Recommended Romantic Reads

Happy Valentine's Day!

I'm not big on the holiday, which is probably shocking, considering I'm a major fan of romance and cheesiness and lovely things.

I said once that every day was like Valentine's Day in my house. Not the cheesiness, but...

For example, my husband doesn't buy me flowers. But when he's working in the yard, he'll bring in wildflowers for me that he comes across. Every night is date night, because no matter what I'm doing, I want to share that with him. So I don't need a date on the calendar to celebrate romance and relationships. The day-to-day romance - when he brushes the snow off the car for me in the morning, or when he brings me tea when I'm having a "Happy Reading Day" - that's all better than anything that could happen today.

But I digress.

Despite my thoughts on today, as I said, I love romance. I swoon over great lines in literature, and have gobbled up love stories since I was old enough - well, before I was old enough, likely - to read them.

I've come up with a list of ten favourite romantic reads, and have included a great quotation from each.

It was hard to narrow down my list of about one hundred, and I tried to span genres and release dates. I'm not listing them in any particular order, but what do you think I've missed? What's your favourite romantic read?

PRIDE AND PREJUDICE

by Jane Austen

“I cannot fix on the hour, or the spot, or the look or the words, which laid the foundation. It is too long ago. I was in the middle before I knew that I had begun.”

PERSUASION

by Jane Austen

“You pierce my soul. I am half agony, half hope...I have loved none but you.”

GONE WITH THE WIND

by Margaret Mitchell

“You should be kissed and often, and by someone who knows how.”

JANE EYRE

by Charlotte Bronte

“I have for the first time found what I can truly love–I have found you. You are my sympathy–my better self–my good angel–I am bound to you with a strong attachment. I think you good, gifted, lovely: a fervent, a solemn passion is conceived in my heart; it leans to you, draws you to my centre and spring of life, wrap my existence about you–and, kindling in pure, powerful flame, fuses you and me in one.”

THE PRINCESS BRIDE

by William Goldman

“Do I love you? My God, if your love were a grain of sand, mine would be a universe of beaches.”

THE BOOK THIEF

by Markus Zusack

"At first, Liesel could not talk. Perhaps it was the sudden bumpiness of love she felt for him. Or had she always loved him? It's likely. Restricted as she was from speaking, she wanted him to kiss her. She wanted him to drag her hand across and pull her over. It didn't matter where. Her mouth, her neck, her cheek. Her skin was empty for it, waiting."

OUTLANDER

by Diana Gabaldon

“For where all love is, the speaking is unnecessary.”

THE TIME TRAVELER'S WIFE

by Audrey Niffenegger

“There is only one page left to write on. I will fill it with words of only one syllable. I love. I have loved. I will love.”

TWELFTH NIGHT

by William Shakespeare

“Love sought is good, but giv'n unsought is better.”

THE GREAT GATSBY

by F. Scott Fitzgerald

"He knew that when he kissed this girl, and forever wed his unutterable visions to her perishable breath, his mind would never romp again like the mind of God. So he waited, listening for a moment longer to the tuning fork that had been struck upon a star. Then he kissed her. At his lips’ touch she blossomed like a flower and the incarnation was complete.”

AND A BONUS (favourite love movie):

WHEN HARRY MET SALLY

directed by Rob Reiner

"I came here tonight because when you realize you want to spend the rest of your life with somebody, you want the rest of your life to start as soon as possible."

AND ONE MORE BONUS (favourite love poems):

TWENTY LOVE POEMS AND A SONG OF DESPAIR

by Pablo Neruda

"I love you without knowing how, or when, or from where. I love you straightforwardly, without complexities or pride; so I love you because I know no other way than this: where I does not exist, nor you, so close that your hand on my chest is my hand, so close that your eyes close as I fall asleep. ”

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I know I've missed some - missed many. I've missed many from my own lists, but what have I missed from yours?

#romanticreads #recommendedreads #krystamacdonald #blog #valentinesday #valentines