Whether your Valentine’s Day plans involve swimming in a sea of hearts and chocolate, embracing “Galentine’s”, or refusing to participate as a stand against the appropriation by mass marketing of human emotion (us too), we all need a good read to curl up with and keep the fires burning in this most frigid of months.

Here are our picks for the most romantic of the month’s new releases!

The Evening Chorus by Helen Humphreys
Comparing this beautifully written novel to a Second World War version of Birdsong feels natural, not only because they share “the ravages of war” and impossible loves as a common theme, but because a major focus of this story is literally on birds who sing, as in the pair of redstarts that are an English soldier’s lifeline in a POW camp.

Single, Careful, Mellow by Katherine Heiny
This book of short stories about life, love and crushing on your roommate is Lena Dunham approved. What more do you need to know? (Fine: It’s a witty, moving collection that introduces us to a vividly drawn, and very diverse cast of female characters, from an employee sleeping with her boss, a wife meeting the other woman, and the bridesmaid who says what we’re all really thinking.

We Are Pirates by Daniel Handler
File this one under “the romance of the high seas”: From the author of A Series of Unfortunate Events, the story of a teenage girl who leaves ordinary teenager-hood behind to pursue adventure, mayhem and piracy…all on the waters of modern day San Francisco Bay.

READ MORE:
3 books to enjoy over a long weekend
10 unmissable holiday reads