Book Talk: My (Bookish) Valentines

I'm not a person with strong feelings about Valentine's Day, but I am a person with strong feelings about books. What better time to share some of my favorites than on the day dedicated to warm and fuzzy feelings? None that I can think of. I'm bringing you (in no particular order) my bookish valentines - the books that broke my heart in the best way possible.

"Once upon a time, an angel and a devil fell in love. It did not end well." 

I couldn't create this list without including Karou & Akiva from Daughter of Smoke and Bone. Their love story crosses place and time, defying the odds and surviving a war between worlds, and while it's only one of many stories told in this trilogy, it's absolutely heartbreaking and absolutely beautiful.

"I love you. Remember. They cannot take it."

Delirium is set in a world where love is a disease, so of course Lena is going to fall for the handsome (and infected) Alex right before she is scheduled to be cured. But their relationship opens Lena's eyes to more than just the so-called delirium. It allows her to see the world she lives in clearly for the first time, and begin to question why, exactly, love is something people are taught to fear.

"For so long, I was the one with his heart. I just need to see where it is now."

Things We Know By Heart was a recent read and it totally sucked me in. Quinn's whole world shifts when an accident ends her boyfriend Trent's life. Colton's whole world shifts too, when he's given a new heart - Trent's heart. Quinn is determined to track down the recipient of Trent's heart in order to hang on to him for a little while longer, but she doesn't expect to fall for Colton, or for their relationship to be the thing that teaches her how to move on. Is it sappy? Yes. Is it a little unbelievable? Definitely. But I loved it any way, because it just felt good to fall in love with these two.

"I know this isn’t a conventional love story. I know there are all sorts of 

reasons I shouldn’t even be saying what I am. But I love you. I do."

I don't have words to describe exactly how I feel about Me Before You. Lou and Will shattered my heart and glued it together again countless times over the course of this novel. I cried again and again, and when it was over, I knew I would remember their love story long after I'd finished the last page.

"Until now he had been in love because he had been in­fatuated, entranced by her manner and appearance, excited by her presence, drawn to her by invisible attractions. Until now it had made perfect sense, for she was interesting and alluring. But now she took him far beyond sense."

I have my qualms with In Sunlight and In Shadow. It's 800+ pages in dire need of some editing. But it's also a love letter to the past, to New York, and to love. Henry and Catherine's sweeping romance plays out over years and what begins as love at first sight develops into the kind of love people write 800 page novels about.

"You're brilliant," he says. "But you're a fool to stay with someone like me."

The Legend series was another recent read, and I can't deny that June and Day's relationship was part of it's appeal. June's score on her Trial makes her a celebrity, a soldier, a brilliant girl with the world at her feet. Day's Trial ends with his face on Wanted posters, as he makes a name for himself as one of the most dangerous criminal in the Colonies. Their inevitable relationship had me rooting for these crazy kids to survive long enough to discover the truth about June's brother and see if they could make their relationship work!

"I thought of all the different kinds of love in the world. I could think of ten without even trying. The way parents love their kids, the way you love a puppy or chocolate ice cream or home or your favorite book or your sister. Or your uncle. There's those kinds of love and then there's the other kind. 
The falling kind."

I named Finn & Toby as my favorite relationship in Tell the Wolves I'm Home, but that's not entirely true. I loved Finn and Toby's story, but I also loved June & Finn's story, and June & Toby's story. And June & her sister. June & her mother. Finn & his sister. The list goes on and on. This book examines all different kinds of love, and even though you think that it would be weird to read a story about a girl who likes her uncle (yes, like that), it isn't. Because it's not about that. It's about the relationships we have with the people we care about most.

"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."

I couldn't leave my favorite classic off this list, since it's all about love. Pretty much everyone swoons over Lizzie and Darcy's unlikely love story, but there's so much familial love in this story, too. Darcy protecting Georgiana is what sets a lot of things in motion, as does Lizzie's parents' choice to pawn their daughters off (to secure a good life for them). Lizzie and Jane's sisterly bond is another oft-overlooked but great relationship. Lizzie and Darcy will always have a place in my heart.

Now that you've read about a few of my bookish valentines, its time to share the love! Tell me what books or bookish relationships broke your heart (in the best way). I want to know!!