Happy Valentine’s Day!

Posted by on Feb 14, 2014

I’m not a huge celebrator of Valentine’s Day, but I do love those little conversation hearts, the ones that taste like pepto bismol and have cutesey sayings on them. I can easily eat a package of them by myself – by which I mean, I do eat a package of them by myself, at least twice a year because my husband detests them (he also doesn’t like brownies). The other good thing about Valentine’s Day is that it’s a wonderful excuse to read a sappy romance.

Here are my current favorite romances. Warning: there’s no bodice ripping in any of these, so if that’s what you’re looking for, you’ll be disappointed.

  1. Gaudy Night (1935) by Dorothy Sayers (Barnes and Noble, Amazon) – I know, I know! I’m forever going on about it. But I can’t help it if the greatest love story ever written comes packaged in a well written mystery full of great characters and wonderful ambience.
  2. Persuasion (1817) by Jane Austen (Barnes and Noble, Amazon) – While I love Pride and Prejudice as much as the next girl, I think Persuasion slightly edges it out as my favorite Austen. This movie adaptation (Barnes and Noble, Amazon) is excellent.
  3. Edenbrooke (2012) by Julianne Donaldson (Barnes and Noble, Amazon) – I first read this a year or so ago, and I immediately fell in love with it. It’s just fun.
  4. Sorcery and Cecelia (1988) by Patricia C. Wrede and Caroline Stevermer (Barnes and Noble, Amazon) – see my review here.
  5. Black Sheep (1966) (Barnes and Noble, Amazon) and Frederica (1965) (Barnes and Noble, Umm…Amazon apparently only carries the Russian edition?) by Georgette Heyer – I couldn’t decide, so I went with both. I went through a Heyer phase when I was pregnant and couldn’t handle reading anything even remotely stressful. Some of them I hated, and some of them I really enjoyed. These are two that are pretty much guaranteed to put a smile on my face.

Ok, so I just realized that all of these are either written or were set a very long time ago. I’m not sure what that says about me, but there you have it.

As a bonus, because it is Friday and I need to sneak in a “Family Friday” bit somewhere, I’ll present you with my favorite love book for children: Guess How Much I Love You by Sam McBratney and Anita Jeram. (Barnes and Noble, Amazon). One of the many things I love about this book is that it features a dad as the loving parent. Moms often take center stage (not that I’m complaining) in these types of books, so it’s great to see a dad trying to explain just how much he loves his child. Sweet without being smarmy, it is a great way to show a kid (or adult!) how much you love them.

What are your favorite romances? What is your favorite love book for kids? How can someone not like brownies?!?

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