Valentine’s Day is almost here, and what better way for two thoughtful partners to enjoy the holiday than by cozying up with a book together? See the list below for five books with enough varied romantic flavor to suit all genre palettes, and get ready to enjoy an evening of shared books, good food, and sweet conversation.
The Princess Bride
“Death cannot stop true love. All it can do is delay it for a while.” 
It’s fairly impossible not to have watched the beloved movie, but how many people can say they’ve read it? The Princess Bride takes the cake as the perfect romantic book club read because it has everything. Adventure? Check. Humor. Check. Love? Check, check, check.
I can think of no finer book to enjoy this Valentine’s Day than William Goldman’s thrilling and wit-driven classic all about the quest for riches, justice, adventure, power—and of course, true love.
The Mountain Between Us
“I think when two people really love each other…I mean…Way down deep…like where their souls sleep and dreams happen, where pain can’t live ’cause there’s nothing for it to feed on…then a wedding is a bleeding together of those two souls. Like two rivers running together. All that water becoming the same water.”
I was at a writer’s event when I heard Charles speak about this book and quite the process it was in making it into a movie. Like the adventurous, and often times, tumultuous, process of books adapting into movies, The Mountain Between Us is an adrenaline-pumping tale of two strangers bound together on a small plane that ends up crashing into the Utah wilderness, and how these two find love while leaning on one another to survive. Prepare to be spell-bound by this survival tale while also exploring the true meanings of love and forgiveness.
The 5 Love Languages
“I am amazed by how many individuals mess up every new day with yesterday.” 
It comes as no surprise that this book has sold over 20 million copies and if you are one of those many, many people who enjoy personality tests and digging deeper into what makes you and your loved one tick, then sink down into this easy nonfiction. Practical and insightful, Chapman’s perennial #1 New York Times bestselling book offers assessments that are fun to take and fun to chat about with your loved one.
If you are looking for ways to hint that you’d prefer your partner ditch the bouquet of flowers and instead show affection via painting that closet door, this is an open gate by which to enter that conversation. I first read this book as a teenager and let me say, twenty years later I still recall little nuggets of wisdom from this memorable book about ways you, and your partner, like to give and receive love.
Murder on the Orient Express
“The impossible could not have happened, therefore the impossible must be possible in spite of appearances.”
Perhaps you aren’t a fan of romance stories in the least, and you simply want to enjoy a book together. Well, look no further than this easy-going murder mystery by none other than Agatha Christie (the best-selling fiction author, for the record, of all time). Become one of the millions who have enjoyed her classic, sharp tales that keep you guessing up to the very end. Cozy up together and try to be the first to guess who did it on this mystery set on a train where even here—without giving too much away—love still turns out to be at the root of all.
Meet Me in the Margins
“To pen novels—to play any role in bringing fiction to life, for that matter—is to wield a superpower.” 
Lastly, I would be remiss to not include a particularly fitting Valentine’s Day-themed book of my own. If you light up when You’ve Got Mail pops up on television; if you find yourself smiling when Joe Fox says that oh-so-memorable line, “Don’t you love New York in the fall? It makes me wanna buy school supplies!” — then perhaps one of my romantic comedies is just what you are looking for.
Meet Me in the Margins is about an aspiring writer exchanging notes in the margins of her manuscript with a mystery editor, and as a fun little aside, my book was actually inspired by my own trip to my publishing house. In fact, the Valentine’s Day court scene that so many readers have enjoyed in my story is inspired by my real-life editor friend and the blossoming romance with her publishing co-worker.
Pick up Meet Me in the Margins online or at your local bookstore, find it here at my website, www.MelissaFerguson.com, or check me out on two of my socials: Instagram.com/our_friendly_farmhouse/ and TikTok.com/@ourfriendlyfarmhouse .