The romance itself is a popular genre, but emotional or sad make it more famous and a best seller. In a relationship, emotion or feelings are the best part where love is valid. Without emotional or sad feelings, romance is one-sided. So as romance readers, we want to express our feelings and sometimes cry because it helps us forget the horrible past. We can start again and make ourselves dynamic.
15 Romance Books That Make You Cry (Sad YA Books)
Do you like sad young adult books? Then you are in the right place. I have a huge collection of cry-worthy romance novels. But I will review the top 15 romance books that make you cry. So be careful about emotional feelings and trauma. Let’s go!
1. Archer’s Voice
Our heroine, Bree, moves to a new town. She uproots her entire life after a super tragic happens to her and her family. So she moved to the small town in Maine. She runs into a guy (Archer Hale) she likes, drops all her stuff, and gets embarrassed. Archer walks away without saying anything. So she’s intrigued by him.
Bree starts asking around the town about him, and she finds out that he doesn’t speak. The whole town thinks he’s an uncommon guy. Some weird stuff is happening in his family. He’s a hermit and never leaves his house. No one in the town likes him. Bree’s dog ends up running on his property, and they meet each other.
It sparks this whole thing, and the characters have both been through so much trauma. That makes the reader cry and emotional about how they react to each other’s traumas. So wholesome, slow burn with so much angst, but it’s so emotional as well.
Author: Mia Sheridan
Average Customer Review: (4.7 out of 5, on Amazon)
Category: Women’s Domestic Life Fiction
Available: Audiobook | Paperback | Kindle | Audio CD
2. Full Tilt
This book is about a girl (Kacey Dawson), an electric guitar player in a rock band. She’s addicted to drinking and has a horrible relationship. Their family lost themselves while getting famous. Then she meets a wholesome boy. He was her limo driver. His name is Jonah. They start hanging out and getting closer, and he’s helping her figure out who she wants to be.
Then they have such an instant connection. But Jonah tells her he’s running out of time. He doesn’t have much time left. Also, he’s trying to avoid falling in love at all costs. But it’s undeniable their connection. So Jonah’s running out of time with Kacey, and they have a limited time to love each other. In the end, it hurts so bad and makes you cry.
Author: Emma Scott
Average Customer Review: (4.7 out of 5, on Amazon)
Category: College Romance
Available: Audiobook | Paperback | Kindle | Audio CD
3. Bright Side
There’s a duet to this book about one of the other characters, but this book is about Kate. She’s going off to college and had a childhood best friend (Gus) her whole life. The night before she leaves for college, they end up sleeping together. Then she goes to college, and she doesn’t want anything to change between them. They still face time every single day, and they’re best friends.
Gus is so charming. The second book is his point of view, but this book is from the point of view of Kate. When Kate goes to college, she meets a guy. His name is Keller, and he’s the other point of view in this book. So she’s still talking to her childhood best friend, but not in a romantic way. It’s completely platonic, and she starts having this new guy, and both of her in this new guy is super closed off. They avoid being together, but he finally starts letting her in.
Gus starts getting jealous about her relationship with her best childhood friend, and there’s a drama about that. But then the reason she’s not letting him in and doesn’t want to have a relationship is so heartbreaking, very impactful on a huge plot twist.
Author: Kim Holden
Average Customer Review: (4.7 out of 5, on Amazon)
Category: Contemporary Women Fiction, College Romance
Available: Audiobook | Paperback | Kindle | Audio CD
4. Ruckus (Sinners of Saint)
Ruckus is part of the Sinners of Saints series, and you have to read two books to understand the full emotion of the story. The entire series can be read as a standalone. There are eight books in the series and the spin-off, and they can all be read as standalone. They’re all separate romances, but they all intertwine the same friend group.
This one is about Dean and Rosie and their romance. Dean is the playboy who sleeps around, but he’s always been so into this girl named Rosie since high school. He dated her older sister, but he’s always been like Rosie more. So they have this moment together when they’re in high school. Then eleven years later, they reunite, and he’s adamant about her giving him a second chance.
Rosie is reserved because she is also sick. She has other things to worry about than him. Life is beautiful, and death is a painful truth. No one has ever made her feel alive than the guy who serves as a constant reminder. He’s willing to look past that and be with her anyway, and that is their romance.
Author: L.J. Shen
Average Customer Review: (4.6 out of 5, on Amazon)
Category: Sports Romance
Available: Audiobook | Paperback | Kindle | MP3 CD
5. The Song of Achilles
This book is a romance based on Greek mythology, the story of Achilles and Patroclus, and it is so emotional. If you know the mythology, you’ll know what this story will be about and how it will end. But it is about two boys in their romance, in a forbidden way.
As the quotes from this book, the way it’s written is next level. If you’re feeling a bit intellectual, you want the romance, then pick up this one. This book is also becoming a movie, so if you’re going to read it before the movie comes out, I recommend reading it.
Author: Madeline Miller
Average Customer Review: (4.7 out of 5, on Amazon)
Category: LGBTQ+ Romance, Classic Literature & Fiction
Available: Audiobook | Paperback | Hardcover | Kindle
6. It Ends with Us
This book is about Lily, and she meets a guy named Ryle. They start having a romance, and it seems perfect, and everything’s going amazing. Then every few chapters, it flashes back to Lily reading her diary of when she was in high school, she was seeing her mom, who was in an abusive relationship. She met this boy named Alice when she was in high school. It was her first love or her first romance, and he left. So it was her first heartbreak.
You get to see that relationship, the dynamic of her parents. Then it flashes forward to her current relationship and all the ups and downs. With that and how this book ends, it always says it ends with us, but it’s not what you think. I cried so many times throughout this book out of frustration and sadness.
Author: Colleen Hoover
Average Customer Review: (4.7 out of 5, on Amazon)
Category: Contemporary Romance
Available: Audiobook | Paperback | Mass Market Paperback | Kindle | Audio CD
7. Underneath the Sycamore Tree
Emery, her sister, passes away, and her mom is not handling it well. So she’s forced to go live with her dad, whom she hasn’t seen in years, meet the whole new family that he lives with, and meet her stepbrother for the first time. It’s heartbreaking because Emery is diagnosed with the same disease that killed her sister.
So you get to see her struggle with that. Her parents struggle with that and her new blossoming romance with Kaiden. This book is enemies to lovers, but more like brooding closed-off boy and her trying to get him to open up about his issues. Kaiden doesn’t know that she’s sick. Emery keeps it a secret from him because she doesn’t know if he can handle it right now.
Author: B. Celeste
Average Customer Review: (4.7 out of 5, on Amazon)
Category: Coming of Age Fiction Romance
Available: Audiobook | Paperback | Kindle
8. A Thousand Boy Kisses
This is young adult, so it’s immaturely written but so beautiful. It has such a big plot twist, and it makes you emotional. Like Brightside, the girl in this book is wholesome and appreciative of life. She will make you look at life completely different from its friends-to-lovers romance.
So the boy moves away, and they agree to keep in contact, but randomly, the girl cuts him off. He doesn’t know why, and when he comes back. He finds out everything that happened while he was gone and why she cut him off. Then the rest of the book is their journey.
Author: Tillie Cole
Average Customer Review: (4.7 out of 5, on Amazon)
Category: Young Adult Romance
Available: Audiobook | Paperback | Kindle | Audio CD
9. Ugly Love
It’s brother’s best friend romance. Miles Archer is so closed off from love refuses to even engage in anything close to a relationship. It shows Tate falling in love with him, and their friends with benefits situation are very toxic. Every chapter flashes back to Miles’s first love and why he’s closed off from love now. It is so unpredictable and so heartbreaking.
Author: Colleen Hoover
Average Customer Review: (4.7 out of 5, on Amazon)
Category: Contemporary Romance
Available: Audiobook | Paperback | Kindle
10. All Your Perfects
This book was about a couple who shows them falling in love for the first time, their epic romance when they were young, and then years in the future married. Their marriage is falling apart because of infertility, and this book is so sad because you see them falling in love.
It’s so heartwarming. Colleen Hoover does have twists and turns in her books, but usually, they’re happy or content endings, so you don’t have to worry about that.
Author: Colleen Hoover
Average Customer Review: (4.6 out of 5, on Amazon)
Category: Psychological Fiction, Women’s Divorce Fiction
Available: Audiobook | Paperback | Hardcover | Kindle | Audio CD
11. Find You in the Dark
The story is about Maggie and Clayton. Clayton is the mysterious new guy. Maggie is intrigued by him, and they have an instant connection, but quickly find out he has a lot of mental health issues. He’s struggling with his mental health a lot. That’s what makes this sad is because their romance is so wholesome and an epic love story.
But Clayton is constantly self-sabotaging and doing things because he can’t control them. So if you want a book dealing with mental health, read this duet as well. But there are a lot of trigger warnings that you should look up before reading it, for sure.
Author: A. Meredith Walters
Average Customer Review: (4.4 out of 5, on Amazon)
Category: YA Adult & College Romance
Available: Audiobook | Paperback | Kindle | Audio CD
12. No Tomorrow (All the Tomorrows)
It follows a girl (Piper) who meets this homeless musician and falls in love with Blue. Something happens, and they stop talking, but she discovers him again years later. Blue is a famous musician now, and they have a second chance from that description. This sounds pretty lighthearted.
There might be a little bit of emotional baggage coming from his side, but it’ll be nothing crazy. It takes you on the biggest emotional roller coaster of your lifetime.
Author: Carian Cole
Average Customer Review: (4.7 out of 5, on Amazon)
Category: Romantic Suspense
Available: Audiobook | Paperback | Kindle | Audio CD
13. Sweet Dandelion
This book follows a girl (Dandelion Meadows) who moves in with her brother after tragedy strikes at her last high school. There is a school shooting that injures her and kills her mother, a teacher at the school. So she’s left with no parents. She goes and moves in with her brother and starts a new school for her senior year.
So the school previously assigned her to a guidance counselor (Lachlan Taylor) daily where she goes and talks to him. Dandelion ends up falling for Taylor. It’s taboo and crazy. But that aspect of the book is good. Also, the aspect that deals with her trauma and thinking through everything that happened to her is so emotional and sad.
Author: Micalea Smeltzer
Average Customer Review: (4.6 out of 5, on Amazon)
Category: Mental Health, High School Romance
Available: Audiobook | Paperback | Hardcover | Kindle
14. The Coincidence of Callie & Kayden (The Coincidence)
The story follows two people in high school, and they have an interaction where they meet. One of them ends up saving the other person’s life. Later on, they go to the same college and meet again. They’re both struggling in their ways mentally.
This book deals with them in their relationship when they meet up again in college, and they can’t seem to stay away from each other. But they’re both very damaged human beings. So, It’s hard for them to come together as one when they’re both dealing with so much on the outside.
Author: Jessica Sorensen
Average Customer Review: (4.4 out of 5, on Amazon)
Category: Women’s Literary Fiction
Available: Audiobook | Paperback | Kindle
15. Until Friday Night (The Field Party)
This is a part of a larger series, but it’s the first book, and you can read this one standalone. It follows a girl (Maggie) who has tragedy strike in her family so horribly. She moves in with her aunt and uncle, similar to the last book, but it leaves her not wanting to speak. So she becomes mute. She doesn’t talk to anybody, doesn’t say a word.
Maggie ends up going to this new school. Weirdly enough, the only person with whom she ends up finding a connection is the head football player. He’s also dealing with tons of emotional baggage at home, and nobody knows about it. So he finds solace and talking to her, even though she doesn’t speak. They form a friendship, and it goes from there.
Author: Abbi Glines
Average Customer Review: (4.5 out of 5, on Amazon)
Category: Teen & Young Adult Fiction about Emotions & Feelings
Available: Audiobook | Paperback | Hardcover | Kindle
Read More Similar Books: 15 Young Adult Enemies To Lovers Books
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