Romance is a whole new playground for tween girls—exciting, dramatic, and full of those fluttery “OMG” moments. But let’s be real: finding books that are sweet, fun, and totally age-appropriate? That’s a quest all on its own.
Lucky for you, this guide is packed with tween-friendly romance reads that keep it PG while still giving you swoony crushes, awkward-but-adorable moments, glowing summer vibes, loyal friendships, and all the heartwarming feels. These stories celebrate first crushes and brave hearts without venturing into grown-up drama.
Each book comes with handy genre tags, so you can spot at a glance if it’s more contemporary, fantasy, humor, mystery, or adventure.
Get ready to swipe your TBR and fall in love with your next favorite read!
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Better Than the Movies (Lynn Painter)
Tags: Contemporary Romance, Humor, Coming-of-Age
A funny, breezy crush story about a girl who uses rom-com logic to navigate middle school drama and starts noticing romantic potential where she least expects it.
Better Than the Movies
Perpetual daydreamer Liz Buxbaum gave her heart to Michael a long time ago. But her cool, aloof forever crush never really saw her before he moved away. Now that he’s back in town, Liz will do whatever it takes to get on his radar—and maybe snag him as a prom date—even befriend Wes Bennet.
The Girl Who Could Fly (Victoria Forester)
Tags: Fantasy, Friendship, Light Romance
Not primarily a romance, but the main character experiences a gentle, tender first connection that feels perfect for tweens who love adventure with emotional depth.
The Girl Who Could Fly (Piper McCloud, 1)
You just can’t keep a good girl down . . . unless you use the proper methods.
Piper McCloud can fly. Just like that. Easy as pie.
Sure, she hasn’t mastered reverse propulsion and her turns are kind of sloppy, but she’s real good at loop-the-loops.
A Kind of Spark (Elle McNicoll)
Tags: Contemporary, Friendship, Emotional Growth
The soft, sweet crush storyline is subtle and perfectly PG. Great for readers who want heart, empathy, and a small flicker of young love.
A Kind of Spark
A neurodivergent girl campaigns for a memorial when she learns that her small Scottish town used to burn witches simply because they were different.
Award-winning and neurodivergent author Elle McNicoll delivers an insightful and stirring debut about the European witch trials and a girl who refuses to relent in the fight for what she knows is right.
The Friendship Code (Stacia Deutsch)
Tags: STEM Fiction, Friendship, Light Crush Elements
Not a romance book, but it includes early fluttery feelings woven into a story about coding, teamwork, and confidence.
The Friendship Code #1 (Girls Who Code)
Loops, variables, input/output – Lucy can’t wait to get started with the new coding club at school. Finally, an after school activity that she’s really interested in. But Lucy’s excitement turns to disappointment when she’s put into a work group with girls she barely knows. All she wanted to do was make an app that she believes will help someone very special to her.
The Penderwicks (Jeanne Birdsall)
Tags: Contemporary, Family, Light Romance
The series features sweet, innocent crushes that grow naturally within a warm family story. Totally safe and endlessly charming.
The Penderwicks Paperback 5-Book Boxed Set: The Penderwicks; The Penderwicks on Gardam Street; The Penderwicks at Point Mouette; The Penderwicks in Spring; The Penderwicks at Last
This set includes:
- The Penderwicks, where the Penderwick girls visit the state of Arundel and make an unlikely friend.
- The Penderwicks on Gardam Street, where Mr. Penderwick considers dating again, but the girls know they can’t let that happen!
- The Penderwicks at Point Mouette, where the girls go back to Maine and hijinks ensue!
- The Penderwicks in Spring, where Batty is saving up her dog-walking money for an extra-special surprise for her family
- The Penderwicks At Last, where Rosalind gets married and everyone is back together.
Love Puppies (JaNay Brown-Wood)
Tags: Magical Realism, Friendship, Soft Romance Themes
Magical dogs help kids sort out their feelings—including early crushes. It’s cute, cozy, and low-stakes.
Best Friends Furever (Love Puppies #1)
With a little bit of magic and a whole lot of kindness, the Love Puppies are here to help kids overcome some tough social situations. Because with the power of love, anything is paw-sible!
Allergic (Megan Wagner Lloyd & Michelle Mee Nutter)
Tags: Graphic Novel, Friendship, Light Romance
A beautifully drawn story where a gentle crush develops as the characters navigate friendship, allergies, and growing up.
Allergic: A Graphic Novel
At home, Maggie is the odd one out. Her parents are preoccupied with getting ready for a new baby, and her younger brothers are twins and always in their own world. Maggie loves animals and thinks a new puppy is the answer, but when she goes to select one on her birthday, she breaks out in hives and rashes. She’s severely allergic to anything with fur!
Twins (Varian Johnson & Shannon Wright)
Tags: Graphic Novel, School Life, Friendship, Light Romance
The crush elements are sweet and subtle as the story focuses on family, identity, and middle school.
Twins: A Graphic Novel (Twins #1)
Maureen and Francine Carter are twins and best friends. They participate in the same clubs, enjoy the same foods, and are partners on all their school projects. But just before the girls start sixth grade, Francine becomes Fran — a girl who wants to join the chorus, run for class president, and dress in fashionable outfits that set her apart from Maureen.
The Last Fifth Grade of Emerson Elementary (Laura Shovan)
Tags: Contemporary, Poetry Novel, Friendship
A tender verse novel that includes puppy-love moments alongside themes of friendship, finding your voice, and navigating change.
The Last Fifth Grade of Emerson Elementary
Families change and new friendships form as these terrific kids grow up and move on in this whimsical novel-in-verse about finding your voice and making sure others hear it.
The World According to Humphrey (Betty G. Birney)
Tags: Humor, School Life, Light Romance Themes
The romance here is barely a whisper, seen through the adorable narration of a classroom hamster observing early crush dynamics with innocent hilarity.
The World According to Humphrey
You can learn a lot about life by observing another species. That’s what Humphrey was told when he was first brought to Room 26. And boy, is it true! In addition to having FUN-FUN-FUN in class, each weekend this amazing hamster gets to sleep over with a different student, like Lower-Your-Voice-A.J. and Speak-Up-Sayeh. Soon Humphrey learns to read, write, and even shoot rubber bands (only in self-defense, of course). With lots of friends to help, adventures to enjoy, and a cage with a lock-that-doesn’t- lock, Humphrey’s life is almost perfect. If only the teacher, Mrs. Brisbane, wasn’t out to get him!
Divine Rivals (Rebecca Ross)
Tags: Fantasy Romance, Historical Fantasy, Emotional Growth
This dreamy, atmospheric story follows two young writers who start exchanging anonymous letters and slowly become each other’s safe place. The romance is gentle and heartfelt, more about hope and connection than anything intense. For tweens who want a little magic mixed with their first crush vibes, this one feels like stepping into a soft, glowing fantasy world.
Divine Rivals: A Novel (Letters of Enchantment, 1)
When two young rival journalists find love through a magical connection, they must face the depths of hell, in a war among gods, to seal their fate forever.
A Tale of Magic… (Chris Colfer)
Tags: Fantasy, Light Romance, Adventure
Set in a world where magic is forbidden, this story sparkles with courage, friendship, and a slow-blooming hint of young affection. Any romantic notes stay sweet and subtle, tucked inside a bigger journey about discovering your own power. Ideal for tweens who want enchantment with just a whisper of heart-fluttering feelings.
A Tale of Magic… Paperback Boxed Set (Tale of Magic )
When Brystal Evergreen stumbles across a secret section of the library, she discovers a book that introduces her to a world beyond her imagination and learns the impossible: She is a fairy capable of magic! But in the oppressive Southern Kingdom, women are forbidden from reading and magic is outlawed, so Brystal is swiftly convicted of her crimes and sent to the miserable Bootstrap Correctional Facility.
Everlost (Neal Shusterman)
Tags: Fantasy, Adventure, Emotional Growth
This imaginative, slightly spooky adventure has a soft undercurrent of connection between characters who are trying to make sense of a strange in-between world. Romance never takes center stage, but the emotional bonds are tender and sincere—just enough to give young readers that quiet flutter without overwhelming them.
Everlost (The Skinjacker Trilogy)
Nick and Allie don’t survive the car accident—and their souls don’t exactly get where they’re supposed to go. Instead, they’re caught halfway between life and death, in a sort of limbo known as Everlost: a shadow of the living world, filled with all the things and places that no longer exist. It’s a magical, yet dangerous, place where bands of lost kids run wild and anyone who stands in the same place too long sinks to the center of the Earth.
The Starspun Web (Sinéad O’Hart)
Tags: Sci-Fi Fantasy, Mystery, Light Romance
Tess discovers she can travel between worlds, and along the way she forms a gentle, trusting friendship with a boy who becomes her greatest ally. Their connection is sweet and steady, the kind of budding affection that feels safe and comforting for newer readers exploring early crush energy in a magical setting.
The Star-spun Web
With her passion for scientific experimentation and her pet tarantula Violet, Tess de Sousa is no ordinary orphan. When a stranger shows up at Ackerbee’s Home for Lost and Foundlings, claiming to be a distant relative come to adopt her, Tess hopes to find some answers to her mysterious origins.
The Girl Who Drank the Moon (Kelly Barnhill)
Tags: Fantasy, Magical Realism, Soft Emotional Themes
Although the main story follows Luna’s magical coming-of-age, the book sprinkles in delicate hints of first love through side characters and emotional bonds. It offers the feeling of romance without making it the main event—more like a warm glow at the edges of a beautifully crafted fairytale.
The Girl Who Drank the Moon (Winner of the 2017 Newbery Medal)
Every year, the people of the Protectorate leave a baby as an offering to the witch who lives in the forest. They hope this sacrifice will keep her from terrorizing their town. But the witch in the Forest, Xan, is kind. She shares her home with a wise Swamp Monster and a Perfectly Tiny Dragon.
Willa of the Wood (Robert Beatty)
Tags: Fantasy, Nature Magic, Light Romance
Willa’s quiet connection with a human boy slowly develops as she learns to trust someone outside her world. Their bond is gentle and full of empathy—a perfect introduction to stories where characters grow closer through kindness and understanding rather than big romantic gestures.
Willa of the Wood: Willa of the Wood, Book 1
Move without a sound. Steal without a trace.
Willa, a young night-spirit of the Great Smoky Mountains, is her clan’s best thief. She creeps into the homes of day-folk under cover of darkness and takes what they won’t miss.
How to Choose the Right Tween Romance Book
When you’re helping a young reader explore romance for the first time, it helps to consider:
• Emotional tone: Look for stories focused on friendship, self-discovery, and kindness.
• Boundaries: PG content only—no intense relationship drama, no mature themes.
• Interests: Does the reader like fantasy? Humor? Graphic novels? Match romance to their comfort zone.
• Representation: Stories that feature diverse characters, neurodiversity, and different family structures can help tweens feel seen and understood.
Romance doesn’t have to mean “big feelings” or “serious drama.” For tweens, the best stories are warm, charming, and hopeful—books that gently whisper that growing up is confusing, but also kind of wonderful.
