Friday, February 5, 2016

10 Romantic Books That Will Spice Up Your Valentine's Day

Dim those lights as low as you want.

Confess by Colleen Hoover

Confess by Colleen Hoover

When Auburn Reed gets a job at a big-time Dallas art studio, she doesn't plan on falling for artist Owen Gentry. She knows it's a big risk to be with him, but she does it anyway — only to find out his secret past could threaten their future.

Quote: "He kisses me like he's giving me every kiss he wishes he could have given me the past, and every kiss he'll wish he could give me in the future. All at once."

Simon and Schuster / yennyzhka / instagram.com

Sweet Ruin by Kresley Cole

Sweet Ruin by Kresley Cole

The Immortals After Dark series continues with (super sexy) immortal assassins, outcast orphans, vampires, and possible spies crossing paths.

Quote: "When two people form an unbreakable bond, it’s like a reactor, feeding them power and heat and a sense of belonging. It makes them strong. They’re the true superheroes."

Gallery Books / heartlesspage / instagram.com

Carry On by Rainbow Rowell

Carry On by Rainbow Rowell

Carry On is the tamest title on the list, for sure, but the YA fantasy is plenty sweet. Simon Snow, the "Chosen One," is having a rough go of it: his girlfriend broke up with him, his mentor is letting him down, he can't get his magic quite right, and the evil vampire Baz (who is Simon's nemesis, but who also has a crush on Simon) is MIA. There's a lot of kissing.

Quote: "Sharing a room with the person you want most is like sharing a room with an open fire. He's constantly drawing you in. And you're constantly stepping too close. And you know it's not good — that there is no good — that there's absolutely nothing that can ever come of it."

istikus / instagram.com


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What's Your Sex Patronus?

The animal inside you.

Warner Bros. / Loryn Brantz / BuzzFeed

Thumbnail via Warner Bros.

9 Excellent TinyLetters You Need To Subscribe To

Sign up to these awesome newsletters and revel in your good decisions.

1. Veni, Vidi, Vici

1. Veni, Vidi, Vici

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Why you should subscribe: Karen Onojaife's TinyLetter is a perfect marriage of content and medium – short literary fiction that takes the form of a series of email drafts from one woman to her ex. It's a finite project: There will be only 12 entries from Kanyin, and each is by turns funny, heartbreaking, and raw. You can find examples of her nonfiction writing here, and her fiction here.

TinyLetter description: "11 times Kanyin nearly e-mailed her ex-girlfriend and the one time she did."

Excerpt:
I'd arrived as your brother's date, but I'd be leaving with you and it seemed so right, so quickly. I don't even remember what we talked about, just that you were so fucking smart. So smart, funny and fine that whatever game I thought I had, became a thing of pure past tense.

Subscribe to Veni, Vidi, Vici here.

2. Thread

2. Thread

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Why you should subscribe: Jean Hannah Edelstein writes beautifully crafted essays about life and living on her blog, and for other places. Her weekly TinyLetter is a perfect showcase of her wit and wisdom, as well as her ability to zero in on the absurd and joyous. She's a nicely calibrated mix of Didion and Ephron, basically.

TinyLetter description: "Let me tell you about some things."

Excerpt:
I am the scion of people rumoured to be tight-fisted (Scots, Jews) but despite my breeding I have no aptitude for thrift: I'm an uncontrolled spender of coffee, and of emotion.

Subscribe to Thread here.


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What's Your Favorite Book About The South?

The Color Purple? The Sound and the Fury? (We know it’s a difficult question.)

The American South has given us some of our very best writers.

The American South has given us some of our very best writers.

And those writers have created some necessary reading.

southern_gumbo_gal / instagram.com

Maybe you keep returning to those pre-war novels from the Southern renaissance.

Maybe you keep returning to those pre-war novels from the Southern renaissance.

Like William Faulkner's The Sound and the Fury.

martunz_ / instagram.com

Or maybe you can't get enough of the new classics.

Or maybe you can't get enough of the new classics.

Like Jesmyn Ward's Salvage the Bones.

srodrigue_1980 / instagram.com

Southern literature just has a specific appeal — and we want to hear about the ones you love.

Southern literature just has a specific appeal — and we want to hear about the ones you love.

Of any variety — fiction, essays, poetry, whatever.

wake.up.cake / instagram.com


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