Love is always in the air in YA romance books. From meet-cutes (and not-so-cute) to forbidden love, these novels capture the ups, downs, and in-betweens of young love. With so many love stories and swoon-worthy ships out there, it’s hard to know where to begin.
Never fear—we’ve got you covered with our ultimate guide to the thirty best romance books for teens that will make your heart skip a few beats.
30 Best YA Romance Books For Teens
Tweet Cute by Emma Lord
Emma Lord’s witty and whimsical debut is a win from rom-com and grilled cheese lovers everywhere.
Pepper’s mom runs a fast-food empire, while Jack’s dad runs a mom-and-pop shop where Jack’s grandma’s grilled cheese reigns supreme. When Pepper’s family seemingly steals Jack’s family’s recipe, chaos ensues: perfectionist Pepper and class clown Jack enter a fierce tweet-off, where no meme or take-down is off-limits.
What they don’t know? As they’re warring on the internet, they’re falling for each other IRL on an anonymous chat app.
For a romance that will have you screaming just kiss already!!!, pick up Emma Lord’s Begin Again. Teens who have to start over—whether it’s because of college or other life events—will see themselves in Andie’s story as she transfers from community college to a competitive university. From fast friends to new romances, Andie (and the reader!) is in for a wild ride.
Chloe Green has one goal: win valedictorian at her stuffy Christian academy. Her only competition? Prom queen Shara Wheeler. But Shara is complicated. Shara kissed Chloe and vanished—and Chloe isn’t the only person Shara kissed. To decode Shara’s infuriatingly cryptic notes, and to drag her back for a fair win, Chloe has to team up with the school’s darling quarterback and her bad boy neighbor.
Lou Parker is determined to have the best summer of her life—but there are a few obstacles. One: her job as a dancing hot dog at Magic Castle Playland. Two: her crush is taken and he’s her only chance at a happily ever after. Three: her best friend, Seely, is thwarting Lou’s every plan to get them partners. Four: Magic Castle Playland is closing. Can Lou get the boy and save her job?
Delightfully queer and full of princesses, pirates, and hot dogs, Hot Dog Girl turns the classic teen trope of “one last summer” on its head for a read as refreshing as cool amusement park lemonade.
Vulnerable and witty in the same breath, My Mechanical Romance is a love letter to girls of color in STEM.
Bel doesn’t want anything to do with school—and she really doesn’t want to join a robotics club full of boys who ignore or patronize her in equal measure. But after she accidentally demonstrates engineering talent, they need her help. Mateo, the team captain, needs her help. Bel and Mateo challenge each other, and yet, Bel still doesn’t feel seen in STEM. Will Mateo come around?
Gamers and the otherwise geeky will delight in this compassionate and character-driven romance that celebrates the online community.
Don’t Read the Comments delves into the world of online gaming. Divya streams to help out her single mom financially, while Aaron plays as an escape and dreams of being a game developer. After a chance meeting, the pair teams up, but soon, an internet troll groups targets and tries to dox them. Divya is determined to fight—and Aaron isn’t going to walk away from her so easily.
If you enjoyed The Henna Wars, you’ll also adore Leah Johnson’s You Should See Me in a Crown, where a prom queen competition turns romantic.
Liz Lighty has a plan to escape Campbell, Indiana: attend an elite college, play in their orchestra, and start her career as a doctor. But when her financial aid source crumples, Liz is forced to take a new path, one full of catty competitors and crowns. That’s right—Liz competes for the scholarship money that comes with being prom queen. But she has stiff competition in the form of a new girl Mack, and as sparks fly, Liz doesn’t know if romance will save or ruin her.
Be sure to pick up You Should See Me in a Crown here.
One True Loves by Elise Bryant
Set sail on a swoon-worthy European cruise with Lenore Bennett, star artist and style icon. She’s a quasi-celebrity at her school, but she’s not sure that will carry over to NYU in the fall. Lenore feels less than prepared. What better to take her mind off it than meeting Alex Lee, a boy with a ten-year plan, on her cruise?
At first, they butt heads, but as they spend more time with each other, Lenore realizes Alex might just be the answer to her questions about love.
Tashie Bhuiyan’s Counting Down With You is a dream for rom-com lovers. Who doesn’t love fake dating that slowly becomes real?
At first, the answer is Karina. Fake dating bad boy Ace Clyde goes against her plans of keeping her head down and following her parents’ rules. Ace disrupts Karina’s plans, impressing her friends and buying her a dozen books per week if she goes along with the charade. They only have to date for twenty-eight days—but what happens when Karina doesn’t want the countdown to end?
What If It’s Us by Becky Albertalli and Adam Silvera
Bestselling authors Becky Albertalli and Adam Silvera deliver a heartwarming and hilarious story of two boys who aren’t sure what plans the universe has for them.
Arthur is in New York for the summer, and Ben’s a tried-and-true New Yorker going through a nasty break-up. A meet-cute at the post office turns into a separation, and then a separation, and then another meet-up. What does the universe have in store for them—everything or nothing?
With Albertalli’s honest voice and Silvera’s compelling prose, What If It’s Us pulls you in from start to finish.
Dhonielle Clayton, Tiffany D. Jackson, Nic Stone, Angie Thomas, Ashley Woodfolk, and Nicola Yoon team up to bring six Black teen love stories to life in Blackout.
All set against a summer heatwave in New York and the ensuing blackout, these stories follow different sparks in the darkness. A meet-cute. Long-time friends whose relationship suddenly shifts. Exes who can’t stand the sight of each other. The tales interweave and show that even without light, some matters can become clear.
If This Gets Out by Sophie Gonzalez and Cale Dietrich
Boy band fans, be ready to add If This Gets Out to your TBR.
Sophie Gonzalez and Cale Dietrich team up to deliver a showstopping and secret romance between Ruben Montex and Zach Knight: two members of one of the biggest boy bands in America. As the pressure to stay in the closet gets to Ruben, he leans on Zach. And when they start relying on each other more and more? They have to stick with each other even as their world turns against them.
If This Gets Out explores newfound fame and newfound feelings and is the ideal title not only for music fans, but also for fans of queer romance and friends-to-lovers.
Older teens entering their first year of college, or even teens navigating their later years, will appreciate Mary H.K. Choi’s brutally honest college romance, Emergency Contact.
We meet Penny and Sam at crossroads: Penny’s starting college, ready to leave behind the total drudgery of high school and become a writer, and Sam works and sleeps at the same café as he pursues Hollywood dreams. After the pair’s meet-awkward, they begin texting each other—and unveiling their deepest fears and dreams.. Can their relationship leave the DMs?
Discover the answer when you grab Emergency Contract here.
You, Me, and Our Heartstrings by Melissa See
The world watches as cello prodigy Noah and disabled violin player Daisy begin to fall in love as they play a duet at the holiday concert. Both want a Juilliard audition, and they might have a shot at an audition when their duet goes viral. But the world gets the wrong idea, praising Noah for ‘seeing past’ Daisy’s disability. Can they set the record straight and save their dream?
Named one of TIME magazine’s 100 Best YA Books of All Time, Adiba Jaigridar’s The Henna Wars is a true read-in-one-sitting coming-of-age romance.
Nishat struggles with her queer identity, and her conflict deepens when her beautiful childhood friend, Flávia, re enters her life. And as Nishat and Flávia participate in a school entrepreneurship activity, their lives grow more entangled as they compete to demonstrate who is the best henna artist. Still, as their rivalry deepens, Nishat can’t shake her feelings for Flávia, and Flávia might just like her back.
Zayneb and Adam both live complicated lives: after Zayneb gave a piece of her mind to her xenophobic teacher, her parents send her to her aunt’s house in Doha, Qatar for an early beginning to spring break. Adam was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis and is intent on keeping his diagnosis a secret. Alone, Zayneb pretends to be kinder, and Adam pretends to be well.
Together? They can finally start to be themselves.
To see the Netflix hit show’s origins, pick up Alice Oseman’s Heartstopper: Volume One.
In the first volume of the iconic webcomic, we meet Charlie, an anxiety-ridden student and the only out gay student at his school, and rugby player Charlie. When they’re assigned seats beside each other in class, they strike up a friendship, and soon, Charlie’s crushing hard. Nick’s straight, though—or so Charlie believes,
Sweet and real at the same time, Heartstopper will remind you of all the butterflies that come with first love.
For another Netflix adaptation’s origins, be sure to add Jenny Han’s To All The Boys I’ve Loved Before to your TBR.
This lighthearted and laugh-out-loud romance follows Lara Jean Song as her love life goes from non-existent to humiliating. She’s written letters to every boy she’s ever loved, five in all. But when those letters are mailed, Lara Jean’s life is thrown into chaos. Can she find her one true love amongst the mayhem?
If you’ve seen the movie (or even if you haven’t!), you’ll want to grab it here.
We Are Okay by Nina LaCour
Marin fled her old life in California for college in New York. Nobody, not even her best friend Mabel, knows what happened before she left. But when Mabel comes to visit, the whispers of the past that Marin has ignored turn into cries. Now, she must answer Mabel’s questions and confront the grief she has left alone.
Tender and moving, We Are Okay explores grief and all its nuances that will leave you yearning to close the distance with anyone you’ve drifted apart from.
Felix Ever After paints a stunning portrait of a trans teen finding his identity and falling in love.
Felix Love wants to be in love. Yet he’s terrified that he’ll be too much—that being Black, queer, and trans will be too much. And when he starts receiving anonymous transphobic messages, Felix is determined to get revenge. What he doesn’t plan for? His scheme landed him right in the middle of a love triangle.
For books, aliens, adventure, and first love, turn to Alechia Dow’s The Sound of Stars.
Two years after an alien invasion, Ellie Baker runs a secret library in New York City. When her misdeeds are discovered and Ellie is bound for execution, a young alien commander, Morris, saves her life. Now, Morris and Ellie are on the run together—and when a shared love of stories and music brings them together, they might be ready to stage a rebellion, too.
For queer readers—specifically, asexual or demisexual readers who want to be seen in romance—The Sound of Stars is a must-read.
For more romance with a magical twist, be sure to pick up Cemetery Boys.
Yadriel, a trans boy, is determined to make his family accept his true gender by proving himself a real brujo. He plans to summon the ghost of his murdered cousin and set it free. Who does he actually get? The school’s bad boy, Julian Diaz, who won’t die quietly. Julian and Yadriel team up and strike a deal: once they tie up Julian’s loose ends, Yadriel will be left alone. But as they spend more time together, the prospect of letting Julian go is less appealing.
For a supernatural teen love story that stuns, turn to the first in Maggie Stiefvater’s Wolves of Mercy Falls quarter, Shiver.
Grace has grown up observing the wolves. Sam has lived half his life as one: human in the summer, a wolf in the winter. When their worlds collide and Grace sees Sam’s yellow eyes, she realizes he is the wolf she has watched most frequently. As they begin to fall for each other, can Sam stay human long enough, or will he lose Grace and his humanity?
If you read Shiver and fell in love, Maggie Stiefvater’s Virginia-set The Raven Boys is a must-read.
Sixteen-year-old Blue Sargent has never been kissed. She can’t—for years, her psychic mother has claimed that Blue will kill her true love with her kiss. Blue knows she’ll never fall in love.
But when Blue sees the ghost of a boy who is soon to be dead and later meets him in real life, she can’t stay away. Richard Gansey enchants her. Soon, she’s entangled with his life and those of his friends—the anger-driven Ronan, scholarship student Adam, and enigmatic Noah—and realizes true love might not be as avoidable as she believed.
Begin the four-book series with The Raven Boys, located here.
The Selection by Kiera Cass
If you haven’t picked up this classic and captivating teen romance yet, take this as your sign to do so ASAP.
The Selection follows America Singer as she’s swept into the glittering world of the Selection: the chance of a lifetime where thirty-five girls have the opportunity to escape their rigid castes and compete for a prince’s hand—and a crown. At first, America dreads the competition, but as she gets to know Prince Maxon, she sees that her once-small dreams could become so much bigger.
You’ll fall in love with The Selection’s glittering royal aesthetic and memorable characters.
It’s the roaring twenties in Shanghai—but all that glitters isn’t gold, there are monsters on the loose, and a blood feud between the Cais and Montagovs reddens the streets.
This Romeo and Juliet retelling features the stunning Juliette Cai and the steadfast Roma Montagov. Juliette and Roma were each other’s firsts: first loves, first betrayals. They’ve sworn off each other. Yet as the monster claims Cais and Montagovs alike, they realize that to have a city to feud within, they must save it together.
Darkly romantic and dazzlingly written, These Violent Delights is certain to become your next obsession.
Begin an enemies-to-lovers romance with A Song of Wraiths and Ruin, the first in Roseanne A. Brown’s gripping duology inspired by West African folklore.
The story follows Crown Princess Karina and refugee Malik as their lives begin to collide at a royal competition’s beginning. Malik plans to win the competition and kill Karina to win his sister back from a vengeful spirit. Karina plans to marry the competition’s victor and kill him to secure his beating heart, the last piece of a ritual she wants to perform to resurrect her mother. But what happens to their collision course when feelings arise?
Devour Dana Schwartz’s Anatomy, an intricate Gothic love story between a lady who wants to be a surgeon and a man who resurrects the dead.
Hazel and Jack meet by chance outside the Edinburgh Anatomist’s Society. At first, she thinks nothing of it, but when Hazel is kicked out of a misogynist’s classes, she suddenly needs bodies for independent study. That’s where Jack comes in—except Jack is facing problems of his own. Suddenly, the pair need each other to unravel a sinister mystery.
Delight in this Anastasia retelling from Amelie Wen Zhao. You’ll fall in love with sorceress Ana and the cunning crime lord Ramson Quicktongue. Together, the pair must take down corruption and keep themselves from falling in love.
Cinematic and clever, you’ll want to clear an afternoon to read Blood Heir.
Fall in love with the world of royal faeries alongside mortal Jude. In the High Court of Faerie, Jude craves power, and she’ll do anything to get it—even defying the brutal Prince Cardan. Yet as Jude and Cardan find themselves embroiled in conflict, will they survive the violence and each other?
With these thirty stories, you’ll want to live in your daydreams forever. The good news is that most of these authors have more than one novel, so you can keep falling in love forever. Happy reading!
FAQs
What defines the young adult age genre?
YA is typically written for readers aged 12 to 18 years old. The subject matter often corresponds with the protagonist’s age and experience.
What are the hallmarks of YA romance?
You can oftentimes find all the same tropes as adult romance in YA romance (some favorites being enemies-to-lover and sunshine-grump), except those that deal with more explicit or mature situations.
Where should I begin if I haven’t read a lot of YA romance novels?
You Should See Me in a Crown and Shiver are the perfect titles to get you acquainted with the genre!
Where should I begin if I’m a more experienced YA romance reader?
Fantasy lovers should turn to Roseanne A. Brown’s A Song of Wraiths and Ruin and its sequel, while rom-com fanatics should work through Emma Lord’s titles.
Morgan Spraker is a writer and graduate of the University of Florida. A lifelong love for books, storytelling, and fantastical settings inspired her to pursue her BA in English and Sustainability Studies.
Her academic work focused on the linked portrayals of gender and the climate crisis in 2010s young adult science fiction. While she hasn't encountered the elusive Florida Man or wrestled an alligator, she's a lifelong Floridian with a love for the beach.
When Morgan isn't creating worlds of her own, she's usually exploring others—namely, Star Wars's galaxy far, far away—and playing Taylor Swift's discography on repeat.
