Best YA Romances?

In the last few days there have been some interesting discussions that I think all tie back to the presence of romance in YA, either as a main or sub plot. (Examples: Designated Love Interest in YA, Does "I Love You" Mean That Much Anymore?, What Makes Romance in YA Work?)

It's been fun hearing the variety of opinions that everyone has about these topics. But it does bring up a new question: which books have lead us to our opinions in the first place?

I took a look at the Get Yer YA Recommendations Here thread, and there are a lot of good suggestions on it. I am also aware that there are many books on that list that do have romance in them. But as I went through the lists this evening, planning to do some shopping, I realized I needed to search every one of them on Amazon to see whether they had the key ingredient (romance) that I was looking for.

Here's what I want to know:

What YA books you feel have the best romances, and why?

The why is important. Do you care about happy ever after? Realism? The 'healthiness' of the relationship? The pacing of the relationship? How the relationship effects (or does not effect) the plot? You don't have to answer all of these. They are just a few potential things that might get you thinking.

Any genre is up for discussion. Love can happen anywhere and to anyone.

I think that the discussions at the top of the page illustrate two things that (I hope) we can all agree on:

(1) Writing romance -- and the things that lead to it -- is not easy.

(2) People tend to have vary different opinions on how romance should be depicted in fiction, especially YA.

We are constantly advised that if you want to write, you should read. I constantly hear people complaining that romance in YA is messed up again and again. So let's do something about it. Let's put our heads together and develop a list of books that (hopefully!) get it "right".*

*This is a big part of why I am suggesting you share your "why". There is no way we will all agree which books provide good quality romance within YA because people's tastes are different. By sharing "why", that decision can hopefully be made by those viewing the list so that we don't end up with a ton of disagreements. (Love can be such a touchy subject.)

Romance from any genre is welcome. I'll have to take a look at Beauty. I love fairy tale re-tellings and Beauty and the Beast is my favorite fairy tale.

I thought that the way feelings were used in The Hunger Games was very interesting. I've only read the first book (need to quit stalling and get moving on the other two) so I don't want to say this is good quality Romance. But it is interesting and by the end I felt very sorry for Peeta. (I won't go into that again; I cried a river in the "What are you reading?" thread already.)

I enjoyed the first three books in the Vampire Academy series. I don't necessarily think that Rose and Dmitri are the pinnacle of True Love, but it was interesting. Alas, the fourth book is really really slow and I haven't finished it. So I don't know how their story turns out or whether I am satisfied with it.

I love the House of Night series. Zoey annoys me utterly, but I adore Stevie Rae and Rephaim. I love any book where we see a villain redeemed by having feelings for someone. Despite other flaws with this series, I keep reading because I care how their story ends. (Odd, I know.)

I added Anna and the French Kiss to my list. It's strange ... I don't think I've ever picked up a contemporary book by choice before. I usually read urban fantasy or paranormal romance. I like what I've heard about Anna and the French Kiss, though. So I'm looking forward to that.

Does anyone have any thoughts on Perfect Chemistry by Simone Elkeles? I was thinking of getting that, too.

Anyway, this is proving interesting and helpful.

Lady Ice said:

I hate Zoey. Doesn't she have three boyfriends at one point and goes sniffing after her teacher? Let's hope the female readers aren't too impressionable!

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Yes, that happened in Chosen. I realized very early on that Zoey is not as bright as your average brown bear. I like the couple I listed in my first post, I like the fact that the 'nice' teacher ends up becoming the villain (I did not see that coming going from book one to book two -- I bought one and two together for some reason) and I like Aphrodite. She's obnoxious but she'amuses me.

Also definitely agree that I'd be disturbed if anyone easily swayed by what they see in a book / game / movie / etc. read these. Zoey is not role model material.

HoN is only getting mentioned because of Stevie Rae and Rephaim, who represent the theme of a 'villain' being redeemed through love.