Love at First Sight. From the day we are born, we listen to stories of romantic love and happily ever afters. This is when it begins: the quest for true love.
Just in time for Valentine’s day, we from novum publishing narrowed down the list of love novels to get you into the mood. Needless to say, this is just the tip of the literary iceberg with classics from William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Julietto Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights lurking behind every corner. After reading The Notebook by Nicolas Sparks from our last blog post, it’s time to cuddle up on your sofa with a steaming cup of tea: the following top picks will let you forget the world around you and take you on a rollercoaster ride of emotions.
1. Outlander by Diana Gabaldon
The first in a series of eight novels, Outlander blurs the line between love story and historical fiction. Set in Scotland after WWII, the young nurse Claire Beauchamp Randall is reunited with her husband, Frank Randall. Just as the couple tries to rekindle their love, Claire walks through an ancient stone circle in the Highlands and is catapulted into the year 1743. Trying to find a way back to her own time, she is taken captive by a clan of Highlanders and forced to marry Jamie Fraser. Claire is swept up in an adventure of love and intrigue at the heart of the fights between the English and the Highland Scots. Diana Gabaldon used to bet that readers would not be able to put down the book after reading any three pages. She never lost that bet.
2. Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
We are all fools in love – at least according to Jane Austen. Manners and morals were essential to the social status of young women in the patriarchal upper class of the 18th century. Pride and Prejudice follows the life of Elizabeth Bennet on her quest for love, while her parents are anxious to see their five daughters married. The aristocratic and proud Fitzwilliam Darcy seems to have scandalous manners but Elizabeth learns to look beyond people’s gossip. Follow the intricacies of love and marriage in a society defined by wealth and class. In a time when women did not read or write, Jane Austen refused to marry for money. She wrote with great dedication and courage to shed light on the superficial nature of her enclosed social world.
3. Me Before You by Jojo Moyes
Get ready to get out the tissues! The bittersweet story of Louisa Clark and Will Traynor is irresistibly charming, uplifting and yet devastating. Meet Lou, the colourful, quirky and optimistic 26-year-old, who loses her job at a cosy café and reluctantly becomes Will’s caretaker to support her family. The cynical Will is paralysed after a motorcycle accident and endeavours to make Lou’s life miserable. Just when he starts warming up to Lou’s naïve ways, tragedy strikes again. Who is teaching whom to be optimistic and live life to the fullest? You will most likely need yet another Jojo Moyes fix after reading the last page. Lucky for you, there are two more sequels: After you and Still Me.
4. The Seven Sisters by Lucinda Riley
Love. Loss. Grief. Hope. Each of the books follows one of the sisters named after the mythological Pleiades. The Seven Sisters starts off with the story of Maia D’Aplièse who travels to her childhood home in Switzerland to find out that their late adoptive father, the billionaire Pa Salt, left each of them a letter with clues to their true heritage. Maia sets out on a journey to Rio de Janeiro and finds both love and her roots. Eighty years earlier, Izabela Bonifacio has her own tantalising story to tell in Paris. Maia and Izabela: two strong women linked by the same dark secrets and their search for true love. Lucinda Riley amazingly travelled to all the places in her novel. Feel the heat of the tropics and experience the charming cafés in Montparnasse. You won’t be able to put it away – better have The Storm Sister on your bedside table in time.
5. Love Patterns by Michael Malone
Last but not least, we would like to present a love novel fresh from the press by one of our own: the debut Love Patterns by the up-and-coming author Michael Malone is a truly riveting and heart-warming blockbuster. We follow Bill Munro, a married WWII ex-bomber pilot and now writer. His marriage has come to an end and Bill decides to make a fresh start in Kenya in the pursuit of happiness, his next book and, above all, love. Discover the “patterns” of love that govern all our lives and destinies – a story of love and betrayal with a brand-new take on life!
Now it’s your turn! Get active, get reading, and let your mind take you on a romantic journey! Which love novel would you recommend? Have you ever thought about writing a love story or poem? We would be delighted to hear from you!
Keep writing, keep typing!
Yours truly,
novum publishing
Jane Eyre, Lucy Snow, marvellous strong women. Heroines created by the ultimate literary heroine, Charlotte Bronte. Charlotte gives hope to all of us introverts, with humour. Cathy Earnshaw was a total extrovert, urgh! What a massive pain in the arse quite frankly.
Thanks for sharing your opinion! 🙂