The best YA romances that capture the magic (and angst) of first love

This is a love story. But it's not what you think. This is not a first kiss, or a first date. This is not love at first sight. This is a boy and a girl falling in messy, unpredictable, thrilling love. This is the complicated route to happiness that follows.

This is real. This is life. This is how to love.

Before:

Reena has loved Sawyer LeGrande for as long as she can remember. But he's never noticed her, until one day... he does. They fall in messy, complicated love. But then Sawyer disappears from their humid Florida town, leaving… show more.

"Smart and funny, with characters so real and vulnerable, you want to send them care packages. I loved this book." -Rainbow Rowell

From debut author Mary H.K. Choi comes a compulsively readable novel that shows young love in all its awkward glory-perfect for fans of Eleanor & Park and To All the Boys I've Loved Before.

For Penny Lee, high school was a total nonevent. Her friends were okay, her grades were fine, and while she'd somehow landed a boyfriend, they never managed to know much about each other. Now Penny is heading to college in Austin, Texas, to learn… show more.

Lucy always loved summers on Halcyon Lake-sunning on the lake raft, relaxing on the boat, and spending every possible minute with her best friend, Trixie, and Trixie's brother, Ben, Lucy's lifelong crush. Until last summer, when one tragic event turned their idyllic world upside down. Now nothing is the same. This summer, Trixie is gone, and Ben is distant, numbing his pain with parties and a string of interchangeable girlfriends. Lucy does her best to move on and avoid this cold new Ben. She throws herself into babysitting, waitressing, and a sweet new romance with the renter next door. But… show more.

Now an Apple TV+ original film

New York Times bestselling author

Longlisted for the Carnegie Medal

"Entirely compelling." The Guardian

"Heartwarming." The Independent

For fans of Jojo Moyes, David Levithan and Rainbow Rowell. Seventeen-year-old Lennie Walker spends her time tucked safely and happily in the shadow of her fiery older sister, Bailey. But when Bailey dies abruptly, Lennie is catapulted to centre stage of her own life - and suddenly finds herself struggling to balance two boys. One boy takes Lennie out of her sorrow; the other comforts her in it. But the two can't collide without Lennie's world exploding...

Before she kissed one of the Cohen boys, seventeen-year-old Jessi Rumfield knew what it was like to have a family - even if, technically, that family didn't belong to her. She'd spent her childhood in the house next door, challenging Rowan Cohen to tennis matches while his older brother, Luke, studied in the background and Mel watched over the three like the mother Jessi always wished she had.

But then everything changed. It's been almost a year since Jessi last visited the Cohen house. Rowan is gone. Mel is in remission and Luke hates Jessi for the role she played… show more.