21st Century books for Bella Swan

In Twilight, Bella spends a lot of time reading classic books, which is very untypical of an teenager in this day and age. Nearly every single one of my friends would groan at the prospect of having to read a book such as Pride and Prejudice (A-Level English students are supposed to but no-one has. Slackers.) or Wuthering Heights. In this respect, Bella is not normal.

So...this got me thinking and I decided to come up with a list of five books that I would recommend to Bella if she was one of my friends. My list of criteria was...

1. A good old love story like the one in Pride and Prejudice, and an old fashioned one at that! Mr Darcy can hardly be considered the mordern Romeo of the 21st century.
2. Rich kids. All of the books that are mentioned within the book contain rich people running around, gambling money left right and centre as well as buying the latest fashions. So they need a credit card from daddy to satisfy Bella!
3. A crazed set of parents. None of the parental figures in any of Bella's favourite books can be considered normal. Add Mrs Bennett's 'nerves' or Mr Heathcliff's general personality and you have slightly off the rails parents!
4. Historal themes. She likes her old stories of love and romance but also in a nice house with powerful people.

Armed with this list, I racked my brains and hit Amazon. Due to the lack of brainpower and many-a-distraction aka facebook and a mountain of text messages later, I was still not done. This was going to be a bit harder than I thought. Lol. So...I get in a couple of friends to help. They were more of a hindrance so I have decided to stick with what I know. These are some of the best romance/historal/teenage books that I have read and I hope that I can convince Bella to move into 21st century literature.

Innocent Traitor by Alison Weir- This is like The Other Boleyn Girl but about Lady Jane Grey, who was the neice of Henry VIII, and the cousin of Edward VI, Mary I and Elizabeth I. It tells her story as she reigns for nine days and the realisation that she has no choice in her destiny. I have read it and it is writen rather well. I find that it is a better read than the Phillip Gregory books. However, there is very little romance in it. Damn. That certainly will not keep Bella hooked.

Private by Kate Brian- This is not a book set in England but in America. It follows the story of our herione, Reed Brennan, as she enters a protigous school. She falls in love (romance, check), it has crazed parents in the form of her mother and the buildings are dripping with history so it should keep her happy. Oh and all of the kids are rather well off.

Gossip Girl by Cecily Von Ziegesar- This could be the obvious choice yes but I think she may, somehow, enjoy it. Majority of us know the story thanks to the tv programme but Bella's lack of tv watching means that she will have not seen it, thus meaning the whole story will be new to her. I think that it has just about all of the requirements that I set for Bella in it (and everyone agreed!).

Those were the only three books I could find that satisfied my requirements. So read them!