A review by bickie
Apple Crush by Lucy Knisley

Very cis-heteronormative (though there might be a male/male couple who runs the farm where Jen works. Jen, a white "tomboy," feels left out when everyone around her seems to be coupling up. A co-worker talks about how she'll feel differently when she starts liking boys that way (assuming she will not be Ace/Aro and also will be straight). Several people - fellow middle school students, older teens, and adults alike - try to put a romantic dating kind of veneer over her budding friendship with a boy from school who shares her interests in Dragon Apprentice books and drawing.

Good representation of how super-scary stuff is not loved by everyone, and some exploration of how inappropriate it is to force it on people who don't like it. Lots of middle school confusion about dating and relationships and how it affects friendships.