50 YA Books We Want Adapted to the Big or Small Screen

Cover to Bewitching Season by Marissa Doyle. Image via Henry Holt & Co. Books for Young Readers

39. Leland Sisters

Although Marissa Doyle’s Leland Sisters series might not take place during the actual Regency, the early reign of Queen Victoria is almost as good, especially with PBS partway through airing the ITV import Victoria. Okay, so any adaptation of this series might not be able to land Jenna Coleman to play the same role, just in a different realm, but we may or may not picture her now when we reread the series.

Anyway, the series begins with the novel Bewitching Season, which unsurprisingly works on a couple of different levels depending on how you interpret the word bewitching. After all, the titular sisters, Persephone and Penelope, have a governess in magic, and it’s that governess’ disappearance happens just as the two sisters are about to enter society properly as ladies. A young Victoria also appears, as controlling her is central to a nefarious plot.

Naturally, there’s also some romance to be had amidst all the conspiracies and spells, and who wouldn’t say no to a series that also ends up in Ireland at one point, then heads back to the actual Regency at another point? That’s to say nothing of the costuming potential.

Period dramas with magic have a lot of crossover. We’re just saying, networks.