The team at Leiston Library share some of their favourite romance novels for teens and young adults! Browse our staff picks and pick up a copy from your local library.
Want more suggested books?. Take a look at our recommendations or explore more of the “National Year of Reading” campaign.
Twenty-Four Seconds from Now
Jason Reynolds
Seventeen-year-old Neon is about to have sex with his girlfriend, Aria, for the first time. In 24 seconds to be precise. He’s hiding in the bathroom, nervous, wanting to do everything right.
Rewind. To 24 minutes earlier where Neon rushes from work, taking the gift of fried chicken to Aria’s house.
Rewind again. To 24 hours earlier when Neon’s big sister has advice about sex which makes him think he probably shouldn’t be listening to his friends.
To 24 days earlier. To 24 weeks earlier. To 24 months earlier, when he and Aria first met.
This tender, sweet, wholesome piece of fiction discusses how to approach first sex, how to respect women, how to be gentle, how to make it about love. It shows us a refreshingly different side to male sexuality.
The Boy I Love
William Hussey
At just nineteen, Stephen has already survived a year at the front. Now he is returning to the trenches to lead a platoon, despite his wounds.
Broken-hearted from the loss of his first love, Stephen wonders what he’s fighting for. Then he meets Private Danny McCormick, a smart, talented young recruit whose strong opinions will surely get him into trouble.
From their first meeting, there’s something undeniable between them – something forbidden by both society and the army. Determined to protect Danny, Stephen must face down the prejudices and ignorance of his superiors as well as the onslaught of German shells and sniper fire.
As the summer of 1916 ticks down to one big push on the Somme, can Stephen and Danny stay together – and will their love save them – or condemn them?
Heartstopper Vol. 1
Alice Oseman
Charlie and Nick are at the same school, but they’ve never met – until one day when they’re made to sit together. They quickly become friends, and soon Charlie is falling hard for Nick, even though he doesn’t think he has a chance.
But love works in surprising ways, and Nick is more interested in Charlie than either of them realised.
Powerless
Lauren Roberts
The Elites have possessed powers for decades, gifted to them by the Plague, while those born Ordinary are just that. Banished from the kingdom if you lack an ability and forced to live in the slums, the Ordinaries don’t have it easy.
No one knows this better than Paedyn Gray. She’ll do anything to survive and stay out of trouble, even if it means posing as a Psychic to blend in with the Elites. But when Paeydn unsuspectingly saves Kai Azer, an Ilya prince, she finds herself thrown into the Purging Trials, a cut-throat competition showcasing the Elites’ powers – the very thing Paedyn is incapable of.
Either the Trails or the opponents are going to kill her, or the prince she’s fighting feelings for will when he discovers what Paedyn is – completely Ordinary.
American Royals
Katharine McGee
Meet the Washingtons – the most scandalous royal family ever!
HRH Princess Samantha has always been a royal rebel. She’s the spare not the heir, so no one minds too much who she dates or how hard she parties. It helps that her sister, Princess Beatrice, is literally perfect. She’s demure, sweet and beautiful, and she knows that the crown always comes first – no matter what her heart might really want.
But they’re not the only ones with their eye on the throne. Daphne Deighton might be ‘newly noble’ but she won Prince Jefferson’s heart once, and she’ll do anything to get back into the court’s favour – and his bed. If only she knew that her competition was a common nobody – plain little Nina Gonzalez, the daughter of the king’s secretary.
Together these four young women must navigate the drama, gossip, scheming and sizzling romance of the most glorious court in the world.
The Summer I Turned Pretty
Jenny Han
Belly measures her life in summers. Everything good, everything magical happens between the months of June and August.
Winters are simply a time to count the weeks until the next summer, a place away from the beach house, away from Susannah, and most importantly, away from Jeremiah and Conrad. They are the boys that Belly has known since her very first summer—they have been her brother figures, her crushes, and everything in between.
But one summer, one wonderful and terrible summer, the more everything changes, the more it all ends up just the way it should have been all along.
Elsewhere
Gabrielle Zevin
Welcome to Elsewhere. The beaches are marvellous. It’s quiet and peaceful. You can’t get sick, and you’ll never turn even a day older…
This is where fifteen-year-old Liz Hall ends up, after she has died. It is a place so like Earth yet completely different. Here, Liz will age backward from the day of her death until she becomes a baby and returns to Earth.
But Liz wants to turn sixteen, not fourteen again. She wants to get her driver’s license. She wants to graduate from high school and go to college. Now that she’s dead, though, Liz is forced to live a life she doesn’t want with a grandmother she has never met before. And it isn’t going well.
How can Liz let go of the only life she has ever known and embrace a new one? Is it possible that a life lived in reverse is no different from a life lived forward?
My Life with the Walter Boys
Ali Novak
Jackie’s goal is perfection – perfect grades, the perfect look, getting into the perfect school. If she can achieve that, then maybe her too-busy mom and dad will take notice.
But when her parents die in a tragic accident, Jackie is shipped off across the country to live with the Walters, her new guardians – who just happen to have twelve sons (well, eleven, but their daughter, Parker, is basically one of the boys).
The Walter boys are loud, dirty, annoying – and, okay, some of the older boys might be Greek god level hot, but they don’t think a city girl belongs on their horse ranch. How is Jackie supposed to fit into their chaotic world when she needs to keep her parents’ memory alive by living up to the promise of perfect?
But as Jackie spends more time the Walter boys, she begins to wonder if the perfection she’s always strived for isn’t the only way to find love after all.
Instructions for Dancing
Nicola Yoon
Evie is disillusioned about love ever since her dad left her mum for another woman – she’s even throwing out her beloved romance novel collection.
When she’s given a copy of a book called ‘Instructions for Dancing,’ and follows a note inside to a dilapidated dance studio, she discovers she has a strange and unwelcome gift. When a couple kisses in front of her, she can see their whole relationship play out – from the moment they first catch each other’s eye to the last bitter moments of their break-up. For Evie, it confirms everything she thinks she knows about love – that it doesn’t last.
But at the dance studio she meets X – tall, dreadlocked, fascinating – and they start to learn to dance, together. Can X help break the spell that Evie is under? Can he change Evie’s mind about love?