It’s the dog days of summer in New York City and the streets are filled with the smells and sounds of summer—no, not those piles of garbage festering in the hot sun, I’m talking street BBQs, salty sea air, the shrieks of happy children playing in gushing fire hydrants and the jingles of meandering ice cream trucks and let’s not forget love. Yes, love is in the air. Even if you don’t have romance in your life you can find it in the pages of a book. “But, Anne,” you ask, “Will I swoon? Will I get so many massive feels that my heart melts into a puddle?” No worries, I’ve got you covered. So put away that boring, required reading book and settle into a chair near that a/c/swimming pool/beach etc… and start living vicariously!

*So I've rated the following books by the amount of swooning taking place and the amount of self-actualization that happens (on a scale from 1 to 10). P.S. Self-actualization is what happens when the girl (or guy) doing the swooning actually learns something about themselves and that complicated thing called life, while they're falling in and out of love. I know… boring… but believe me when I say it'll give you the warm fuzzy feels for days!

99 Days by Kate Cotugno
A year ago, Molly skipped town after her long time boyfriend, Patrick learned that she had cheated on him with his older brother Gabe. Now she's back and just has to get through the next 99 days until she leaves for college. Unfortunatley, both Patrick and Gabe are back too and each are looking to rekindle the relationships they each had with her - how will she ever choose between them? That Netflix documentary marathon she had planned is looking better and better. Swoon level: 7 , Self-Actualization level: 7

The Wrath and the Dawn #1 by Renee Ahdieh
Every night, Khalid, the handsome, young Caliph of Khorasan, takes a new bride and every morning at sunrise, that bride is executed bringing pain and suffering to her family and friends. Shahrzad, whose best friend was one of those girls, volunteers to be his latest bride but she's determined to discover the reason behind this murderous evil and to exact her revenge. She has a clever plan to stay alive. She'll use her wit and storytelling ability to keep Khalid interested through the dawn and the next one after that. But as her plan begins to work, the more she is around him and spending time with him and soon she begins to see that he is not quite who she thought he'd be nor are the reasons, for the deaths of all those girls, quite so simple. Swoon level: 15 (this one gets extra swoon points because OMG! SO GOOD! THE LEVEL OF SWOONING IS OFF-THE-CHARTS EPIC!), Self-Actualization level: 5

The Fill-in Boyfriend by Kasie West
When Gia Montgomery's boyfriend, Bradley, dumps her in the parking lot of her high school prom, she decides to do the unthinkable … convince the cute guy waiting to pick up his sister to pretend to be her boyfriend for the night. A few days later she returns the favor by helping him make his cheating ex-girlfriend jealous. Problem is Gia is starting to want this temp gig to become full time. Swoon level: 7, Self-Actualization level: 8

Things We Know by Heart by Jessi Kirby
Still struggling, one year after her boyfriend Trent was killed in a car accident, Quinn is reaching out to the recipents of his organ donations in hopes that it will help her heal. Everyone gets back to her except for boy that recieved Trent's heart. Desperate for closure, Quinn goes outside the system to track him down. His name is Colton Thomas and he loves to surf and to hike. But because Quinn broke the rules to find him, Colton can never know her connection to his donor heart, but the first time they meet, sparks fly. and soon Quinn begins to fall for him. Who's heart does she love more? Trent's or Colton 's? Swoon level: 6 , Self-Actualization level: 8

Saint Anything by Sarah Dessen
Sydney has always lived in the shadow of her charismatic, older brother Peyton. When he is convicted of drunk driving and sent to prison, Sydney decides to break free from her old life of being "Peyton's little sister". Her new life takes her to a new school and to a pizza parlor run by a warm-hearted, chaotic family who welcome her into their lives full of bluegrass concerts, crazy friends and caring for their mother who has MS. Its also where she meets Mac. Kind, gentle, protective Mac who is the first to really see her and who gives her the freedom to be herself. P.S. Author Sarah Dessen is the Queen of the self-actualization romance. Swoon level: 9 , Self-Actualization level: 10

The Start of Me and You by Emery Lord
It's been a year since Paige's boyfriend accidently drowned and everyone is still treating her like she's a fragile mess. But now she's ready to get her life back - to start living like a normal high school student again and she has a plan. 1) Get her old crush, Ryan Chase, to date her. 2) Join a club—any club and how hard can that be? But when Ryan’s sweet, nerdy cousin, Max, recruits Paige for the Quiz Bowl team her perfect plan goes awry. Swoon level: 7, Self-Actualization level: 9

City Love #1 by Susane Colsanti
Sadie, Darcy, and Rosanna are living together in New York City the summer before their freshman year of college begins. With no parents, no rules, and an entire city to explore, these three girls are on the verge of the best summer of their lives. Sadie is the hopeless romantic, a native New Yorker who falls for a cute, older guy at her internship. Darcy, the free spirtited rich girl from California is determined to meet and hook-up with as many guys as possible just to prove she is over her cheating ex. Rosanna, is the no-nonsense working class girl from Chicago with a plan which goes out the window the moment she meets a rich boy who wants to show her the glamorous life. And this is just in the first two weeks! Swoon level: 7, Self-Actualization level: 6

Kissing in America by Margo Rabb
NYC girl Eva, who is still grieving the death of her father in a plane crash, bonds with Will, the cute parkour loving boy, who has experience with soul-numbing grief and loves to talk to her about poetry. When he suddenly moves cross-country to lives with his father, Eva concocts a road trip with her BFF Annie to visit him. As she travels America with smart, sensible Annie and her paranoid, no-nonsense cyber-safety expert Aunt, hopeless romantic Eva discovers the complicated truth about love. Swoon level: 5, Self-Actualization level: 10

Between Us and the Moon by Rebecca Maizel
Sarah has always come second to her beautiful, vivacious older sister Scarlett but this summer on Cape Cod, she’s determined to finally show the world who she is and who she can be. She meets gorgeous college boy Andrew who sees her as the girl she wants to be, a girl who's older and sophisticated …like Scarlett. She starts out by telling him one little lie which snowballs into even more but by then it's almost too late to tell the truth because the lies are starting to feel very real and so is their connection. Swoon level: 8, Self-Actualization level: 9

The Summer of Chasing Mermaids by Sarah Ockler
Born of the sea, Elsye d'Abreau is the youngest of six sisters from Trinidad and Tobago and a beautiful singer - until a boating accident took it all away and now she can't even speak. She's moved to the rainy, Oregon Coast for a job and solitude, which she gets until she meets the notorious town hook-up artist, Christian Kane. He needs help to win a boat race and experienced sailor Elyse is the perfect person to assist him. He challenges her to get her life back and her voice. Elyse wants to face her past and she wants to trust Christian but trusting him means opening her heart to a boy who’s best known for breaking them . Swoon level: 10, Self-Actualization level: 9

If you need EVEN MORE romance in your life, here are some of my past YA romance lists that might also float your romance-loving boat: Teen Road Trip Novels: Romance, Reunions and Roadside Attractions, Summer Romance a la Sarah Dessen, The British (and Irish) Boys of Summer: A Summer Reading List inspired by One Direction, Hot Boys, Hotter Accents: Going Overseas to Fall in Love , Summer is for Lovers, Guitars, Gigs, Girls (& Guys): Four Lists of Teen Books that Rock!, Fault in Our Stars Readalikes and my recent list, Paper Towns Readalikes.