6 Queer YA Rom-Coms for Your Spring Bookshelf

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Anne Mai Yee Jansen is a literature and ethnic studies professor and a lifelong story lover. She exists on a steady diet of books, hot chocolate, and dragon boating. After spending over a decade in the Midwest and the Appalachians, she returned to the sun and sandstone of California’s central coast where she currently resides with her partner, offspring, and feline companions. Find her on Instagram @dreaminginstories

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It’s springtime and love is in the air…or that’s how the saying goes, anyway. So with all that love in the air, you might as well nab some for your bookshelves!

For me, springtime is a light season. There’s literally more daylight, but also everything feels a little less heavy than during the winter months. And that tends to make me want slightly lighter reads.

What’s lighter than a comedic love story? Romantic comedies (aka rom-coms) offer the perfect literary complement to the spring months. Not only that, but young adult rom-coms shed some of the weight that even adult rom-coms can carry. This is not to say that YA rom-coms lack substance—far from it. Instead, it’s that the tone of YA rom-coms tends to be just a little lighter than their adult counterparts.

Happily, there are so many incredible YA rom-coms to choose from. According to a 2023 study, YA books are the fastest-growing category of literature, with sales increasing by almost 50% between 2018 and 2023. The same study found that a significant number of those purchasing and reading YA books are not only over the age of 18 but are also in their 30s and 40s. In other words, YA is definitely for young adult readers, but it’s not exclusively so.

So cozy up with one of these smile-inducing queer YA rom-coms this spring. It’ll be like opening up a window and getting a fresh breath of love-infused air.

Fake Dates and Mooncakes by Sher Lee

Theo Somers is extremely rich, but he needs a date for an upcoming wedding. Lucky for him, Dylan Tang’s on takeout duty for his aunt’s restaurant one night, and their chance encounter ends up leading to a classic rom-com fake dating scenario. Of course, Dylan’s busy with his own goals—specifically, prepping for the mooncake competition at the Mid-Autumn Festival. He wants to honor his mom’s memory by using his grandma’s recipe, but he’ll still need all the help he can get if he stands a chance to win. The dynamic between these guys is so fun to read, and their shared cultural backgrounds and (sadly) grief for their late mothers brings them together in really deep ways.

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A Bánh Mì For Two by Trinity Nguyen

Food lovers will drool over this sapphic love story set in Sài Gòn. Teens Lan and Vivi grew up on opposite sides of the Pacific, but when Vivi travels to the country of her parents’ birth, she finds a friend in her favorite food blogger: Lan. For Lan, sharing her city with a stranger reawakens her in the wake of her father’s death. The characters and their relationships with their parents develop nicely as the story unfolds, and this romance is a really sweet one. I always love a love story in which each person ends up believing in the other person in ways that help them heal, and Nguyen’s novel doesn’t disappoint.

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The Dos and Donuts of Love by Adiba Jaigirdar

Grab a box of donuts and crack open this book, because once you start, you won’t want to stop. When we meet Shireen Malik, she’s devastated from a recent breakup. But as soon as she finds out she’s been selected to be on a baking show, she has to pick up the pieces of her passion for baking and find a way to shine so that she can use the prize money to help her parents’ donut shop. Of course, it turns out her ex-girlfriend Chris is also a contestant, and a delicious love triangle ensues when Shireen meets another one of the bakers, named Niamh. As things heat up (pun fully intended) on the show, Shireen has to navigate her feelings alongside some nasty racism and fatphobia online. Despite that uglier side of reality, her journey is one you won’t want to miss.

Café Con Lychee by Emery Lee

This enemies-to-lovers rom-com starts with Theo Mori and Gabi Moreno so far from being in love that it almost seems impossible. Theo’s itching to get out of Vermont and away from his family’s restaurant, he and isn’t very nice to most people, Gabi included, because of his unhappiness. Gabi loves his family’s restaurant so much he can’t wait to take it over. Enter the new fusion restaurant in their small Vermont town, which threatens to rob Theo of his escape and Gabi of his dream. When Theo’s at-school-food-delivery-service scheme encounters a big hiccup, he needs Gabi’s help. Suddenly, love becomes a possibility as these rivals start to realize how much they have to offer each other.

Prince of the Palisades by Julian Winters

If you love a good romance about a real-life prince charming, this one’s for you. Jadon is the 17-year-old prince of an island kingdom, but his recent breakup created a publicity nightmare that resulted in him being sent off to Los Angeles while the air clears. As he works to fix his image, he ends up finding the one thing he was trying to avoid: love. The guy who caught his attention? None other than Reiss Hayes, one of the only other Black students at their elite private school and an aspiring filmmaker who appreciates Jaydon’s distinctly un-princely tendencies.

Nav’s Foolproof Guide to Falling in Love by Jessica Lewis

Due out in April, Jesica Lewis’ foray into romance makes me hope she’ll continue writing in the genre. Nav, Gia, and Hallie are all adorable, and I loved spending time with each of these characters. New girl Gia’s shyness is preventing her from being able to talk to Hallie, so flirtation expert Nave (who also happens to be Hallie’s best friend) agrees to help Gia up her game in exchange for a spot at summer camp. It’s an added perk that Gia is already of the opinion that Hallie needs to find a partner worthy of her. The novel’s treatment of mental health is thoughtful and the story is an immensely enjoyable read.