In case the title to this post didn’t make it clear, I hate Valentine’s Day. Well, no, that’s not accurate. I hate the forced-proximity, expensive dinner, gift competition version of Valentine’s Day. I hate the look people give me when they ask (or asked in the before times), “What are you and hubs doing for Valentine’s Day,” and I answer, “Nothing, we don’t do Valentine’s Day,” and they look at me as though someone has kicked my puppy and then ran over it twice with a car… as though I’m somehow being deprived.

(Note: you can’t be deprived of something you don’t want; that’s not how deprivation works. That’s like telling me you’re eating the last banana and expecting me to be mad even though I’m allergic to bananas.)

Look, I’m not trying to pee in anyone’s pink, heart-shaped breakfast cereal. If you love love and you and your special human enjoy this particular ritual, more power to you. I am a self-acknowledged curmudgeon, and the only people who know otherwise for sure are the people who monitor my library e-books (and therefore know how many K-pop and food-themed YA romances I read) and my The Untamed chat group.

I should add that I have nothing against St. Valentine personally. In fact, he is one of my favorite saints, having been rumored to sass his Roman executioners by commenting, as he was slow roasted on a grill, “Turn me over, I’m done on this side.” We must stan the smartassery.

ANYWAY. Just to prove I’m not a total grump, I thought I’d put together a list of recent books I’ve enjoyed in which love is a major theme. They don’t all have happy endings, and some of the ones that do aren’t the HEA’s you’d expect. They are, however, all excellent reads.

The Witch’s Heart by Genevieve Gornichec

Men say they want strong independent women. Usually, it turns out they either want them for something or, once they have said strong, independent woman, they come to the conclusion that she’s a little too strong. A little too independent.

A little too powerful.

I’ve always been curious about Angrboda’s story. About what drew her to Loki, and about why she stayed. Norse mythology has more female figures than some others, but they are given neither the depth nor the attention focused on Loki or Odin or Thor, at least not in the documents and stories that survive. I’ve always felt the lore was there – that it was waiting for the right person to dive into the dark places and bring it back to us the way Angrboda dives to the roots of Yggdrasil and returns with Ragnarok. Finally, someone has.

Is it the “real” version? I don’t know. I don’t really care. It’s the version that’s captured my imagination and my heart, and that’s what stories are supposed to do. I’m in love with it.

HEA: Yes and no. The yes may not be the one you’re expecting, but it’s pretty great.

Shine by Jessica Jung

Where did my obsession with K-pop romances come from? I have no idea. Sometimes things just happen. The world in which these stories exist is so different than anything I have, or will ever, experience, falling into it is of necessity an escape from reality, which is generally what I’m looking for when I pick one of them up.

Rachel’s mom, dad, and sister left their lives in New York, and the entire family moved to Seoul so Rachel could realize her dream of becoming a K-pop star. And Rachel thought she knew what she was getting in to: the rigorous physical training, the vocal classes, the absolute control over her life including what she ate, where she went, who her friends were, and the fact she wasn’t allowed to date.

If it were a little harder than she had anticipated, okay. She had a goal.

And then she met her label’s golden boy, Jason Lee. Who, it happens, is as sweet as he is handsome. Rachel thinks…

But then so much of their lives is a carefully crafted illusion, it’s hard to know what to believe at any given moment. Like the tagline says: All’s Fair in Love and K-Pop…

HEA: Yes, but definitely not the one you’re expecting.

Rosie Loves Jack by Mel Darbon

Rosie and Jack met at university. Good times, uni. Classes, hanging out with friends, spending time together. Rosie getting annoyed when Jack is late.

And then Jack smashes a computer during a lecture and a piece of glass cuts the professor’s eye. The professor promises she has no intention of pressing charges against her student, who suffered hypoxic brain injury at birth that left him with permanent deficits. She’s even willing to allow him back into class. The powers that be, however, decide to see Jack as his disability, as a statistic and a liability, instead of a person affected by a disability, and they have him sent away to a different facility.

Rosie decides her life is emptier and darker for want of Jack, and she is going to go find him.

Her parents and friends try to stop her. She has Down Syndrome after all. She can’t possibly make her way from London to Brighton in the snow, trains being canceled every which way, on her own.

“‘Cause I have Down syndrome?” Rosie asks. “Down Syndrome isn’t me. I am Rose.”

And Rose goes anyway.

I love this book. I love that Rosie is a complete badass in a way so few people have explored in romance or in literature generally. I love that someone finally put two people with disabilities front and center in a romance.

Everyone, everyone deserves to live their lives.

HEA: Yes. <3

A Kiss for Real by Akuta Fumie

You thought you were getting out of this without a manga? That’s cute.

I’ve only read the first volume of A Kiss for Real, so I’m not entirely sure where it’s going, but I wanted to include it because even the initial arc has a lot to say about the masks so many of us think we have to wear to be accepted and loved – and how scary it is to take them off.

And what our fear says about whether or not those people really love us at all.

Chitose decided after being bullied as a little girl she would always be cute, sweet, and smiling. A chance encounter with the arrogant, obnoxious, and sometimes painfully honest Itsuki surprises her enough that her mask slips; it’s only then that the handsome, fascinating, strange boy tells Chitose she’s interesting. He tells her she should be herself more often.

No one has ever done that before.

When Chitose discovers she and Itsuki have a common interest in art, she applies to the program he attends three days a week and is accepted. As they start to spend more time together, Chitose finds herself enjoying the mask-free space more and more, even though it means bickering with her mother and finding her part-time job at the restaurant more and more mundane.

Because the rest of her life is so much more amazing.

HEA: I’ll let you know.

A Taste for Love by Jennifer Yen 

Jane Austen meets The Great British Bakeoff. Two of my wheels in a single house. I said what I said.

A Taste for Love was exactly what I needed to read right now. Sweet and cute and a little broody with enough conflict to be interesting and a resolution our hero had to work for but that happened quickly enough not to stress me out. Also, sassy heroines are always welcome, especially one who stress bakes, because it’s possible that is something I also do.

It was also nice to read a story where the mother and daughter are butting heads but do genuinely love each other and have managed to have an actual conversation by the end. To have a mom who, despite being somewhat set in her ways, makes an effort to listen to her daughter and, despite it feeling like sand in her underwear, promises to try to adjust to her baby becoming an adult – to demonstrate the trust and pride she feels. Also, sister stuff.

Again, there’s more than one kind of love, and I appreciate A Taste for Love making space for both the romantic and familial sorts.

The only thing I didn’t like was that they spend a lot of time at their local bubble tea place, and I am annoyed that I cannot spend a commensurate amount of time at mine currently… and also now I want bubble tea all the time and I need to go to the store and get tapioca but I am under a traveling-soon lockdown.

There, happy now? Love, love, love. All the love.

Ugh, fine. Happy Valentine’s Day.

Turn me over, I’m definitely done on this side.

Is it Saint Patrick’s Day yet?