10 Fantastically Sweet Middle School Romance Books

This middle school romance is told completely through poetry. At first, Tam thinks Kate is just a girly, fake cheerleader. And Kate thinks Tam is a jock who only cares about volleyball. But when the girls get to know each other, a friendship and then an attractions grows between them. Each girl experiences moments of deep joy and harsh doubt and shame as each must decide how to handle their growing feelings. Besides their perspective, there is also a Greek chorus point of view named Alex, Alyx, and Alexx who speculate on Tam and Kate’s relationship from their hallway observations of the pair.

When the book begins, Kieko is excited to take on 7th grade with her best friends Jenna and Audrey at her side. But when Audrey announces all three of them must find boyfriends before the Fall dance things start to fall apart. Jenna is fed up with Audrey’s bossiness and suddenly Kieko is in the middle of her best friends fighting. Meanwhile, Kieko’s crush is not someone Audrey approves of. But should she go for it anyway? This book is a lot about friendship, but there are also a lot of crushes, flirting, and middle school romance central to the plot. And if you want more middle school romance books, you can read the sequel Just Be Cool, Jenna Sakai about Keiko’s best friend Jenna.

This middle grade romcom mixes together two of my favorite things together: crushes and pizza. It is a winning recipe! When Maya’s family moves from New York City to a small town in Pennsylvania, she’s given the new job of delivering pizza from her parent’s restaurant on her bike. Her first delivery is a disaster when she is late and then trips. To make matters worse it is in front of Justin, a cute and obnoxious boy from her grade. Maya is convinced they are enemies. But later, he tries to makes things right and helps keep one of Maya’s secrets from her parents so she can participate in art club. And in return, Maya gives Justin pizza-making lessons. I loved that aside from their sweet romance, both Maya and Justin have strong passions that move the story forward.

Thirteen-year-old Arturo Zamora has three goals: saving his family restaurant La Cocina de la Isla, saving his Miami neighborhood from gentrifying real estate developers, and convincing Carmen, the new girl in his apartment complex, to go out with him. She likes poetry, so he begins to explore it himself. And soon he realizes writing is the answer to solving all three of his problems. Inspired by a box of letters he finds from his deceased grandfather and the poetry of José Martí, Arturo embarks on the most important summer of his life.

Before she wrote To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before, Jenny Han wrote a middle school romance book dealing with friendship, crushes, and family drama. Annemarie is called Shug by her family, and this book is definitely sweet. She’s decided 12 is the perfect age to have her first kiss. But her plans run amok when Mark, the dreamy boy next door and top candidate for her smooching goals, turns out to have a crush on Annemarie’s beautiful older sister. The only boy left is Jack, who’s known as a bad boy who constantly gets in trouble. But maybe Jack isn’t what he seems and is actually better for Annemarie than Mark? You’ll have to read the book to find out.

Ella Enchanted is a middle grade classic and one of my favorite books of all time. It is a comedic and richly developed Cinderella retelling about a girl who has an obedience curse put on her to do literally everything she is ordered to do. Add in a selfish stepmother and two greedy stepsisters and this situation with a complete disaster. But her friendship with Prince Char and growing feelings for him make life almost bearable. They might even give her the motivation to figure out how to break the curse so she can find her own happily ever after. I completely swooned over the relationship between Ella and Char when I first read this book in the 4th grade. And I still do! This beloved classic certainly holds up.