5 must have books for every hopeless romantic

Love is a crazy effect, it is madness, the one that comes without a warning, the one that makes you feel alive and brings you back to life. The one where you happily lose yourself and find yourself in the one that you want, the one that you desire. An indescribable feeling, a high that you never want to end, a belief in your heart that this will never end. Love is a crazy effect. 

Pride & Prejudice, The Notebook, Emma, The Fault in our Stars are books that all of us abide by but listed below are the five must-have books for every self-confessed hopeless romantic that there is, so cuddle yourself in and let the power of love take over you. 

Maybe Someday by Colleen Hoover

A beautifully written dual narrative by Colleen Hoover. Maybe Someday, revolves around a 22-year-old girl, Sydney, a fun loving, happy and extremely talented musician who seemingly has a perfect life until she finds out that her boyfriend has been cheating on her with her best friend/roommate. 

Sydney then discovers Ridge, her handsome neighbour, playing the guitar on his balcony. His music starts seeping in under her skin. He gives her hope, they start writing songs together and their bond just keeps growing stronger and stronger by every passing day, but there’s something that stops them from taking the plunge and that particularly becomes the plot of Maybe Someday.

This book will make you laugh, cry and most importantly make you fall in love and fall hard. A must read for all the hopeless romantics who never give up and are optimistic enough to believe that, “Maybe Someday.” 

“I want to be your end, but you gotta let it begin.”  - Maybe Someday, Colleen Hoover

Attachments by Rainbow Rowell

Beth Fremont and Jennifer Scribner-Snyder are the ultimate BFF’s. They know that someone’s monitoring their work emails (#CompanyPolicy) but they do not care to take it seriously. They continue to keep sending hilariously weird emails to each other describing every personal detail of their lives. 

Meanwhile, Lincoln O’Neill cannot believe that his job is to read other people’s email when he applied to be an “internet security officer”. Lincoln eventually comes across the infamous email chains exchanged by Beth and Jen and was entertained away to glory. By the time Lincoln realises that he is indeed falling in love with Beth, it is way too late for him to introduce himself. 

A story which is compelling, relatable and extremely engaging, Attachments is an addiction in every sense. It leaves you in splits and breathes in love as you keep turning those pages and eventually drowning you in it completely. 

“I’d know you in the dark,” he said. “From a thousand miles away. There’s nothing you could become that I haven’t already fallen in love with.” - Attachments by Rainbow Rowell

Bared to You by Sylvia Day

Bared to You, is a story revolving around two twenty-something protagonists Eva and Gideon with equally abusive pasts. The two must find a way to heal each other in order to move on from their pasts to create a better healthy relationship. Bared to You was also New York Times Bestselling erotic new adult romance novel which was also declared as Penguin UK’s “fastest selling paperback for the decade.” 

"Gideon Cross came into my life like lightning in the darkness."

He was beautiful and brilliant, jagged and white-hot. I was drawn to him as I'd never been to anything or anyone in my life. I craved his touch like a drug, even knowing it would weaken me. I was flawed and damaged, and he opened those cracks in me so easily 

Gideon "knew." He had demons of his own. And we would become the mirrors that reflected each other's most private wounds and desires. 

The bonds of his love transformed me, even as I prayed that the torment of our pasts didn't tear us apart " -Bared to You by Sylvia Day

Eleanor and Park by Rainbow Rowell

Rainbow Rowell’s, Eleanor and Park is a story which is all things adorable. The book is narrated in third person and the narratives keep switching from the perspective of Eleanor and Park. The book brings a palate of emotions to the table, it is funny, hopeful, sexy, emotional and addictive. 

The story is set in Omaha, Nebraska and revolves around two high school students who are forced to sit together on a school bus. The two are poles apart and could not have been more different. Eleanor, the new girl in town, is slightly heavier than average and struggles with a bad home life. Park, is a dim, comic book-lover who is busy figuring his life and himself out. Life takes turns and brings them closer in an unplanned, unfathomable first love where their lives were to crack and crumble. Soon, it is not their job to keep themselves together but each other too.

“Nothing before you count," he said. "And I can't even imagine an after." 

She shook her head. "Don't."

"What?"

"Don't talk about after."

"I just meant that... I want to be the last person who ever kisses you, too.... That sounds bad, like a death threat or something. What I'm trying to say is, you're it. This is it for me.” 

-Eleanor and Park by Rainbow Rowell

The Best of Me by Nicholas Sparks

And any list is incomplete without a Nicholas Sparks mention. The one who has at some time in life uplifted a heartbroken soul and instilled the feeling of love and belief in them, that all is not lost and that fate eventually works up its magic. Any hopeless romantic swears by Sparks’s classic pieces like The Notebook, Dear John, A Walk to Remember and adding up to this collection is “The Best of Me”. 

A well-written masterpiece and now a successful motion picture, the story revolves around two high school lovers Amanda and Dawson. They are separated because of certain circumstances but destiny brings them together two decades later and gives them a chance to revive their lost love for each other.

“She turned to face him. ‘What were we thinking?’ ‘We weren’t,’ he said. ‘We were in love.’” - The Best of Me, Nicholas Sparks 

The power of love is something that cannot be avoided no matter how hard you try, so give in and step into a world that makes and creates a better version of you.