These YA Romance Novels Will Make You Believe In Love

Some might say that the very existence of the category "YA romance novels" is redundant. Don't all YA novels fall under the category of romance? After all, romantic elements figure heavily into most YA novels. Even while barely surviving the extremely violent dystopia of The Hunger Games, Katniss Everdeen has time to ponder a love triangle.

And that makes sense. The teen years are when many people experience a whole new set of feelings for the first time. It would be like eating pizza, after years of having cheese and bread separately. You'd be like, wow — pizza is all I want to talk about. Why are people talking about taxes, when they could be talking about pizza? Why would I read presidential biographies, when I could read about pizza? Yes, that is what love is like when you're a teenager.

But it would false to proclaim all YA books were romances. Some books, like the ones in this round-up, are more concerned with love than others (No matter what anyone says, The Hunger Games is not a romance novel). These books will plunge you into the big, exploratory questions of the teen years, and make you a more empathetic adult in the process. Relive what it feels like to be 16 — you know you kind of want to.