Lisa Klein
Lisa Klein has published 8 books across 3 series. The recommended reading order starts with The Exemplary Sidney And The Elizabethan Sonneteer (1998).
Lisa Klein writes YA historical fiction that reimagines the lives of women in classic stories. She left academia after being denied tenure at Ohio State University, where she had taught English, and returned home to find her calling in writing. Her debut novel, Ophelia, published in 2006, gave voice to Shakespeare's silenced heroine and was adapted into a film in 2018. Klein holds a doctorate in English from Indiana University. She lives in Columbus, Ohio, and reads nearly a hundred books each year, drawing inspiration for her novels from history and fiction in both English and German. Between writing projects, she gardens, cooks, travels, and visits thrift stores.
Shelf & Shadows
Order of Non-Fiction Books
- Tagsnon-fictionhistorical-fictionliterary-fictionDescriptionSir Philip Sidney casts a long shadow over the English Renaissance. Lisa Klein examines this legacy with precision, focusing on the conflicted exemplarity of the man and the myth. She explores how contemporaries and successors constructed, contested, and ultimately dismantled Sidney's legendary image. It is a study of literary influence as a battleground. Poets initially drew on his example to authorize their own work. Yet, their writings soon began to criticize and refashion his heroic persona. The sonnet sequence takes center stage here. Often neglected in serious study, it is revealed as a vital forum for the reformation of Petrarchism. Klein argues that sonnets were producers as much as products of Elizabethan culture. Writers like Greville, Daniel, and Spenser worked in conventional forms. They stood in Sidney's bright shadow. But they also demonstrated the authority of the individual poet to pressure those forms. This is cultural poetics grounded in careful textual analysis. It shows how the next generation reshaped the literary landscape.Publication date1998Print length319LanguageEnglishPublisherUNKNO
- Tagsnon-fictionDescriptionHow do we reconstruct the lives of women who history insisted on forgetting? In "Be It Remembered," Lisa Klein turns her scholarly eye to the fragments left behind, sifting through the archives of the Order of Non-Fiction Books to find the pulse beneath the parchment. It is a study not just of texts, but of the silences that surround them, asking us to consider what is lost when only the victors are allowed to speak. Klein approaches her subject with the precision of a master archivist, yet her prose remains deeply empathetic. She does not merely recount events; she interrogates the very nature of memory and record-keeping. This is not a dry recitation of dates and decrees, but a vibrant excavation of personality and influence, revealing the intricate ways these women navigated a world that sought to confine them. The narrative structure mirrors the complexity of the task itself. We move fluidly between broad historical context and intimate, microscopic details of daily life. A letter, a marginal note, a faded signature—each becomes a vital clue in a grander mystery. The rhythm is deliberate, building a cumulative weight that resonates long after the final page is turned. Ultimately, this work stands as a testament to the power of reclamation. It challenges the reader to look beyond the surface of accepted narratives. "Be It Remembered" is an essential addition to the series, proving that the most enduring histories are often those we have to fight to recover.Publication dateJanuary 1, 2003Amazon rating5/5Print length265LanguageEnglishPublisherOrange Frazer Pr Inc
Order of Picture Books
- TagsfantasyDescriptionThe journey begins not with a map, but with a single, uncertain step into the unknown. A young protagonist stands at the edge of the familiar, where the light of home fades into the deepening shadows of the woods. The air is thick with the scent of pine and the promise of something extraordinary. It is a moment of quiet decision, the kind that changes everything. The world here is alive with a quiet magic that hums beneath the surface. Trees whisper secrets to those who listen, and the path shifts and changes like a living thing. The atmosphere is heavy with wonder, yet tinged with the melancholy of leaving behind what is known. Every shadow holds a story, every glade a potential turning point. Challenges arise not as battles, but as tests of heart and perception. The stakes are personal, woven into the fabric of the journey itself. To find the way forward, the traveler must look inward as much as outward. The magic does not solve problems; it reveals them, demanding courage and clarity in equal measure. By the end, the journey is less about distance traveled and more about the transformation within. The return home feels different, as if the world has been remade by the experience. This is a story that lingers, a gentle reminder that the most profound adventures often begin with the smallest steps.Publication dateOctober 5, 2009Print length28LanguageEnglishPublisherLisa Roth Klein
Order of Standalone Novels
- Tagsyoung-adultromancehistorical-fictioncrimemysteryDescriptionThis book reclaims one of literature’s most tragic victims, transforming the mad girl in the willows into a resilient, intelligent heroine who refuses to be a pawn in a deadly game. It is a bold reimagining that breathes new life into the familiar halls of Elsinore, shifting the lens from the prince’s existential dread to the very real, very dangerous survival of the woman standing beside him. You think you know the story, but you have never heard it from the woman who lived through the silence. At the heart of this narrative is a secret that changes everything: Ophelia’s death was an escape, not an end. We follow her journey from the suffocating constraints of the Danish court, through a passionate, doomed romance with Prince Hamlet, to the terrifying moment she realizes survival means faking her own demise. The stakes are brutally high, and the court’s violence is inescapable, forcing her to choose between love and her own life. Klein masterfully weaves Shakespearean language with modern urgency, creating a voice that feels both timeless and immediate. The prose is lush and evocative, painting a vivid picture of a young woman carving out agency in a world that demands she be nothing more than an object. It is a gripping tale of love, loss, and the fierce will to survive that will keep you turning pages late into the night.Publication dateJanuary 1, 2008Amazon rating4.2/5Print length352LanguageEnglishPublisherBloomsbury USA Childrens
- Tagsromancehistorical-fictioncrimemysteryDescriptionThe mist clings heavy to the highlands here, a place where old magic still breathes in the shadows of the Wychelm Wood. Raised by three strange sisters on the lonely moors, Albia knows nothing of her lineage until the day a ambitious warlord comes seeking his fate. This is the story Shakespeare forgot to tell, a reimagining that steps off the stage and into the dirt and blood of 11th-century Scotland. It is a world where prophecy is a dangerous burden and the second sight is more curse than gift, forcing a young woman to confront the terrifying legacy of her parents before she even knows their names. When Albia discovers her father is the murderous Macbeth, her life fractures. She finds herself torn between a forbidden love for Fleance, Banquo’s son and her father’s rival, and the dark pull of her own bloodline. The stakes are brutally high: ignore the vision of doom or fight to alter it. Klein asks whether one can forgive unforgivable sins or if destroying one’s own family is the only way to save a kingdom. It is a tense, atmospheric unraveling of destiny, where the choice between love and duty cuts to the bone.Publication dateSeptember 28, 2010Amazon rating4.3/5Print length320LanguageEnglishPublisherBloomsbury USA Childrens
- Tagsromancehistorical-fictionDescriptionThis novel cuts through the romanticized fog of war to reveal the jagged fractures it leaves within a single family. It is a story about how history cleaves hearts in two, forcing cousins who once shared everything to suddenly view the world through enemy gun sights. The emotional resonance here is deep and aching, grounding the grand scale of the Civil War in the intimate, devastating reality of blood ties severed by ideology. You can feel the tension rising like summer heat as Lizzie and Rosanna are pulled onto opposing sides of the conflict. The atmosphere is thick with dust and dread, capturing the suffocating pressure of a nation tearing itself apart. One cousin remains rooted in the North, the other is swept away by the allure of the South, creating a private tragedy that mirrors the public calamity unfolding around them. The distance between them grows with every passing battle, measured not just in miles, but in the hardening of their spirits. Their paths inevitably converge again in Gettysburg, where the roar of cannons drowns out whispered memories of their shared childhood. The reunion is not a joyous occasion, but a desperate collision of fates amidst the bloodiest battle of the war. It is a haunting, visceral read that lingers long after the final page, reminding us that survival is often just the first step in a much longer struggle for peace.Publication dateFebruary 2, 2010Amazon rating4.4/5Print length416LanguageEnglishPublisherBloomsbury USA Childrens
- Tagsromancehistorical-fictionDescriptionCate stands on the rolling deck, salt spray stinging her cheeks as England fades into the mist. She is not merely a passenger fleeing a scandal, but a young woman carving a destiny in the unknown. The ocean stretches out before her, vast and indifferent, carrying her toward a promise of new life in the Virginia colony. The air is thick with anticipation and the heavy, cloying scent of hope. The New World is not the paradise the maps claimed. It is a landscape of dense, whispering forests and a silence that feels heavy with judgment. Cate navigates this wilderness with a quiet resilience, her past transgressions weighing less than the immediate struggle for survival. The settlement at Roanoke is fragile, a collection of rough-hewn structures clinging to the edge of a continent that does not welcome them. Tensions rise with the tide. Supplies dwindle, and the trust between the settlers and the indigenous people fractures under the strain of fear and misunderstanding. Cate finds herself caught between the rigid expectations of her people and the untamed freedom of the land. She must choose between the safety of the familiar and the dangerous allure of the wild. When the ships fail to return, the true test begins. Abandoned on the shore, the colony faces a slow erasure from history. Cate’s story becomes one of endurance and the haunting question of what happened to the lost. It is a meditation on survival, told with a sharp eye for the beauty and…Publication dateFebruary 28, 2012Amazon rating3.9/5Print length336LanguageEnglishPublisherBloomsbury USA Childrens
- Tagshistorical-fictionromancechildrenDescriptionWhat happens when the lines between a playwright’s imagination and his reality begin to blur, threatening to undo the very love that inspires his art? In Lisa Klein’s *Love Disguised*, we meet a young, heartbroken Will Shakespeare fleeing the embarrassing wreckage of a mixed-up courtship with the Hathaway sisters. Desperate to escape his rural failures, eighteen-year-old Will leaps at the opportunity to lose himself in the gritty, exhilarating chaos of Elizabethan London. It is there, amidst the bustling streets and the allure of the stage, that he intends to chase his dream of becoming an actor, hoping the city’s anonymity will salve his bruised ego. But London has more in store for him than just a career. Just as Will begins to find his footing in the theater world, he encounters a mysterious girl who will fundamentally alter the trajectory of his life. Klein masterfully weaves historical speculation with the raw energy of young ambition, capturing the specific anxiety of a young man trying to reinvent himself. The stakes are intensely personal: this is not just about finding fame, but about finding a muse who challenges his perception of love. It is a vibrant, romantic origin story that suggests the greatest works often spring from the most complicated disguises.Publication dateJuly 30, 2013Amazon rating3.5/5Print length320LanguageEnglishPublisherBloomsbury USA Childrens
Frequently Asked Questions about Lisa Klein
Lisa Klein's books can be read in several orders. Her non-fiction works include The Exemplary Sidney And The Elizabethan Sonneteer, published in 1998, and Be It Remembered, published in 2003. She also has a picture book titled The Magical Journey from 2009. Her standalone novels are Ophelia (2008), Lady Macbeth's Daughter (2010), Two Girls of Gettysburg (2010), Cate of the Lost Colony (2012), and Love Disguised (2013). For readers interested in historical fiction, starting with her earliest novels like Ophelia or Two Girls of Gettysburg offers a good entry point into her work.
A good starting point for Lisa Klein's books is Ophelia, published in 2008. This novel, a reimagining of Shakespeare's Hamlet from the perspective of Ophelia, showcases her ability to blend historical settings with compelling character studies. Alternatively, Two Girls of Gettysburg, also published in 2010, offers a look at the Civil War through the eyes of young women, demonstrating her skill in historical fiction. Her non-fiction work, The Exemplary Sidney And The Elizabethan Sonneteer (1998), provides insight into literary history.
Lisa Klein's books do not need to be read in a specific order. She has published a collection of standalone novels, each offering a distinct story and historical setting. Her non-fiction works and picture book are also separate from her novel series. Readers can choose any of her novels or non-fiction books based on their interests. For instance, if a reader is interested in Elizabethan England, The Exemplary Sidney And The Elizabethan Sonneteer is a good choice. If they prefer Civil War history, Two Girls of Gettysburg is an option.
Lisa Klein writes primarily standalone novels. While she has published non-fiction books and a picture book, her fiction output consists of individual novels rather than interconnected series. Titles like Ophelia, Lady Macbeth's Daughter, Two Girls of Gettysburg, Cate of the Lost Colony, and Love Disguised each tell a complete story that can be enjoyed independently of her other works. This allows readers to explore different historical periods and characters without needing to follow a sequential plotline across multiple books.
Lisa Klein has written a total of ten books. This includes two non-fiction books: The Exemplary Sidney And The Elizabethan Sonneteer (1998) and Be It Remembered (2003). She also has one picture book, The Magical Journey (2009). The remaining seven books are standalone novels: Ophelia (2008), Lady Macbeth's Daughter (2010), Two Girls of Gettysburg (2010), Cate of the Lost Colony (2012), and Love Disguised (2013). This count represents her published works across different formats and genres.
The first book Lisa Klein wrote was The Exemplary Sidney And The Elizabethan Sonneteer, published in 1998. This non-fiction work delves into the literary world of the Elizabethan era, focusing on Sir Philip Sidney. It marked her debut in the publishing world. Following this, she published Be It Remembered in 2003, another non-fiction title. Her foray into fiction began with the novel Ophelia in 2008, setting the stage for her subsequent historical fiction novels.
Lisa Klein's most recent book is Love Disguised, published in 2013. This novel is a standalone work of historical fiction. Prior to this, she released Cate of the Lost Colony in 2012. Her other recent novels include Ophelia (2008), Lady Macbeth's Daughter (2010), and Two Girls of Gettysburg (2010). Her picture book, The Magical Journey, was published in 2009. Her non-fiction work includes The Exemplary Sidney And The Elizabethan Sonneteer (1998) and Be It Remembered (2003).
Lisa Klein writes historical fiction and non-fiction. Her novels often explore significant historical periods and figures, reimagining events from unique perspectives. Titles like Ophelia and Lady Macbeth's Daughter draw inspiration from classic literature and historical drama, while Two Girls of Gettysburg and Cate of the Lost Colony place young protagonists within pivotal moments of American history. Her non-fiction works, such as The Exemplary Sidney And The Elizabethan Sonneteer, focus on literary history, particularly the Elizabethan era.
Erin Bowman
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We verified the reading order for Lisa Klein's books by cross-referencing official publication dates, ISBN databases, and publisher catalogs.
Last verified: April 2026
Shelf & Shadows. (…). “Lisa Klein Books in Order.” Retrieved …, from https://www.shelfandshadows.com/authors/lisa-klein