Valentine’s Day is quickly approaching, and one of the best ways to enjoy the day of love is to wrap yourself up in a romance story! This collection of love stories from across genres and periods explores how humans support and care for each other and how love keeps us steady when the world turns harsh. Browse our suggestions and find a book to celebrate how love keeps us warm!

Content warnings are along with each book and are listed from most severe to least.

Gwen and Art Are Not in Love by Lex Croucher

Since her birth, clever Princess Gwen of England has been the betrothed of rising Duke Arthur. However, the only thing they share is their hatred of the other. When Gwen stumbles upon Arthur kissing another boy and Arthur realizes that Gwen desires Bridget, the kingdom’s only female knight, they enter a tentative alliance. In feigning their affection for each other, their secrets are kept safe. But, with Gwen growing closer to Bridget and Arthur finding himself drawn to Gwen’s serious, book-loving brother, it may be harder to continue the deception than they’d planned. Inspired by Arthurian legend, this book explores how love disrupts all plans. Gwen and Art Are Not in Love is available in physical and eBook form at the Georgetown Public Library. Content warnings include violence, death of parent, war, homophobia, blood, alcoholism, and vomit.

Last Night at the Telegraph Club by Malinda Lo

In San Francisco’s Chinatown in the 1950s, seventeen-year-old Lily Hu is amid a crisis started by a book about two women who fell in love. It leads her to the Telegraph Club, a lesbian bar, and Kathleen Miller, who walks through its doors. But it’s not safe for two women to fall in love in 1954, especially with the Red Scare breathing down the necks of Chinese Americans like Lily. When her father faces deportation, Lily and Kathleen must decide what it is they’re willing to risk. Malinda Lo’s novel wants us to question what happens when duty and love collide and what it is to love even when the world tells you no. It is available at the Georgetown Public Library in physical, audio, and eBook form, and as a physical copy at Smith Library Center. Content warnings include homophobia, racism, lesbophobia, toxic friendship, xenophobia, racial slurs, and miscarriage.

Ready When You Are by Gary Lonesborough

In an Aboriginal community in Australia, Jackson is preparing for Christmas on the Mish, teasing the tourists, spending time with his mates, and waiting for his Aunty and little cousins to visit from the city as they do every year. But, this year, they bring along a boy with a troubled past, whom Jackson can’t help but befriend—which turns into something more, forcing him to confront the secret he’d thought he’d hidden away. Ready When You Are explores how we can’t hide from ourselves—even when we wish we could. You can find it available at Georgetown Public Library in physical form. Content warnings include homophobia, racism, racial slurs, alcohol, sexual content, police brutality, domestic abuse, drug use, and alcoholism.

The Love Letters of Abelard and Lily by Laura Creedle

Lily Michaels-Ryan skips her ADHD and finds herself in detention—with Abelard, who seems thirty seconds behind the world while she feels thirty seconds ahead of it. Not to mention, he’s intelligent and gorgeous; she can’t help but be intrigued. When he posts a quote online from The Letters of Abelard and Heloise, a collection of medieval love letters, their shared interest connects them, and they fall for each other. However, for two neurodivergent teens in a neurotypical world, is that enough? The Love Letters of Abelard and Lily is a humorous and heartfelt story about human connection in a world where you don’t fit in. It is available at Georgetown Public Library in physical form. Content warnings include suicide, ableism, alcoholism, and alcohol.

Love in Color: Mythical Tales from Around the World, Retold by Bolu Babalola

Concentrating primarily on the folktales of West Africa, this anthology of historical and mythological love stories shares narratives of everyone from a Nigerian goddess, unappreciated by her lover and yearning for more, to a Ghanaian spokeswoman caught between politics and love. This collection, spanning continents and genres, aims to reexamine the concepts that permeate our favorite love stories and celebrate love in all its forms. It is available at the Georgetown Public Library in physical and eBook form. Content warnings include violence, death, torture, body shaming, bullying, infidelity, racial slurs, misogyny, and domestic abuse.

Cemetery Boys by Aiden Thomas  

Yadriel, a trans boy in a traditional Latine family that refuses to accept him, is determined to prove himself a real brujo. With the help of his cousin Martiza, he performs a ghost-summoning ritual to find the spirit of his murdered cousin and set it free. However, the ghost he summons instead is Julian Diaz, who does not intend to go quietly into death. He’s resolved to discover what happened to him, and Yadriel has no choice but to help him. But the more time they spend together, the less Yadriel wants Julian to leave. Cemetery Boys is a book about striving for acceptance and finding love in unconventional places. It is available at the Georgetown Public Library in physical, audio, and eBook form. Content warnings include transphobia, blood, death, death of a parent, deadnaming, and violence.

Forged by Blood by Ehigbor Okosun

Dèmi, amid tyranny and political invasion, just wants to survive, avoid the suspicion of the nonmagical Ajes who occupy her homeland, escape the brutal genocide of her magic-wielding people, and live peacefully with her mother as she learns to control the blood magic of her birthright. But when Dèmi’s misplaced trust costs her mother’s life, she turns to vengeance, and the scheming Lord Ekwensi grants her that opportunity—kidnap the Aje prince, Jonas, and bargain with his life for her people. With the help of her childhood friend Colin, she succeeds, but she and Jonas share more than they intended, and their mission changes into something infinitely more complicated. The first installment in Ehigbor Okosun’s duology inspired by Nigerian mythology is a story of rebellion, redemption, and love amidst the weight of history. Forged by Blood is available at Georgetown Public Library in physical form. Content warnings include the death of a parent, violence, colonization, slavery, confinement, death, rape, sexual assault, and pregnancy.

The Jasmine Throne by Tasha Suri

Malini, a princess by birthright, has been imprisoned by her dictator brother in the Hirana, an ancient temple, now a decaying ruin. Priya is a priestess and a maidservant who makes the treacherous journey every night to attend Malini’s chambers. She’s happy to be anonymous and nameless if it keeps her dangerous secret safe. But when Malini accidentally sees Priya’s true nature, their destinies become entangled; together, they will shift the future of an empire. Tasha Suri’s first book in The Burning Kingdoms trilogy is about the undeniable fate that brings some people together. The Jasmine Throne is available in physical and eBook form at the Georgetown Public Library. Content warnings include fire/fire injury, violence, death, pregnancy, homophobia, and misogyny.

An Enchantment of Ravens by Margaret Rogerson

Isobel, a painting prodigy with the dangerous fair folk as her clients, makes a terrible mistake. She paints Rook, her first royal patron and the prince of autumn, with sorrow in his eyes. It’s a weakness that could cost him his life. He takes her away to stand trial for her crime, but something is wrong in his kingdom, and they must depend on each other for survival. As their connection grows, it becomes a love that violates the fair folks’ laws, and their lives may be forfeit. But Isobel’s Craft may represent a threat the fair folk have never faced. It is a story about connection across worlds and what makes us all alive. An Enchantment of Ravens is available at Georgetown Public Library in physical form. Content warnings include violence, blood, injury, death, death of a parent, body horror, animal death, and sexual content.

This Is How You Lose the Time War by Max Gladstone and Amal El-Mohtar

This war is older than the both of them, and they know their part in it. But when a taunt becomes something more, when correspondence between rival agents turns into something that could change both past and future, they must reexamine the very nature of war. After all, someone has to win, right? This is How You Lose the Time War is a love story spanning time and space that encourages us to find connections in unlikely places and interrogate how different we are. It is available at the Georgetown Public Library in physical, audio, and eBook form. Content warnings include death, violence, war, torture, body horror, and blood.