Fresh Romance Novels for Your Valentine's Day

Sensay

If you'd rather not spend Valentine's Day fighting the crowds for a romantic dinner date, consider snuggling up with one of these nontraditional romance novels, hand picked for you from our resident bookworm, Ally Kutz.

Ah, Valentine's Day: a time to celebrate love — whether with a partner, friends, or just yourself, it's the perfect occasion for special treatment. One of the best forms of that is curling up with a new book — better yet, a romance book. Check out some of these recent romance titles to immerse yourself in the season of love.

Plot Twist by Erin La Rosa

When romance author Sophie Lyon's ironic secret that she's never been in love goes viral, her reputation takes a nosedive. A looming manuscript deadline paired with writer's block leads her to the interesting yet ambitious plan to reunite with her exes to figure out why she's never fallen in love. Oh, and she'll be documenting it for her millions of new online followers. She enlists the help of former teen heartthrob turned reclusive landlord, Dash Montrose, whose social media prowess is thanks to an anonymous persona he leads online. As they grow closer, conflicting emotions arise as Sophie realizes she needs to learn who she is outside her relationships before she can know how to fall in love.

The Gentleman's Gambit by Evie Dunmore

Catronia Campbell is dealing with a lot at the moment: being a suffragist during a tense time in England's women's rights campaign, an ailing estate, and academic writer's block have all kept her busy. The last thing she needs is to be tasked with hosting Elias Khoury, one of her father's young (and attractive) colleagues. But Elias is keeping a big secret — he didn't come to Oxford to classify ancient artifacts, he came to steal them back for his homeland in the Middle East, and Catronia may be the key to his success. As they grow closer thanks to their proximity, what follows are risks that force them both to face truths that will have them both putting their hearts and dreams at stake.

Ready or Not by Cara Bastone

When Eve Hatch finds herself pregnant after an uncharacteristic one-night stand, her contented Brooklyn life is flipped upside down. Things that once seemed stable are now unsteady — her tight-knit friendship with best friend Willa feels off at a time when she needs her most; Willa's brother Shep is suddenly present in her life, stepping up to help; and the baby's father is supportive but conflicted — leaving Eve rethinking everything she thought she knew about both herself and everyone around her. The next nine months prove to be a struggle for Eve as she tries to figure out the next steps to take toward her new reality.

The Seven Year Slip by Ashley Poston

When the worst day of Clementine's life happens, she's determined to stay busy, work hard, find someone decent to love, and try to remember to chase the moon — the last thanks to her aunt, who always told her you need one big dream to keep you going. But finding love is harder than it seems, as she doesn't want to get too close to anyone in case her heart can't handle the heartbreak. When she finds a strange man in the kitchen of her late aunt's apartment, she knows he's the kind of guy that the "old her" would've fallen for, head over heels. The biggest problem, though? He exists seven years in the past, while she lives seven years in his future. When her aunt told her the apartment was a pinch in time, she didn't realize she meant it so literally. Clementine must now decide how to protect her heart while also knowing that love is never a matter of time, but a matter of timing.

Hello Stranger by Katherine Center

When artist Sadie Montgomery winds up in a hospital bed diagnosed with the "probably temporary" condition known as face blindness, the timing couldn't be worse: she's just placed as a finalist in the North American Portrait Society, but now every face she sees is a jumble of disconnected, unrecognizable features. Coping with this new diagnosis while trying to hold on to her artistic dreams and deal with major family issues, she falls for two men who are very different from each other, throwing things even further out of focus. What Sadie needs is clarity, something that comes at times when we least expect it, and with people we least expect to bring it.