Books

If You've Ever Fallen For A Friend, You Need To Read These 7 Books

by Melissa Ragsdale
Penguin Random House

More likely than not, you know what it feels like to have a crush on a friend. Maybe you thought inconvenient romantic feelings would stop making appearances after high school, but, well, you were wrong. Luckily, there are plenty of books about best friends falling in love to help you navigate the emotional turbulence of being in love with someone you already trust wholeheartedly.

It can be extremely confusing to realize that you might like someone as more than a friend: Do they feel the same way? Should you tell them? What if you tell them, and they don't feel the same way — will the friendship be ruined forever? The angst can be overwhelming.

Trust me, many of us have been in this situation before and made it out alive and emotionally intact. There are a million ways you can deal with the excitement and agony of having a crush on a friend, whether it's by spilling the beans, keeping your secret, or writing an article about it in hopes that they see it and realize that it's about them. (Not that that's what's happening right now. Definitely not.)

So here are some great books to help you deal with all of those confusing emotions. Whether or not you're ready to tell your crush how you feel, these books will let you indulge all those complicated feelings:

'Her Name in the Sky' by Kelly Quindlen

Hannah just wants to have a normal senior year, hanging out with her tight-knit group of friends and living out the best of her high school days. But things veer far from the plan when she finds herself falling for her best friend, Baker.

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'Crush: 26 Real-life Tales of First Love' edited by Andrea N. Richesin

I love stories about first love — sometimes they're super sweet, sometimes they're disastrous, and 100% of the time they're flippin' relatable. In this anthology, 26 writers tell the true stories of their first love, and every single story will make you cry with laughter, joy, or sadness.

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'It's Not Like It's a Secret' by Misa Sugiura

Falling for a friend can get... super frustrating, to put it mildly, and this book brilliantly proves that those complications can lead to some phenomenal memories and growing experiences. Sixteen-year-old Sana Kiyohara's life is full of secrets: Her dad is having an affair, and she's in love with her best friend. But she soon realizes that telling the truth can be just as complicated as keeping it hidden.

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'To All The Boys I've Loved Before' by Jenny Han

I bet there are tons of things you want to say to your crush or your ex or the person that you're dating but not dating. In this book, Lara puts all of those things into letters and stashes them away in a hatbox. But when her secret letters are mysteriously mailed to all the boys she's loved before, Lara's love life gets really complicated.

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'Love, Rosie' by Cecelia Ahern

Rosie and Alex have been best friends since childhood, and everyone knows they're meant to be — except Rosie and Alex. But just as their friendship begins to transform into something more, Alex's parents drop the news that the family is moving away from Dublin... and away from Rosie.

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'The Gentleman's Guide to Vice and Virtue' by Mackenzi Lee

Henry "Monty" Montague, is gentleman with wild ways, embarks on a Grand Tour of Europe with his sister and his best friend, Percy. After this year, Monty will begin managing his father's estate, Felicity will start finishing school, and Percy will enroll in law school in Holland. So this is the trio's last hurrah — and Monty's last chance to reveal he's in love with Percy.

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'Windfall' by Jennifer E. Smith

Alice has been pining for her best friend, Teddy, for ages. When she buys him a lottery ticket for his birthday, she and Teddy are surprised to learn that he's won $140 million. But the money doesn't solve her problem — in fact, it creates a chasm between the two friends that they may not be able to bridge.

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