YA Rom Com Books

Did you take my What’s Your 2000s Aesthetic quiz and get rom com? Here are some YA Rom Com Books you’ll love from the 2000s to the 2020s. Who doesn’t want to live in a rom com?

First off, did you take my quiz and find out your 2000s Movie Aesthetic? I recommend it, but you can love ALL the aesthetics and switch them up, Taylor Swift style!

The Rom Com Aesthetic is just one of the aesthetics that the quiz might have paired you with, and this post will discuss the 2000s books and movies that inspired it!

YA Rom Com Aesthetic Books

What makes a good rom com main character?

First and foremost, he/she/they should be relatable (clumsy, quirky, somewhat unpopular, or generally a fish out of water.)

A rom com main character usually has at least one BFF or sidekick (who could even be the person they fall in love with.)

They should be funny, at least occasionally.

A meet cute with their new significant other is appreciated, though not absolutely necessary.

Favorite YA Rom Com Books of the 2000s

The early 2000s was filled with YA romances. YA readers of the time loved “swoonworthy” storylines and characters.

Anna and the French Kiss (2010) by Stephanie Perkins was a huge hit. The story featured an American girl studying abroad in Paris who falls in love with a charming Frenchman who seems to have a girlfriend. Sound familiar? Yes, I also think Emily in Paris has a similar plot – check out my book list of ALL the YA Books like Emily in Paris!

My Life Next Door (2012) by Huntley Fitzpatrick featured a guarded politician’s daughter who can’t help but fall for the adorable guy next door, who’s part of a large family. Fitzpatrick followed that book with two books that were darker romance (not rom coms): What I Thought Was True and The Boy Most Likely To.

The Statistical Probability of Love at First Sight (2012) by Jennifer E. Smith was a whirlwind romance between two strangers on a plane. (That’s a meet cute!) Smith followed this book with This is What Happy Looks Like, The Geography of You and Me, and Hello, Goodbye, and Everything In Between. The Statistical Probability of First Sight was made into a Netflix movie, Love at First Sight, which I discuss here!

2010s YA Rom Com Books Offering More Diversity and Representation

The drawback to many of these early 2000s YA Rom Com Books was their lack of diversity. Most characters were white, cisgender, and heterosexual. But the mid 2010s brought new YA rom com books featuring more diverse characters.

Simon vs the Homo Sapiens Agenda (2015) by Becky Albertalli was, according to one of the marketing employees who worked on the book, an unexpected, world-of-mouth hit. In the book, gay high school student tries to decide whether to come out and tries to identify his secret admirer. The book was made into a movie, Love, Simon, and spurred a series of companion books with crossover characters.

10 Things I Hate About Pinky is part of the Dimple and Rishi YA rom com book series (2017-2020). With its obvious not to the CLASSIC Y2K rom com 10 Things I Hate About You, this is one of my favorite YA rom coms. Did you know that David Levithan wrote a 1999 novelization of the movie 10 Things I Hate About You? I’m going to need to find that.

To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before (2014) by Jenny Han kicked off a very popular YA rom com series featuring a teen who writes letters to all her crushes, and then is horrified when they are accidentally mailed. The To All the Boys books were made into a Netflix series that I discuss here!

2020s YA Rom Com Books

In the 2020s, YA rom com books continued to draw on beloved tropes while moving the subgenre in new directions.

Adult romance author Talia Hibbert, known for incorporating mental health issues into her humorous love stories, wrote a YA rom com book, Highly Suspicious and Unfairly Cute (2023) about two former friends turned rivals who fall in love.

Reese’s Book Club picked A Cuban Girl’s Guide to Tea and Tomorrow (2020) as a YA book club pick. This book will be made into a movie.

A companion book, A British Girl’s Guide to Hurricanes and Heartbreak, was released in 2023.

And a third book, With Love, Echo Park, came out in 2024

XOXO by Axie Oh took the beloved “romance with a celebrity” trope and created a Korean-American character who unknowingly falls in love with a Kpop star. The book takes place in both the United States and Seoul. A companion book, ASAP, was released in 2024.

What are your favorite YA Rom Com Books? Tell me in comments!