Valentine’s Day is around the corner and romance books are usually front and center, highlighted during this special time of the year. Not gonna lie, I cringe a little every time I see these lists crop up, mostly because undoubtedly there’s always a lot of women’s fiction and non-romance stories listed as the recommendations. And since you can already get a ton of romance book recommendations on our site any day of the year, I thought this would be a great time to have a little chat about Valentine’s Day books! Yes, there are romance books specifically themed around V-Day and if what you’re looking for is an overflowing abundance of bookish love, then you may want to look at these.
A Valentine’s Day Short Story
Ahhh, Valentine’s Day! A day for lovers (and the greeting card, flower and chocolate industry) the time when you can let the romantic side of you loose on your poor unsuspecting partner. Perhaps subjecting them to a candlelit dinner, the aforementioned flowers and chocolate and if you’re lucky end the evening with an O – and if you’re really lucky, maybe even two Os – all in the name of St Valentine.
But who was he?
This defender of romance and harbinger of love, this Saint Valentine? Honestly…no one really knows. There are over a dozen Saint Valentines in the Catholic church; however they seem to have narrowed this mystery man of romance to two men. Both Valentines were around at the same time; one of them secretly wed young Christian lovers, which at the time was against the wishes of Roman Emperor Claudius II, who thought that single men made better soldiers than married ones. Another Valentine is said to have helped Christian prisoner being tortured by the Romans and for his crimes was imprisoned. When in prison, he fell in love with the jailer’s daughter and supposedly healed her blindness. Unfortunately that didn’t stop his execution by our old friend Emperor Claudius II.
In reality, the Valentine we think of on this day is probably a combination of both these men, and the romantic traditions of this Saint’s day is something that has slowly evolved through time.
Finally, in my research though the two things that seem to have wrought Valentine’s day in to its present form seem to be:
Lupercalia – This is a Roman Pagan fertility rite that took place between 13-15 February and something that Christianity decided to incorporate to convert some of those troublesome heathens.
Geoffrey Chaucer – Now, until medieval English poet Chaucer, apparently Valentines Day wasn’t all about romantic love; however, his poem Parliament of Foules changed all that. With a few lines he gave birth to a brand new industry (I hope Hallmark are sufficiently grateful!) and gave Valentine’s day a whole new meaning.
No matter where Valentine’s Day has sprung from or how it has evolved, it is no doubt the most romantic day of the year and gives you a chance to show your other half a little appreciation. Or if you are single like me, either a) stay in with a tub of ice-cream and watch rom-coms or b) go out in my shortest dress and drink my body weight in alcohol.
But, single or coupled up, have a great Valentines day!
Valentine’s Day Books
As promised, you won’t leave here without a list of books you can dive in that are themed around Valentine’s Day. So get ready to take notes and decide which is the right bookish valentine for you.
The Valentine’s Hate
by sidney halston
A delightful enemy to lovers/fake engagement rom-com themed around Valentine’s Day! Jennifer Lopez’s new movie Marry Me meets Erin Sterling’s holiday themed The Ex Hex.
Cupid only strikes once. At least that’s what Lissette Alonso believes. Ever since the Most Disastrous Valentine’s Day of All Time™ she has hated all things V-day. But Lizzie’s best friend is having pre-nuptial festivities for a week leading up to her February 14th wedding and Lissette is taking her maid of honor duties seriously, maybe too seriously. Of course of course of course who is the first person she runs into on the way to the wedding? None other than her childhood nemesis, Brian Anderson, the reason for all of her Valentine’s Day hatred.
Brian knows he messed up with Lizzie but give him a break, he was just a kid who was trying to look cool and Lizzie regularly pushed all of his buttons—both in school and out of it. He’s always been gruff and grumpy, but these days, Brian is much better off with his writing; fictional characters never talk back. Unlike Lizzie who always has something to say.
Suddenly the two are back under the same roof and bickering like old times, except that Brian has bigger problems than dealing with Lizzie’s verbal sparring. Someone Brian is desperate to avoid shows up and somehow Lizzie gets roped into pretending to be dating him. And, suddenly, the simmering anger has blossomed into something extra spicy…
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Not Your Valentine
by jackie lau
Helen Tsang is tired of the pitying looks. From her parents, her friends, and even the bubble tea shop guy, who recognized her from the video. Almost one year ago, some loser couldn’t mind their own damn business and filmed an unsuspecting Helen’s very public break-up during what was supposed to be a romantic Valentine’s Day dinner. A video of her ex-boyfriend saying, “It’s not me, it’s you. You’re holding me back” went viral.
Desperate to give everyone something else to talk about and with Valentine’s Day approaching once again, she asks her long-time friend Taylor Li to be her fake boyfriend, just to prove that she’s moved on and hasn’t sworn off love. (Spoiler alert: She’s totally sworn off love.) Taylor is the perfect option—single for once, and for some godforsaken reason, he loves Valentine’s Day.
But Helen didn’t expect how easy it would be to get Taylor on board, fitting right into the boyfriend-shaped hole in her life. All she wanted was a couple sickeningly sweet dates to fill her social feeds, not corny text messages of silly heart-shaped cakes, and bouquets of flowers that harbor hidden meanings. Wanting to be around his sunshine attitude and delicious forearms all the time? That definitely wasn’t expected.
With February 14 quickly approaching, it’s getting increasingly difficult to ignore her feelings, especially when she starts wishing it wasn’t all an act.
Oh God. What has she done?
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Cupid Can Suck It
by teagan hart
available on kindle unlimited
Valentine’s Day weddings are rough. Fake boyfriends you’re secretly hot for are tricky. But to avoid yet another sister’s special day in a shitty bridesmaid’s dress with no date, Molly will do anything.
Certified Public Accountant Molly Frasier is the oldest of four sisters and holds the family record for “most appearances as very single bridesmaid”. So when her mom calls at the end of a particularly bad day, she will say anything to get out of not having a date to her baby sister’s wedding.
Enter Dirk “Daws” Dawson.The hunky ladies’ man from Baskin Construction likes Molly. She’s funny, smart, and she hates Valentine’s Day as much as he does. When he walks into Molly’s office in the middle of her panic attack, he’ll do anything to help calm her down. Including agreeing to pose as her fake boyfriend to get her parents off her back.
As they stumble through family dance lessons, interrogation dinners, and Hope Island’s special blend of holiday insanity, they hatch a plan to take down Valentine’s Day on their way to the altar.
But when someone starts turning their harmless pranks deadly, watching each other’s backs . . . and fronts . . . is the only way they’ll make it to VDay alive!
Cupid Can Suck It is a small town friends-to-lovers fake relationship holiday romantic comedy with new adult aged MCs that will have you laughing out loud, tearing up, and always wanting more from this hilarious island community. Join the wacky residents of Hope Island today and dive into this fifth book in the Hope Island Holiday Romances!
Author’s Note:
This full novel contains profanity and is not a clean romance. It is a plot-focused, emotional slowburn HEA with realistic characters and no instalove. The MMC is a green flag / cinnamon roll hero. While part of the Hope Island Holiday Romance series, it can be read as a stand alone, and has no cliffhanger.
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Cupid Has a Heart-On
by Tara Sivec
available on kindle unlimited
The Holiday family is back, crazier than ever in this special, Valentine’s Day story!
Cupid hits a few roadblocks on the way to Sam and Noel’s hearts after their whirlwind Christmas romance. N*pplegate 2016, a stray stripper and a regrettable mix-up with narcotics are just the tips of the arrow when it comes to shooting these two with happily ever after. Nothing seeing a grown man wearing an adult diaper and wings can’t fix…hopefully.
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Royal Valentine
by jenn mckinlay
available on kindle unlimited
Molly Graham doesn’t believe in love at first sight or fairy tales. She’s been burned too many times before. When her best friend, Brianna Cho, challenges her to aim high and go for men who are out of her league, Molly can’t imagine a worse way to spend Valentine’s Day. When she stumbles across a very handsome British professor, Albert George, seeking refuge in her office during the Museum of Literature’s Valentine’s Day gala for the opening of their Austen exhibit, Molly can’t help but be drawn to the fellow introverted academic. Together they ghost out of the event and embark upon a month long love affair. Molly is rethinking her stance on happily ever afters and plans to tell Al how she feels, but he disappears. She realizes she has been played for a fool!
Molly is devastated. As registrar for the Museum of Literature, she is tasked with a trip to England to return the Jane Austen exhibition materials on loan from the Whitmore Estate in Bath. It’s the only thing she has to look forward to and even this dream trip is a struggle. When she and Brianna arrive at Whitmore Manor, they are introduced to Earl Whitmore and his grandson Jamie, aka Lord Insley, or as Molly knew him Albert George. Now Jamie will have to channel his inner Fitzwilliam Darcy to prove to Molly that love conquers all and win her heart all over again.
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Crazy Cupid Love
by amanda heger
When a single arrow inspires romance, can you really trust happy endings?
Sometimes love needs a shove.
Eliza Herman (a.k.a. The World’s Worst Cupid) has spent her entire life carefully avoiding her calling as a Descendant of Eros. After all, happily-ever-afters are nothing but a myth. But when a family crisis requires her to fill in at the local Cupid-for-hire shop, Eliza finds herself enchanting couples under the watchful eye of her assigned mentor, Jake Sanders…the one man she could never get out of her head.
Before long, Eliza is rethinking her stance on romance—until things start going terribly wrong with her enchantments. Now Eliza and Jake must fight to unravel a conspiracy that could destroy thousands of relationships, including their own…and spell the end of Love itself.
No pressure, right?
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My Phony Valentine
by Courtney Walsh
available on kindle unlimited
A chance meeting. A hunky hockey player. A fake romance.
Hardly an ordinary day in the life of Poppy Hart.
My days usually consist of agonizing over my failing restaurant, worrying about my mountain of debt and nursing my broken heart.
Everything changes when I bump into a man in the coffee shop and claim him as my new boyfriend. To my absolute horror, he turns out to be hockey’s most renowned bad boy, Dallas Burke. To my absolute delight, he goes along with my story.
When his no-nonsense manager and meddling grandmother jump in the picture, they see a win-win solution for my failing restaurant and Dallas’s less-than-stellar reputation.
A full-fledged fake romance complete with contract negotiations, pretend dates and phony PDA.
But as I get to know the real Dallas Burke, who is not the man the press says he is, it becomes clear that if this isn’t real. . . someone better tell it to my heart.
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A Big Surprise for Valentine’s Day
by jackie lau
Amber Wong has landed her dream job at the Stratford Festival, and life is looking good. Sure, she hasn’t had sex in so long that her condoms have expired, but she’ll just pick up some new ones, along with discounted Christmas chocolate, at the grocery store.
And that’s where she runs into Dr. Sebastian Lam, the son of her parents’ close friends, whom she hasn’t seen in years. He’s moved back to Ontario, newly single, and… Oh my God. He’s really hot.
The attraction is mutual and no-strings-attached sex is the perfect arrangement for both of them, since Amber has sworn off dating after a string of terrible boyfriends.
But what if their families find out they’re spending time together and start interfering in their lives? That would be a disaster.
Even worse? If they develop feelings for each other, given a relationship is the last thing Amber wants right now…
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The Second You’re Single
by cara tanamachi
Cheerfully irreverent, bitingly funny, and filled with romantic charm, Cara Tanamachi’s The Second You’re Single is all about navigating the most romantic month of the year, and how love always seems to arrive when you least expect it.
Freelance writer Sora Reid believes in inertia. She’s the odd one out in a close-knit family of go-getters, including her Japanese-American mom, who hints about her need to lose weight, and her soon-to-be married, overachieving younger sister, who needs her to have a date for the wedding, since a wedding party couples’ dance with their Scottish great uncle Bob simply won’t do. For Sora, minimal input, minimal expectations is the way to go. She’d rather stay at home with her insufferable neighbor and her adorable pitbull.
The one thing that disrupts her inertia: an intense dislike for Valentine’s Day. What is it with the commercial love machine? Why do we pin our hopes on one romantic day, when staying home with a package of bacon and a bottle of tequila would be way better? Sora’s been betrayed and disappointed more than once and her heart is starting to feel like her Grandma Mitsuye’s antique Japanese ceramic bowl, with its many gold-filled cracks.
When her pledge to stay single in February inspires readers to #gosolo, Sora has a responsibility to empower her readers.
But relationships aren’t built to last, so it shouldn’t be that hard. Right?
Enter Jack Mann. A muscle-bound baker who looks like he lifts logs on the weekends, Sora hasn’t thought of Jack since they were in elementary school together. When they see each other at the local grocery store and the attraction hits hard, Sora knows she has to shut it down, quick. She can’t #gosolo AND get the guy. She can’t let down her readers. And relationships always end, so why should Jack be any different–even though he’s confounding all her long-held expectations of love?
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find your next read
13 Most Anticipated February Book Releases
Counting down the books we are most anticipating coming out in the month of February. Perfect to find your next romance read.
Cookies for my Orc Neighbor
by Michelle Mills
available on kindle unlimited
The big green Orc living next door to me is so very mysterious.
He works from home and rarely goes outside. And when he does go out, he never wears a shirt buttoned over his massive chest, no matter the weather. Small children and senior citizens run screaming when he stomps to his truck, so I guess I understand his reticence?
But today is Valentine’s Day and I’m worried the big guy is sad and lonely. My neighbor is more angry-looking and growly than usual, despite that darling puppy he recently adopted.
And since I happen to be alone this Valentine’s Day too, I decide to bring him a plate of my famous sugar cookies.
Everyone warns me not to disturb him because Orcs always claim their Brides in the dark of winter.
But for some reason, this doesn’t worry me at all.
Sweet Monster Treats
Cookies For My Orc Neighbor is a sweet and steamy monster romance that is part of the Sweet Monster Treats collection. Each book is a standalone, containing its own Happily Ever After, and they can be read in any order. Be sure to explore the other titles in the collection:
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can’t get enough monsters?
The Best Monster Romances to Read Right Now
Then you won’t want to miss our countdown of the best Monster Romances. Just click below! And if you are not sure what a romance book trope is? Visit our book tropes ultimate guide, here.
