The Red Necklace and the Silver Blade By Sally Gardner

The Red Necklace
Yann Margoza is a gypsy, an entertainer guarding his identity, and using true magic to make a wooden Pierrot see the future, just before the french revolution. But then one night something badly goes wrong and one of his friends is killed. That night he meets Sido, the Marquis de Villeduval's daughter, forgotten and alone. His guardian, Tetu the dwarf arranges for Yann's passage to England, to learn to be a gentleman, but while trying to escape, Tetu is shot. Yann struggles with his grief in England, but knows one day, he will return to his homeland whether he likes it or not...
This book is an astounding mixture of historical fact and mythical magic, spiced with a little adventure and romance. My favorite part is where Yann breaks Sido out of Kalliovski's clutches and returns her to her aunt and uncle in England. Sido is my favorite character along with Yann, throughout both this book and the next one.
10/10

The Silver Blade
Yann is helping get some of the the more innocent aristocracy out of France, under the name of the Silver Blade, while Sido is caught in the clutches of the unbearable world of petty rumours and afternoon tea. They communicate in secret through Yann's old tutor. But Kalliovski is not dead, but plotting underground with the Sisters Macabre and the dead head of the late Marquis de Villeduval, and soon Sidonie will find herself back in France under even unhappier circumstances than before...
This book delves even deeper into both magic and history than the prequell, brilliant and adventurous, filled with love and heartbreak, France and England, the doom of death by Guillitine and the promise of life.
10/10