My name is Melissa, and I’m addicted to YA romance. Make that a forbidden YA romance, and I’ll see you when I’m done reading. So, of course I had to write one.

In my new novel, The Summer Before Forever, Chloe goes to Florida to live with her estranged father who is getting married at the end of the summer. Her heart goes gooey when she sees her future stepbrother who’s hotter than a steering wheel on a hundred degree Florida day. Chloe intrigues Landon in ways he’s never known and seems to know just the right thing to say when he drops his guard and lets her in. But in addition to the fact that they shouldn’t be together because they are getting ready to be family, the two each hold secrets that will change the way the other sees them, and neither one thinks they can handle that.

So in honor of Chloe and Landon, I present you with my top five forbidden YA romances.

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1 – Anna and St. Clair in Anna and the French Kiss: Hands down my favorite YA romance. St. Clair may be the best-written YA romance hero ever, and as someone who is 5’10, I adore the fact that he is shorter than Anna! They are forbidden because he has a girlfriend. Why St. Clair, when Anna is wonderful and beautiful and you have chemistry more explosive than a Die Hard movie?

2 – Simon and Blue in Simon Vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda: Oh, how I fell in love with this book and these two heroes. Both boys are closeted, but have found each other. Problem is, neither boy knows who the other one is! Their relationship grows through email (Blue is afraid to give Simon his phone number), and they fall deeply and passionately for each other before they ever even see what the other person looks like. It’s exciting and scary and so freaking sweet. Oh, and if you are going to read this one for the first time, be sure to have a package of Oreos handy. You’ll thank me later.

3 – Jude and Emilio in The Book of Broken Hearts: The Vargas brothers are bad news and Jude must stay away. No, she really must. Her sisters made her take a blood oath and everything. And these older sisters have drilled this point home in such a scary and final way that if I were Jude, I’d be locking up my chastity belt and throwing away the key. Emilio is confident and hot as all get out, but sweet to her sick dad? Ah!

4 – Elena and Damon in The Vampire Diaries: Okay, I’m cheating here because I haven’t actually read the books, but I’m going to…I swear! On the show, I was Team Damon from those very first episodes. How many knocks can he and Elena have against them? She’s dated his brother, he kills people without apology, and her friends and brother think he’s the devil. Just the more reason to root for their forbidden romance. And by the way, it’s not his fault he’s so bad—he’s a tortured soul!

5 – Eleanor and Park in Eleanor & Park: Give me a minute to calm my racing heart. This book made me happy on so many levels. It’s not so much that Park is any kind of bad boy. It’s just that Eleanor is expected to tow an impossible line at home, and having any sort of fun or friendship is completely out of the question. Totally weirded out by each other at first, these two find a connection through the most awesome 80s alternative music ever. Anytime characters find commonality through music, I’m hooked. Couple that with the awkwardness, the weirdness, the humiliation, and the guyliner, and you have the most freakishly awesome YA forbidden romance of all time.

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Melissa Chambers writes contemporary novels for young, new, and actual adults. A Nashville native, she spends her days working in the music industry and her nights tapping away at her keyboard. While she’s slightly obsessed with alt rock, she leaves the guitar playing to her husband and kid. She never misses a chance to play a tennis match, listen to an audiobook, or eat a bowl of ice cream. (Rocky road, please!) She’s a member of SCBWI and RWA including several local and online chapters thereof. She holds her B.S. in Communications from the University of Tennessee.

Melissa can be found on Facebook, Twitter, Goodreads, and MelissaChambers.com.