Valentine's Day Reads: The Theme of Love

Our Valentine's Day Reads: The Theme of Love Collection features titles centered on love and all of its complexities. This Collection represents authors who have grappled with romantic, familial, and other forms of love through writing. With titles ranging from contemporary romance picks to works by Shakespeare, this Collection has something to offer any reader who has ever lost or found love.

Safe Haven

by Nicholas Sparks

Publication year 2010

Genre Novel, Fiction

Themes Safety & Danger, Power & Greed, Love

Tags Romance, Love & Sexuality, Trauma & Abuse, Relationships, Addiction & Substance Abuse, American Literature, Modern Classic Fiction, Dramatic Literature

Safe Haven is a novel by New York Times bestselling author Nicholas Sparks. Written in 2010, Safe Haven was adapted into a movie of the same name in 2013. Like most of Sparks’s novels, the setting of this story is North Carolina. The author often uses his home state as a backdrop to his romances, incorporating the beauty and history of the state as a central motif. In this novel, Sparks contrasts the beauty and... Read Safe Haven Summary

Sandwich

by Catherine Newman

Genre Novel, Fiction

Themes Family, Marriage, Aging, Nostalgia, Memory, Perseverance, Forgiveness, Love, Femininity, Sexual Identity, Midlife, Daughters & Sons, Fathers, Mothers, Beauty, Justice, Truth & Lies

Tags Literary Fiction, Humor, Modern Classic Fiction

... Read Sandwich Summary

Sarrasine

by Honoré de Balzac

Publication year 1830

Genre Short Story, Fiction

Themes Love, Gender Identity, Art

Sarrasine is a novella written by one of the most celebrated French writers of the 19th century, Honoré de Balzac (1799-1850). It was first published in 1831 and is part of Balzac’s magnum opus series, La Comédie Humaine (The Human Comedy). This series consists of 91 completed works and 41 partial texts; its interconnected narratives present a fictionalized version of post-Napoleonic French society that is simultaneously intimate and sweeping. In the definitive posthumous organization of... Read Sarrasine Summary

Saving Noah

by Lucinda Berry

Publication year 2017

Genre Novel, Fiction

Themes Fear, Forgiveness, Grief, Guilt, Hate & Anger, Loneliness, Love, Memory, Shame & Pride, Mental Health, Death, Fathers, Mothers, Siblings, Community, Justice, Safety & Danger

Tags Horror & Suspense, Mystery & Crime Fiction, Modern Classic Fiction

... Read Saving Noah Summary

Say Yes

by Tobias Wolff

Publication year 1985

Genre Short Story, Fiction

Themes Marriage, Race, Love

Tags Relationships, Race & Racism

One night, a husband and his wife are washing dishes in their kitchen. The couple talks about interracial relationships. The husband does not believe Black Americans and white Americans should marry. His wife, Ann, is upset by this and asks why he doesn’t support interracial marriage. He claims he doesn’t have anything against Black Americans, but he feels that white Americans can never understand Black people fully, claiming statistically most interracial marriages end in divorce... Read Say Yes Summary

Scarred

by Emily McIntire

Publication year 2022

Genre Novel, Fiction

Themes Love, Revenge, Family, Politics & Government, Justice, Loyalty & Betrayal, Truth & Lies

Tags Fairy Tale & Folklore, Fantasy, Romance, New Adult, Horror & Suspense, Historical Fiction

... Read Scarred Summary

Score

by Kennedy Ryan

Publication year 2026

Genre Novel, Fiction

Themes Forgiveness, Love, Mental Health

Tags Romance, Contemporary Literature

Score (2024) is a contemporary romance novel by Kennedy Ryan, a New York Times-bestselling author known for works that blend romance with social commentary. The novel is the second full-length installment in the Hollywood Renaissance series, which is set in the world of filmmaking. The story follows Verity Hill, an acclaimed screenwriter who receives the opportunity of a lifetime when she’s asked to write a biopic about Dessi Blue, a forgotten singer from the Harlem... Read Score Summary