Here are two stories of teens falling in love – one magical, one contemporary – that both have bi heroines searching for their place in the world with some fun and adventures along the way. Also, both use the always-fun “only one bed” romance trope.

I don’t remember how I heard about Until the Clock Strikes Midnight, only that I’d enjoyed Alechia Dow’s middle grade books Just a Pinch of Magic and The Cookie Crumbles (with Tracy Badua.) I do remember reading a review of Better Catch Up, Krishna Kumar from Kasey at The Story Sanctuary – who I now see also read Until the Clock Strikes Midnight. In any case, thank you so much to Kasey for the recommendations – I really enjoyed both of these books!

Until the Clock Strikes Midnight by Alechia Dow. Read by Ozzie Jacobs and James Fouhey. Feiwel & Friends, 2026. ISBN 978-1250375773 Listened to audiobook on Libby.

Darling is a fairy, the first one to graduate from the Mortal Outcomes Academy. She’s determined to become a Guardian, even if the rest of the Academy thinks she’s too flighty, too focused on glitter, and too free with her magic to guarantee happily-ever-afters for mortals. So when she’s assigned to find a happily ever after for Lucy, a lonely bookstore owner, she’s determined to succeed and gain the spot on the Mortal Outcomes Council. She didn’t know that she’d be assigned opposite Calamity, a Misfortune assigned to the same mortal, vying for the same reward but trying to assure that Lucy has an ordinary ever after, as Misfortunes believe that’s more stable and less prone to collapse than a happy ever after. They’re supposed to work in secret – but when they blow each other’s covers, Darling and Calam agree to give each other a fair chance and pretend to be engaged, looking for a job in Lucy’s bookstore. But can they give each other that fair chance? And will working together so closely intensify their competition or lead to greater understanding of their differing philosophies?

This is extremely frothy and fun on the surface – aptly compared to Brandy’s 1997 Cinderella with its diverse cast and multiple romances – Lucy clearly in love with another woman. But Darling and Calam both have deeper family and personal issues, including Darling dealing with mental health issues that she takes medicine for but tries to hide. Romance tropes here include enemies to lovers, fake engagement, and only one bed. So very much fun! So many teen fantasies tend towards Drama over comedy that I’m having a hard time thinking of another fantasy that felt more rom-com than heavy, but you could also try Gwen & Art Are Not in Love by Lex Croucher.

Better Catch Up, Krishna Kumar by Anahita Karthik. Harper, 2026. ISBN 9780063341142. Read from a library copy.

18-year-old Krishna spent high school ticking things off her life goals checklist, all with the goal of getting into John Hopkins University to study to be a doctor. Now graduated from high school, she has one last summer in India, which her family left a decade ago, to catch up on standard teen goals like going to parties and most importantly, having her first kiss. She is about to kiss her summer-long crush, Amrit, at a party the night before she goes back to the US when things go horribly and embarrasingly wrong. Then, her flight back home is cancelled, giving her three more days in India. She can either hang out alone with her grandmother (the cousins she’s close with all having timed their visits to match hers) – or take an epic road trip north from Mumbai to Goa to meet Amrit at his cousin’s wedding and have a second chance at their botched kiss. That last is the obvious choice – but it means making nice with her cousin Priti so that Priti can convince her best friend Rudra to drive. Krishna and Priti were best friends when Krishna lived in India, but the distance soured their friendship and now they can’t get along at all. Krishna knows next to nothing about Rudra, only that he’s quiet and rumored to be hopelessly in love with Priti.

Spending several days in a car together, though, makes being enemies with Priti much more difficult. And it forces Krishna to really notice Rudra for the first time – good-looking, kind, and with a drive towards music that matches her passion for medicine. But falling for Rudra might irreparably damage the repair she’s doing to her relationship with Priti – and what about charming and handsome Amrit, the one she’s driving all this way to see? Along the way, discovering that Priti might be trying to reconnect with an ex, Krishna and Rudra resolve to do whatever it takes to give Priti a shot at her own happily-ever-after.

This is absolutely a romance with a happy ending, forced proximity, a single bed, and some really delightfully steamy kissing. There are lots of references to music and descriptions of beautiful scenery – I just now looked up the Spotify playlist for the book, but you can listen to it while you read. Anahita Karthik is Indian-British, not Indian-American, which showed in just a few vocabulary choices, but that’s a small issue. Though the central relationship here is straight, Krishna is bi and there is other LGBTQIA representation in the story. I really liked that Krishna and Priti working on rebuilding their friendship was just as important as the romance, and that getting closer with Rudra also helped Krishna understand her cousin.I’d also been expecting a big reveal towards that end that Amrit, the original love interest, had some Wickham-like flaw to make him unsuitable and was very pleasantly surprised that the author didn’t handle it that way.

For more romance starring Indian-American teens, try When Dimple Met Rishi and the other books in Sandhya Menon’s series, as well as Drizzle, Dreams, and Lovestruck Things by Maya Prasad. For another take on the teen romance, look at American Road Trip by Patrick Flores-Scott.