In real life, I usually think high school dating is silly.

But in BOOKS … well, that’s another story.  A completely other story.  Here, for your reading pleasure, I count down my seven favorite YA romances.

7. Hazel and Augustus (The Fault in Our Stars)

Theirs was a tumultuous, wonderful, devastating romance.  “It would be a privilege to have my heart broken by you.”  Wow.

6. Brigan and Fire (Fire)

This is still YA though not technically a high school romance, and it does read like one more mature.  There is something so deep and attractive about the slow burn.

5. Lenny and Joe (The Sky is Everywhere)

I love these two together.  ““He doesn’t have to say it, I feel it too; it’s not subtle– like every bell for miles and miles is ringing at once, loud and clanging, hungry ones and tiny, happy, chiming ones, all of them sounding off in this moment.”

4. Eleanor and Park (Eleanor and Park)

What is not to love about these two???

“Holding Eleanor’s hand was like holding a butterfly. Or a heartbeat. Like holding something complete, and completely alive.”

“Damn, damn, damn,” she said. “I never said why I like you, and now I have to go.”
“That’s okay,” he said.
“It’s because you’re kind,” she said. “And because you get all my jokes…”
“Okay.” He laughed.
“And you’re smarter than I am.”
“I am not.”
“And you look like a protagonist.” She was talking as fast as she could think. “You look like the person who wins in the end. You’re so pretty, and so good. You have magic eyes,” she whispered. “And you make me feel like a cannibal.”

I want someone to like me because I look like a protagonist, LOL!

3. Ron and Hermione (Harry Potter)

We watched the friendship and sexual tension build for seven books, until we finally got our kissing scene while, “OI!  There’s a war going on here!”  Delicious.

2. Jonah and Taylor (Jellicoe Road)

Oh, Jonah Griggs and his steady, loyal devotion.  Supposedly this scene wasn’t supposed to be romantic, but I’ve always found it dreadfully so: “He stops and looks at me. ‘I’m here because of you. You’re my priority. Your happiness, in some f***ed way, is tuned in to mine. Get that through your thick skull. Would I like it any other way? Hell, yes, but I don’t think that will be happening in my lifetime.”

1. Will and Frankie (Saving Francesca and The Piper’s Son)

As it says in my blog bio, I have a thing for cute nerds.  That’s probably why this romance takes the cake for me.  I want a smart, dorky boy in leadership to love calculus and ancient Roman warfare and me.

“Come here,” she says.
“No, you come here.”
“I said it first.”
“Rock paper scissors.”
“No. Because you’ll do nerdy calculations and work out what I chose the last six times and then you’ll win.”
Will pushes away from the table and his hand snakes out and he pulls her toward him and Tom figures that Will was always going to go to her first.”