9 YA Valentine Reads for Every Stage of Your Romance

The Disenchantments, by Nina LaCour
Colby and his best friend—and forever crush—Bev have a long-standing pact. They’re going to blow off college for a year to backpack through Europe, bumming around and discovering the real world. But before they can do that, their band, the Disenchantments, will have their first—and last—summer tour. The first glitch: as soon as they hit the road, Bev announces she’s blowing off their plans to head to art school in Rhode Island in the fall. Ouch. Can the deep love the two share—platonic, unrequited, romantic, decidedly complicated—survive the unraveling of life as they know it? LaCour’s compelling, compulsive, confounding road trip is a must read for anyone who has ever pined. Which means pretty much everyone.

 
First Blush:

Tell Me Again How A Crush Should Feel, Sara Farizan
Leila’s never quite fit in at the posh Armstead Academy. Awkward and funny, she’s also a brown girl in a very white world. But now she has got a secret that could make her even more of a misfit: a crush, one that leaves her feeling all gooey and melty, one she’s dying to act on. But will taking that risk mean unspooling secrets she’d rather not share? As Leila navigates her first real relationship with new girl Saskia, she learns a lot about herself, and realizes everyone has got their own secrets and stories to tell.
 
 
 
 
Something More:

More Happy Than Not, Adam Silvera
Aaron Soto is falling for his new best friend, and it’s turning his life upside down, causing chaos with his girlfriend, his friends, and his family. It’s so bad, he’s thinking of doing something drastic: erasing his memory to forget that he’s gay. Silvera’s stunning debut is full spectrum on the love scale: the highest highs and the lowest lows. But in the end, it’s about catharsis and about finding—and loving—yourself.
 
 
 
 
 
Talk About Triangles!

The Sky Is Everywhere, Jandy Nelson
Most know Nelson from her stunning second book, I’ll Give You the Sun, but if you haven’t read this delicious debut, well, what are you waiting for? Sun centers on Lennie, 16, in mourning for the recent, sudden of her sister, Bailey. She’s coping the best way she knows how: by hooking up with her dead sister’s boyfriend, Toby. Yeah, bad idea. Meanwhile, in comes smiley, sunshiney, absolutely adorable Joe, who’s quickly smitten. Lennie’s managed to trip over what may be true love in the midst of stumbling and falling. But can she pull herself together enough to grab it while she can? Or will the darkness overcome everything?
 
 
A Hot Mess:

Dumplin’, Julie Murphy
Willowdean “Dumplin’” Dickson has all the confidence in the world—that is, until she starts secretly hooking up with hottie Bo. That’s when she starts doubting herself: her intelligence, her personality, her body. So when the opportunity to get back on track presents itself in the form of the Miss Clover City pageant, which everyone thinks she’s entering as a big fat joke, she decides to grab it with both hands. An uplifting and magical journey that shows that while first love hits hard, it isn’t the be-all and end-all by a long shot.
 
 
 
 
Star-crossed Swoon:

The Winner’s Kiss, by Marie Rutkoski
If you’ve read the first two books in Rutkoski’s confoundingly, infuriatingly delicious series, well, then you’ve already pre-ordered this one. But for the uninitiated: Kestrel—sheltered, smart, and, yes, a bit self-destructive—didn’t mean to fall for Arin. After all, he’s the Herrani slave who led a rebellion to overthrow the Valorian empire. But she couldn’t help herself. She turned traitor. And now she will pay. Arin’s still churning with insurrection, and change is coming. But he can’t get Kestrel out of his head. Rutkoski promises kissing in this third and final installment to the series, so catch up now and then click that pre-order button. You won’t regret it.
 
 
All-Emcompassing:

Everything Everything, by Nicola Yoon
Yoon’s New York Times bestselling debut centers on Maddie, the proverbial—and literal—girl in the bubble, whose interactions with the outside world just might kill her. Case in point: boy next door Oliver, a quirky, charming and troubled kid who catches Maddie’s eye through a window into her world and quickly climbs right on in. First love brings with it so many other firsts for the super-sheltered girl, and a level of self-discovery that far surpasses the usual coming of age tropes.
 
 
 
 
For Always:

The Love That Split the World, by Emily Henry
A forever fairytale, Henry’s debut is described as a teen Time Traveler’s Wife with a good dose of Friday Night Lights drama. Time stops when Natalie meets Beau. No, like literally stops. And according to Grandmother, the mysterious apparition who appears in her bedroom at night, she has only got three months to save him. Set in small-town Kentucky the summer after high school, with a heroine on the precipice of adulthood, Split is a swoony and slippery first love story that will have you rethinking the confines of time and space.
 
 
 
 
The End: