The 10 Most Crushworthy Leading Men in YA

Heat up your summer with these 10 fictional hotties! From wounded musicians (of the human and werewolf variety) to sensitive skater boys and the world's most smokin' cancer patient, there's a fictional crush guaranteed to make any YA reader swoon!
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Heat up your summer with these 10 fictional hotties! From wounded musicians (of the human and werewolf variety) to sensitive skater boys and the world's most smokin' cancer patient, there's a fictional crush guaranteed to make any YA reader swoon!
1. Cole St. Clair, Shiver trilogy by Maggie Stiefvater: I feel like I'm constantly mentioning Cole whenever anyone asks me about my YA crushes, but he's a damaged were-rocker-wolf who also just happens to be a genius. Plus, Maggie Stiefvater is releasing a companion Shiver novel this summer that's told from Cole's POV. Um, yes please!
2. Adam Wilde, If I Stay/Where She Went by Gayle Forman: Adam is hands down the most crushworthy guy in all of YA, in my humble opinion. He's literally a rockstar, he knows how to please his woman -- "playing" Mia like a cello, hello! -- and he's willing to wait for the girl he loves... as long as she stays. All this with no help from sparkly paranormal powers. He's the reason I'm Team Contemporary when it comes to my YA romance allegiances.
3. Edward Cullen, The Twilight Saga by Stephenie Meyer: A hunky vampire that needs no introduction. The day the mortal world was introduced to this sparkly gentleman who speaks as if he's from another time--'cause he technically is at a ripe 113 years old--was the dawn of a new era that forced the publishing industry to recognize a previously overlooked rabid fanbase: teen girls... and their moms.
4. Josh Templeton, The Future of Us by Jay Asher and Carolyn Mackler: This book from the author of the seminal Thirteen Reasons Why is straight up adorable and anyone who has read it knows why Josh made my list of crushworthys. He is the '90s sensitive skater boy ideal I dreamt about when I was in high school. So many sighs for Josh.
5. Augustus Waters, The Fault in Our Stars by John Green: This boy evokes all the feels. I don't know what else to say that the collective literate world doesn't already know because everyone has read this book and will subsequently spend June crying their eyes out in a theater for two hours straight with a hundred strangers like me. All. The. Feels, people.
6. Kent McFuller, Before I Fall by Lauren Oliver: Kent is that nice guy who sits behind you in Econ and lets you borrow a pen when yours runs out of ink during a test. He hasn't quite grown into himself yet, so you don't notice him in that way until the 10- year class reunion when he's married to a supermodel with 2.5 perfect children, and you're left kicking yourself at the open bar.
7. Cabel Strumheller, Wake trilogy by Lisa McMann: The connection he has with the main character, Janie, is pulse-thumping deep. It kinda makes you wish you fell into other people's screwed up dreams, too, just to catch his attention.
8. Joe Fontaine, The Sky Is Everywhere by Jandy Nelson: This book has a warm fuzzy blanket of a space in my heart. The main character, Lennie, may be torn between new guy in town Joe and her recently deceased sister's grieving boyfriend, but from the first time Joe flashes his high-beam smile, the choice was clear to me.
9. Zen, Unremembered trilogy by Jessica Brody: Zen is in the Amazing Guys Who Will Wait For The Loves of Their Lives club with Adam Wilde. The only downside for all us Zen groupies: He only has eyes for bioengineered glamazons that were created for the sole purpose of...you'll have to read the books to find out!
10. Etienne St. Clair, Anna and the French Kiss by Stephanie Perkins: No relation to the admittedly saucier St.Clair man on this list. Etienne indulges every Euro trip fantasy I've ever had that basically starts and stops with a cute boy with an accent.

Bethany Neal is the author of the new book My Last Kiss.

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