Valentine's Day Reading Recommendations

Hello. Hello everyone. My name is Laura. This is my channel, Laura's Little Library, and welcome to today's video, which are all the books that I would recommend and read around Valentine's Day. [music] So Valentine's Day is just around the corner and so I have been regardless of Valentine's Day, I have been in a romance kick quite a bit recently and I'm loving it. So I thought I would use this opportunity to talk about all of these romance books that I've been reading and that I want to read and how they are perfect for Valentine's Day. So let's get into them. The first book that I'm going to talk about is the Strawberry Patch Pancake House and this is by Lorie Gilmore. I have been reading the Dream Harbor series out of order. Just wildly out of order. Part of it is because I'm trying to read them by season. So reading the like Cinnaban one in the fall and the Christmas tree Christmas tree farm one in the winter and now the pancake house in spring just because it feels much more spring. So again, a lot of these romances are going to be fairly springy. Um, but also partly I'm reading this out of order because I'm reading the audiobooks, so it's just whenever I can get whatever audio book is available. Um, and I think that this one would be really good for kind of the Valentine's Day because it is uh very springy. It's the strawberries, which I mean technically they're not really until June, but whatever. Okay, I really liked it. I really enjoyed it. The weather was warmer in that one. And you are following your two main characters. One is a single dad who is raising his little girl and kind of doesn't really know what to do, but he's also trying to figure out the pancake recipe for the town cuz he just took over the pancake house. And then the other is this girl who is from the town and she is looking for a job and she ends up taking a nanny position for him and his little girl. And so they kind of figure out how to raise this child together a little bit while he learns the town and figures out the right pancake recipe. It was just so sweet, so wholesome, but also very spicy as well. So that would be a good one to start with. Another book that I would recommend that I absolutely love that I read very recently is an archive of romance by Ava Reed. So this is the companion to Ava Reed's um duogy. The first one being a study in Drowning, the second one being A Theory in Dreaming. And I you do have to read both of those books in order to read this because this tells both of those stories, but purely from a document kind of view. So you have all kinds. You've got like news articles in here. You have drawings that the characters made from the books. and you have all kinds of notes and journal entries from our characters. And it takes place both the first and the second book in the duology. And then this book ends with a few chapters of the story with our two love birds after the duogy. So it does pick up and have like an actual traditional story at the end of it. And it is an archive of romance. It is basically purely their love story from everything you would put in an archive. And so I really enjoyed this. I I flew right through it. I read it when I was sick and it just picked me up so well. If you've read the other duogy, I would recommend reading this. And if you haven't, then maybe read that duogy and then read this. Especially if you've read A Study and Drowning, but you haven't read Aerian Dreaming, read Aorian Dreaming and then you can get to this. And it's just so good. It is so good. Also recently, another novella that kind of goes along with the series is Six Scorch Roses. And this is by Carissa Broadbent. So Carissa Broadbent wrote the vampire series where you're following a mortal human who enters in these trials meant for vampires to select the next ruling house of vampires for the next x amount of years. Um, and so this Six Quartz roses is actually a companion kind of novella about two characters that we see in the series a little bit later in the series and their kind of unexpected slash unusual romance. And I thought it was I thought it was really cute how these characters got together and the whole story behind it. And I really enjoyed it because it gave that backstory especially to the human as she is brought into the series, the original series. So if if you've read that series, if you read the original trilogy, then go ahead and and definitely read this. If you don't read that series before reading this, it will still kind of make sense. like the background of how the vampire world works may not make sense, but the love story would it's still it's the beginning of a love story. So, you're not losing anything there, but you might not have the same appreciation for the characters after reading them in the original trilogy. Not that they're major characters, or at least not yet, but that they're there and you don't get much history of them when they're there. And so, this is that history. So, you could probably read it without reading the series, but I think it will have more of an impact if you read it after. But I would still recommend it cuz it's still like a love story. Continuing on in more of the romanty vein, I would also recommend The Night in the Moth by Rachel Gillig or really any of the books by Rachel Gill, but especially this one. I gave it five stars. I very much enjoyed it. It is kind of that classic like [snorts] they come from different sides, but they're not ever really they're like enemies, but they're never like one person to one person. I absolutely hate you. It's more just like you come from here. I come from here. Therefore, we're enemies, but like yeah. Anyway, so I would also say if you haven't read The Night in the Moth, then definitely pick that one up if you are a romanticy kind of reader looking for something this Valentine's Day. [sighs and gasps] And I cannot wait for the next book to come out. That is the other thing. It is not a standalone. So just bear that in mind [laughter] if you do choose to pick it up. It is not a standalone. And the next book is coming out this year. Another one for the romanty girlies, but on the much more like brighter spring side of thing, is a fragile enchantment. And this is by Allison Saft. I read this a few years ago. I've recommended it before. I absolutely loved it. And here I am recommending it again because it is a good spring Valentine's romance book. It very much is reminiscent to me of the relationship between England and Ireland when England was actively colonizing Ireland. So, it does kind of have those power dynamics between the two characters and the two love interests, but big fan. Absolutely loved it. It's very FA adjacent and kind of like not fay in the same the way that we are reading it today, but still likees like it just gives me that vibe and that feeling. Now, let's go into just a couple of the not romantasy just kind of because I'm getting into more like your traditional classic romance as opposed to romanty right now. So, I would definitely recommend anything really anything by Ashley Herring Blake. The most recent one I read was Astred Parker Doesn't Fail. And I believe I've read all of those books now. The Delila Green Doesn't Care, Ash Parker Doesn't Fail, and Iris Kelly Doesn't Date. I think it's just those three. I read those three and I loved them all. And so if you need a queer romance for this Valentine's Day and you haven't read all of those books, definitely read all of those books. Just just do it. Okay. And specifically with Ashid Parker doesn't fail, you've got your main character, obviously Ashford Parker, who is like this perfectionist. She has to do everything perfectly and to her mother's standards and she has to look nice and she's kind of at this last chance for her being able to save her interior design business kind of thing. So, she's kind of carrying on her mom's legacy to be a very successful interior designer. Um, and it's not going super well. and she kind of has this really bad runin with the granddaughter of the inn that she is supposed to be redoing. The granddaughter is not a big fan of this project is is the carpenter like does a lot of the work on the place and not a big fan of Astred Parker in the first place. So, lots going on there. Really fun. So, those are all the books that I would recommend reading this Valentine's Day if you haven't read them already. I've got some books that I'm really excited that I am currently reading and about to pick up for Valentine's Day. And I am planning on doing a reading vlog for these books. They include Heated Rivalry by Rachel Reid, of course, because this has been everywhere. The buzz has been everywhere. And because it is spring and sports are happening, as in like I'm currently watching volleyball and I love it. Hockey is still going on. It's almost baseball season. I'm just so excited. So, I'm I can feel that I'm about to get into like a very sports romance kind of mood. Um, so Heated Rivalry is the perfect thing to get that kicked off. I'm also reading Half a Soul by Olivia Atwater. I'm reading this on my Kindle. I'm also planning on picking up In Your Dreams, which is the newest Sarah Adams book and the final book in the Rome, Kentucky. I'm so sad that that's happening, but I've got a couple other romance books that I'm just so excited to pick up and that may or may not be featured in the reading vlog depending on how long it takes me to get through these books. So, definitely stay tuned for that. Yeah. So, thank you all very much for watching. If you like this video, give it a thumbs up. Comment down below what are some of the books you're going to be picking up for this Valentine's Day coming up right around here very soon. And if you like bookish content like this, I do have a Bookstagram linked down below as well as my Goodreads so you can follow me in what I'm reading and what I think about them. Also, feel free to subscribe and hit the bell to be notified when videos go up as I am posting as often as I can uh but not very consistently at the moment. So, definitely hit the bell to be notified when those go up. And yeah, again, thank you all very much for watching and until I see you in the next one, I wish you happy reading.