Fans pick 83 books like Trial by Fire

By Josephine Angelini,

Here are 83 books that Trial by Fire fans have personally recommended if you like Trial by Fire. Shepherd is a community of 12,000+ authors and super readers sharing their favorite books with the world.

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Book cover of Starcrossed

Stephanie Storm Author Of The Witch Clans: The Heritage

From my list on YA fantasy with strong female characters.

Why am I passionate about this?

Stephanie Storm is a talented young adult fantasy author whose writing is reminiscent of classic fantasy novels with a modern twist. Her imaginative storytelling and richly developed characters draw readers into immersive worlds filled with magic, adventure, and breathtaking landscapes. Her writing style is enchanting, capturing the hearts of readers of all ages and leaving them eagerly turning pages late into the night. Growing up with her nose buried in a book, she found solace and inspiration in the escapism and limitless possibilities of the genre. Her imagination was sparked by the enchanting stories she devoured, which fuelled her passion for writing and creating her own fantastical tales.

Stephanie's book list on YA fantasy with strong female characters

Stephanie Storm Why did Stephanie love this book?

Greek Gods and Godesses are usually a very over done genre, but Josephine nails her take on a retelling.

This series is hands down one of my top series even after all this time and I squealed with joy when I saw that she continued the series when we thought it was done!

By Josephine Angelini,

Why should I read it?

2 authors picked Starcrossed as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it. This book is for kids age 12, 13, 14, and 15.

What is this book about?

When shy, awkward Helen Hamilton sees Lucas Delos for the first time she thinks two things: the first, that he is the most ridiculously beautiful boy she has seen in her life; the second, that she wants to kill him with her bare hands.

With an ancient curse making them loathe one another, Lucas and Helen have to keep their distance. But sometimes love is stronger than hate, and not even the gods themselves can prevent what will happen . . .

The first book in Josephine Angelini's thrilling series, Starcrossed is a passionate love story that began thousands of…


Book cover of A Ruin of Roses

Stephanie Storm Author Of The Witch Clans: The Heritage

From my list on YA fantasy with strong female characters.

Why am I passionate about this?

Stephanie Storm is a talented young adult fantasy author whose writing is reminiscent of classic fantasy novels with a modern twist. Her imaginative storytelling and richly developed characters draw readers into immersive worlds filled with magic, adventure, and breathtaking landscapes. Her writing style is enchanting, capturing the hearts of readers of all ages and leaving them eagerly turning pages late into the night. Growing up with her nose buried in a book, she found solace and inspiration in the escapism and limitless possibilities of the genre. Her imagination was sparked by the enchanting stories she devoured, which fuelled her passion for writing and creating her own fantastical tales.

Stephanie's book list on YA fantasy with strong female characters

Stephanie Storm Why did Stephanie love this book?

This is a refreshingly unique take on a classic fairy tale that we all know and love with some very dark themes.

This is my first book series with this author and she got me to laugh, cry and root for these characters that she’s created. I was so sad when I finished this series!

By K.F. Breene,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked A Ruin of Roses as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

I could save him, but he would ruin me.

The beast.
The creature that stalks the forbidden wood.
The dragon prince.

He has suffered a fate worse than death. We all have. A curse put upon us by the mad king.

We are a kingdom locked in time. Shifters unable to feel our animals. Stuck here by a deal between the late king and a demon who seeks our destruction.

The only one keeping this kingdom alive is Nyfain, the golden prince to a stolen throne. The last dragon shifter.

He’s our hope.
He’s my nightmare.

When he catches me…


Book cover of Relentless

Stephanie Storm Author Of The Witch Clans: The Heritage

From my list on YA fantasy with strong female characters.

Why am I passionate about this?

Stephanie Storm is a talented young adult fantasy author whose writing is reminiscent of classic fantasy novels with a modern twist. Her imaginative storytelling and richly developed characters draw readers into immersive worlds filled with magic, adventure, and breathtaking landscapes. Her writing style is enchanting, capturing the hearts of readers of all ages and leaving them eagerly turning pages late into the night. Growing up with her nose buried in a book, she found solace and inspiration in the escapism and limitless possibilities of the genre. Her imagination was sparked by the enchanting stories she devoured, which fuelled her passion for writing and creating her own fantastical tales.

Stephanie's book list on YA fantasy with strong female characters

Stephanie Storm Why did Stephanie love this book?

Karen is a phenomenal world builder and effortlessly blends the supernatural with the everyday world.

She creates characters you fall in love with and an action packed story line that keeps you on the edge of your seat the whole time. I can still read these books all these years later as if I’m reading it for the first time!

By Karen Lynch,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Relentless as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it. This book is for kids age 13, 14, 15, and 16.

What is this book about?

Sara Grey’s world shattered ten years ago when her father was brutally murdered. Now at seventeen, she is still haunted by memories of that day and driven by the need to understand why it happened. She lives a life full of secrets and her family and friends have no idea of the supernatural world she is immersed in or of Sara’s own very powerful gift.

In her quest for answers about her father’s death, Sara takes risks that expose her and her friends to danger and puts herself into the sights of a sadistic vampire. On the same fateful night…


Book cover of White Hot Kiss

Stephanie Storm Author Of The Witch Clans: The Heritage

From my list on YA fantasy with strong female characters.

Why am I passionate about this?

Stephanie Storm is a talented young adult fantasy author whose writing is reminiscent of classic fantasy novels with a modern twist. Her imaginative storytelling and richly developed characters draw readers into immersive worlds filled with magic, adventure, and breathtaking landscapes. Her writing style is enchanting, capturing the hearts of readers of all ages and leaving them eagerly turning pages late into the night. Growing up with her nose buried in a book, she found solace and inspiration in the escapism and limitless possibilities of the genre. Her imagination was sparked by the enchanting stories she devoured, which fuelled her passion for writing and creating her own fantastical tales.

Stephanie's book list on YA fantasy with strong female characters

Stephanie Storm Why did Stephanie love this book?

I’ve never seen this take on demons before! I’m a sucker for a unique story line and Jeniffer delivers time and time again.

Compassion, intrigue, magic, action, and deception all form part of this series and the characters are hilarious! I love this world that she’s built and I can’t wait to see if she continues to build on it. 

By Jennifer L Armentrout,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked White Hot Kiss as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it. This book is for kids age 14, 15, 16, and 17.

What is this book about?

"Jennifer L. Armentrout is a master of weaving rich contemporary realism with magic and mayhem. Her characters will grab hold of your heart and refuse to let go. Every page left me wanting more."—New York Times bestselling author Brigid Kemmerer

From the author of From Blood and Ash, one kiss is enough to kill in this instant New York Times bestselling start to the Dark Elements series…
 
Layla just wants to fit in at school and go on a date with Zayne, whom she's crushed on since forever. Trouble is, Zayne treats Layla like a sister—and Layla is a half…


Book cover of The Salem World of Nathaniel Hawthorne

Diana Rubino Author Of For The Love Of Hawthorne

From my list on the 1692 “witch” hunts in Salem Village.

Why am I passionate about this?

I write historical and biographical novels, and have had a fascination with the Salem witch trials since childhood. With my first visit to Salem, I felt a strong connection to my surroundings and its history. When I walked through the House of the Seven Gables for the first time, I felt I’d been there before. Three past-life regressions brought me back to 17th century Salem. In my biographical novel For The Love Of Hawthorne, I delved deeply into the soul of my favorite author, his devoted wife, and the shame his family suffered at the hand of his ancestor Judge Hathorne. The story came from my heart, as I lived their story along with them. 

Diana's book list on the 1692 “witch” hunts in Salem Village

Diana Rubino Why did Diana love this book?

I recommend this book because Nathaniel Hawthorne is my favorite author, a historical figure whose connections to his birthplace of Salem, Massachusetts influenced his religion, his politics, his writing and haunted him through life. His cousin Susannah Ingersoll lived in the House of the Seven Gables, my favorite house in the world, Salem’s most famous landmark, and the subject of Hawthorne’s most famous novel. I have always been fascinated with the Salem witch trials, and know that Hawthorne’s great-great-grandfather “Hanging” Judge John Hathorne condemned 19 innocent people to death on false accusations of witchcraft. Nathaniel added the ‘w’ to his name to distance himself from his notorious ancestor. You will learn about how he met his wife, Sophia Peabody, also a Salem native, and how she inspired him. It helped me understand Nathaniel as a person as well as a famous author, and further inspired me to write my novel.  

By Margaret B. Moore,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked The Salem World of Nathaniel Hawthorne as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Although most writers on Nathaniel Hawthorne touch on the importance of Salem, Massachusetts, to his life and career, no detailed study has been published on the powerful heritage bequeathed to him by his ancestors and present to him during his years in that town. In The Salem World of Nathaniel Hawthorne, Margaret B. Moore thoroughly investigates Hawthorne's family, his education before college (about which almost nothing has been known), and Salem's religious and political influences on him. She details what Salem had to offer Hawthorne in the way of entertainment and stimulation, discusses his friends and acquaintances, and examines the…


Book cover of Witchcraft at Salem

Marilynne K. Roach Author Of Six Women of Salem: The Untold Story of the Accused and Their Accusers in the Salem Witch Trials

From my list on why the Salem Witch Trials occurred.

Why am I passionate about this?

After years of sporadic interest in the 1692 trials, Roach became obsessed with the subject after a 1975 trip to Salem itself. Her resulting history, The Salem Witch Trials: a Day-by-Day Chronicle of a Community Under Siege, called “a virtual encyclopedia of the entire affair,” and “a Bible of the witch trials,” led to her stint as a sub-editor for the Records of the Salem Witch-Hunt, and membership in the Gallows Hill Group that verified the site of the 1692 hangings, one of Archaeology magazine’s Top Ten discoveries of 2016. Her most recent book to date presents biographies of a half dozen of the major players in the tragedy, giving voices to women who, save for the tragedy, would likely have been lost to history.

Marilynne's book list on why the Salem Witch Trials occurred

Marilynne K. Roach Why did Marilynne love this book?

While I do not agree with all of the author’s conclusions, this book showed me the prevalence of folk-charms in the culture, as well as the psychological reactions humans have to stress that could explain some of what happened with the “bewitched.”

By Chadwick Hansen,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Witchcraft at Salem as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Trial documents and contemporary narratives are used in this discussion of the practice of witchcraft in seventeenth-century New England.


Book cover of Narratives Of The Witchcraft Cases, 1648-1706

Marilynne K. Roach Author Of Six Women of Salem: The Untold Story of the Accused and Their Accusers in the Salem Witch Trials

From my list on why the Salem Witch Trials occurred.

Why am I passionate about this?

After years of sporadic interest in the 1692 trials, Roach became obsessed with the subject after a 1975 trip to Salem itself. Her resulting history, The Salem Witch Trials: a Day-by-Day Chronicle of a Community Under Siege, called “a virtual encyclopedia of the entire affair,” and “a Bible of the witch trials,” led to her stint as a sub-editor for the Records of the Salem Witch-Hunt, and membership in the Gallows Hill Group that verified the site of the 1692 hangings, one of Archaeology magazine’s Top Ten discoveries of 2016. Her most recent book to date presents biographies of a half dozen of the major players in the tragedy, giving voices to women who, save for the tragedy, would likely have been lost to history.

Marilynne's book list on why the Salem Witch Trials occurred

Marilynne K. Roach Why did Marilynne love this book?

This collection of contemporary 17th century works covering (mostly New England) witch-related cases before, during and after the 1692 trials was one of the earliest sources I discovered at my local public library back in the early 1960s. It provides a window into the varying reactions people had to the uncanny and what they did about it.

By George Lincoln Burr,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Narratives Of The Witchcraft Cases, 1648-1706 as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

This book has been considered by academicians and scholars of great significance and value to literature. This forms a part of the knowledge base for future generations. So that the book is never forgotten we have represented this book in a print format as the same form as it was originally first published. Hence any marks or annotations seen are left intentionally to preserve its true nature.


Book cover of In the Shadow of Salem

Diana Rubino Author Of For The Love Of Hawthorne

From my list on the 1692 “witch” hunts in Salem Village.

Why am I passionate about this?

I write historical and biographical novels, and have had a fascination with the Salem witch trials since childhood. With my first visit to Salem, I felt a strong connection to my surroundings and its history. When I walked through the House of the Seven Gables for the first time, I felt I’d been there before. Three past-life regressions brought me back to 17th century Salem. In my biographical novel For The Love Of Hawthorne, I delved deeply into the soul of my favorite author, his devoted wife, and the shame his family suffered at the hand of his ancestor Judge Hathorne. The story came from my heart, as I lived their story along with them. 

Diana's book list on the 1692 “witch” hunts in Salem Village

Diana Rubino Why did Diana love this book?

Whatever your level of interest in the Salem Witch Trials of 1692—you will learn much, and be entertained at the same time. It captured my interest because I’ve always been fascinated with the Salem witch trials and Salem history. It is the true story of Mehitabel Braybrooke of Ipswich, an ancestor of Donna’s. She recreated Mehitabel’s difficult life in painstaking detail, after digging deep to retrieve authentic court records, facts about Mehitabel’s family life as the illegitimate daughter of an indentured servant, and serving time in the Ipswich jail on a witchcraft accusation. She eventually married the man she loved (a rarity in 1692 Salem and Ipswich) and had children, living into her 70s. This story brought me back there as if I’d been transported. Donna did a masterful job of writing authentic dialogue and showing (not telling) us how perilous life was in the 17th century, for these…

By Donna B. Gawell,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked In the Shadow of Salem as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

In 1692, the residents in Salem and Ipswich live with stories of witchcraft, religious extremism, and false accusations. Mock trials lead to questionable convictions and speedy executions. Most of the condemned are women, all but one are hung. Others, including two infant children, die in prison.

For Mehitabel Braybrooke, life began as the illegitimate child of a prosperous landowner. Now her stepmother is convinced the girl is a pawn of the Devil. During a time when women have few rights and even fewer allies in the courts, what will become of the falsely accused?

Written for the General Market (G)…


Book cover of The Heretic's Daughter

Laurie Lico Albanese Author Of Hester

From my list on female magic, witches, potions and spells.

Why am I passionate about this?

I love historical fiction because it brings history and people from the past to life, showing us their struggles and their secrets—especially the women! Since my first historical novel, The Miracles of Prato, I've been paying attention to the women whose stories haven't been told. When I realized Hester Prynne is our first American historical feminist heroine—indeed, our American Eve and our original badass single mom—I knew I had to let her tell her story.  

Laurie's book list on female magic, witches, potions and spells

Laurie Lico Albanese Why did Laurie love this book?

A mother and daughter face accusations of witchcraft and bedevilment in 1692 Salem and devise a devilish plan that will save only one of them. While researching the Salem witch trials and others in Europe, I learned this horrible truth: the only way an accused woman could save herself was by admitting that she was a witch. In this astonishing novel based on her great-9x grandmother, the author weaves a spellbinding tale of love, fear, and devotion as a mother and daughter make a tortured decision in the face of hate and religious zealotry.

By Kathleen Kent,

Why should I read it?

2 authors picked The Heretic's Daughter as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

A courageous woman fights to survive the darkest days of the Salem Witch Trials in this "heart-wrenching story of family love and sacrifice" (USA Today).  

Salem, 1752. Sarah Carrier Chapman, weak with infirmity, writes a letter to her granddaughter that reveals the secret she has closely guarded for six decades: how she survived the Salem Witch Trials when her mother did not.

Sarah's story begins more than a year before the trials, when she and her family arrive in a New England community already gripped by superstition and fear. As they witness neighbor pitted against neighbor, friend against friend, the…


Book cover of Down Salem Way

Diana Rubino Author Of For The Love Of Hawthorne

From my list on the 1692 “witch” hunts in Salem Village.

Why am I passionate about this?

I write historical and biographical novels, and have had a fascination with the Salem witch trials since childhood. With my first visit to Salem, I felt a strong connection to my surroundings and its history. When I walked through the House of the Seven Gables for the first time, I felt I’d been there before. Three past-life regressions brought me back to 17th century Salem. In my biographical novel For The Love Of Hawthorne, I delved deeply into the soul of my favorite author, his devoted wife, and the shame his family suffered at the hand of his ancestor Judge Hathorne. The story came from my heart, as I lived their story along with them. 

Diana's book list on the 1692 “witch” hunts in Salem Village

Diana Rubino Why did Diana love this book?

Down Salem Way is a journey back to the horrific Salem witch hysteria era. This book fascinated me because I will read anything connected to the Salem witch trials and the events that led to 19 innocent victims’ executions in 1692. Down Salem Way tells us the story in vivid detail through the eyes of John Wentworth and his beloved wife Elizabeth. They knew many of the condemned, and witnessed their horrific trials and executions. Rev. Nicholas Noyes and Judges Hathorne and Corwin were responsible for these atrocities, after witnessing the ‘afflicted’ (the young girls whose hysterical behavior led to the accusations). This book will take you back to 17th-century Salem and Boston, where the victims were held in another dungeon. 

The story moved me emotionally because I visit Salem all the time, and have always taken a keen interest in the witch trials. This book, although a novel, made…

By Meredith Allard,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Down Salem Way as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Winner of the B.R.A.G. Medallion

How would you deal with the madness of the Salem witch hunts?

In 1690, James Wentworth arrives in Salem in the Massachusetts Bay Colony with his father, John, hoping to continue the success of John’s mercantile business. While in Salem, James falls in love with Elizabeth Jones, a farmer’s daughter. Though they are virtually strangers when they marry, the love between James and Elizabeth grows quickly into a passion that will transcend time.

But something evil lurks down Salem way. Soon many in Salem, town and village, are accused of practicing witchcraft and sending their…


Book cover of Starcrossed
Book cover of A Ruin of Roses
Book cover of Relentless

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5 book lists we think you will like!

Interested in Salem, teenage girls, and the Salem witch trials?

Salem 17 books
Teenage Girls 136 books