Our Valentine’s and Galentine’s Day Book Picks

Why choose between Valentine’s and Galentine’s when you can have both?

 

This week we’re telling you our favourite reads that champion romance as well as our favourite reads that champion the love you have for your girls, because why should we have to choose?

 

Our Valentine’s Picks:

 

Lease on Love by Falon Ballard

 

 

Beach Read meets The Flatshare in this warmly funny and delightfully sharp debut rom-com about a down-on-her-luck young woman who turns an innocent mix-up between a dating app and a roommate app into a new chance at love.

 

She wasn’t looking for love until it landed on her doorstep.

 

Sadie’s looking for a fresh start. After missing out on an overdue promotion, she drunkenly re-opens a long-ignored dating app and, two days later, finds herself on a date with Jack. Except it isn’t a date.

Realizing that she mistakenly matched with Jack on a roommate-finding app, Sadie prepares to make a hasty exit, only to finally notice the gorgeous Brooklyn brownstone that Jack is advertising . . . and the unbelievably cheap rent.

Introverted Jack doesn’t know what to make of the talkative whirlwind in front of him. But he offers Sadie his spare bedroom while she gets back on her feet, and Sadie, recognizing that her dreams of starting her own florist business might now finally be possible, accepts.

As Sadie’s presence starts to turn the brownstone into a real home, and Jack learns to come out of his shell, they both begin to wonder if this accidental roommate arrangement is the best deal they ever made.

 

 

The Flatshare by Beth O’Leary 

 

 

Tiffy and Leon share a flat

Tiffy and Leon share a bed

Tiffy and Leon have never met…

 

Tiffy Moore needs a cheap flat, and fast. Leon Twomey works nights and needs cash. Their friends think they’re crazy, but it’s the perfect solution: Leon occupies the one-bed flat while Tiffy’s at work in the day, and she has the run of the place the rest of the time.

But with obsessive ex-boyfriends, demanding clients at work, wrongly imprisoned brothers and, of course, the fact that they still haven’t met yet, they’re about to discover that if you want the perfect home you need to throw the rulebook out the window…

 

The Sunday Times bestselling debut: an utterly charming and heart-warming love story and the perfect tonic for difficult times.

 

 

What Might Have Been by Holly Miller

 

 

THE UNFORGETTABLE NEW NOVEL FROM THE BESTSELLING AUTHOR OF THE SIGHT OF YOU

Is Lucy’s life ‘meant to be’ . . . or meant to be different?

Lucy’s life is at a crossroads. She’s just walked out of her unrewarding job and has no idea about her next step: use her savings to pursue her dream of becoming a writer, or move to London to try and revive her career? It almost seems like fate that on that same night she meets Caleb, a stranger in a bar, and runs into Max, the one-time love of her life.

Should Lucy stay in the seaside town she grew up in, and in doing so, get to know Caleb better? Or should she go to London and reconnect with Max again after he broke her heart a decade ago? It’s just one decision – but sometimes one decision can change the course of your whole life . . .

WHAT MIGHT HAVE BEEN is a sweeping and unforgettable novel for anyone who has ever believed in destiny and soulmates – or paused to wonder what your life might look like if you’d made a different choice.

 

 

…and our Galentine’s picks:

 

 

Should I Tell You? by Jill Mansell

 

 

From the queen of feelgood fiction, an uplifting new novel of friendship, families and finding love . . .

 

Amber, Lachlan and Raffaele met as teenagers in the Cornish seaside home of kind-hearted foster parents. Years on, the bond between them is unbreakable

 But Amber has a secret. She’s in love with Lachlan. She can’t tell him, because that would never work – he’s definitely not the settling-down type. Surely it’s better to keep him as a friend than to risk losing him for good?

  Raffaele has his own dilemma. He had the dream girlfriend in Vee, until it all went horribly wrong . . . and he still can’t understand why. Is Vee hiding something from him?

 Now their widowed foster dad Teddy has found new love. Younger, charming and beautiful, Olga seems perfect. But is she? Or will she break Teddy’s fragile heart?

 

Against a backdrop of sparkling seas and sunny skies, the unexpected is always just around the corner. Welcome to Lanrock!

 

 

The Split by Laura Kay 

 

 

A laugh-out-loud romcom with friendship at its heart

 

Following a brutal break up, Ally flees to her dad’s house in Sheffield with her ex’s cat (who always preferred her anyway). When she realises Emily isn’t coming to win back either her or the cat, Ally takes to the sofa to mourn the future she’d planned.

After a few days’ grace, her dad calls in reinforcements – Ally’s old friend and first beard, Jeremy. Reunited, the two find solace in each other’s heartbreak and an endless supply of baked goods. But jacked up on sugar and mutual delusion, they concoct a plan to run the half marathon and win back their exes…

 

This seems like the perfect example of their ability to commit and better themselves. But will their exes be waiting at the finish line, or is there a whole new future on the horizon?

 

 

Pretending by Holly Bourne

 

 

WHY BE YOURSELF WHEN YOU CAN BE PERFECT?

‘MAGNIFICENT. Brutally honest and righteously angry but still HUGELY enjoyable and engaging. I bow down!’ Marian Keyes

 

‘A thoughtful, intelligent, urgent novel women need to read.’ Dolly Alderton

 

The highly-anticipated new novel from Holly Bourne, bestselling author of HOW DO YOU LIKE ME NOW?

 

He said he was looking for a ‘partner in crime’ which everyone knows is shorthand for ‘a woman who isn’t real’.

April is kind, pretty, and relatively normal – yet she can’t seem to get past date five. Every time she thinks she’s found someone to trust, they reveal themselves to be awful, leaving her heartbroken. And angry.

If only April could be more like Gretel.

Gretel is exactly what men want – she’s a Regular Everyday Manic Pixie Dream Girl Next Door With No Problems.

The problem is, Gretel isn’t real. And April is now claiming to be her.

As soon as April starts ‘being’ Gretel, dating becomes much more fun – especially once she reels in the unsuspecting Joshua.

Finally, April is the one in control, but can she control her own feelings? And as she and Joshua grow closer, how long will she be able to keep pretending?