father (a former lover of Queen Elizabeth) draws the queen's attention, and Kat is made lady-in-waiting. This tantalizing novel offers romance readers many sumptuous costumes, a parade of "distinguished-looking" fellows, and something of historical substance as well.

Reviewer: Deirdre F. Baker | Horn Book Magazine Issue: July, 2009

(4) YA Following her father's death, Miranda is sent to Queen Elizabeth I's court as the ward of a corrupt guardian. She uses her skills with a needle to draw the queen's attention, but sewing up the right marriage proposal proves trickier. Many of the characters are two-dimensional; Kolosov's vividly rendered portrait of courtly life, intrigue and all, is the book's strongest feature.

Reviewer: Megan Lynn Isaac

(4) 4-6 Great Queens series. These biographies tell the story of each queen and her role in shaping historical events that affected her subjects. The texts, though choppy, are informative, highlighting important milestones in each ruler's life. Useful sidebars, photographs, reproductions, and illustrations add further context. Reading list, timeline, websites. Glos., ind. Review covers these Great Queens titles: Cleopatra, Elizabeth I, Marie Antoinette, and Catherine the Great.

Reviewer: Aimee Chevrette Bear

(4) 4-6 Elizabeth I narrates her life from the age of nine until she takes the throne of England at twenty-six. Dangerously fluctuating family relationships, court politics, and religious controversies make up the book's plot. Elizabeth's voice is a bit too prosaic, showing little of the wit or vitality that made her one of England's most influential leaders. Rinaldi's historical research is sound. Bib.

Reviewer: Megan Lynn Isaac

(4) K-3 Ready-to-Read: Young Princesses around the World series. Illustrated by Nonna Aleshina. Princess Elizabeth loves riding her pony, but she can't get him to jump the stone wall (Elizabeth). Young Cleopatra warns her father about her sisters' betrayal and saves his life (Cleopatra). Holub's accessible easy-reader tellings showcase the future queens' feisty personalities. Pictures that are stiff and sometimes muddy illustrate most pages. Though supposedly based on true stories, both books lack documentation. Timeline. Review covers these Young Princesses around the World titles: Cleopatra and the King's Enemies and Elizabeth and the Royal Pony.

Reviewer: Susan Halperin

(4) YA Mary Seymour, orphaned daughter of Henry VIII's last wife, learns the white magic of herbs, gems, and aura interpretation before using her skills to safeguard queen and country as Elizabeth I's lady-in-waiting. The courtly intrigue is intricate and intelligent, but magical technobabble dilutes the plot, and a contrived adversarial romance isn't as angsty as it wants to be.

Reviewer: Claire E. Gross

(3) 4-6 Lady Grace Mysteries series. When a famous portraitist comes to Nonsuch Palace to paint Queen Elizabeth, paint containing arsenic goes missing and a maid of honor falls ill. Lady Grace's sleuthing leads her to the perpetrator of the poisoning as well as to the crime's motive. This light, engaging mystery is full of period detail. Endnotes illuminate "the fact behind the fiction." Glos.

Reviewer: Carolyn Shute