Valentine’s Day Special: Books With NO Romance!

Happy Valentine’s Day everyone!

Whether you abhor this day — like me — or you love celebrating this day, I hope you’re having fun!

I love reading romance books, it’s my favourite genre. But, sorry, Valentine’s Day just sucks. It’s such an unnecessary day and it generally gives me a headache. Definitely no shade if you love celebrating this day with your partner or whomever, but even though I’ve been in the position to spend Valentine’s Day with someone before, I never have because in my eyes, it’s a scam to get people to spend money on … crap, basically.

Usually, every Valentine’s Day, I go to dinner with my best friend. We get each other presents and we dress up real nice and have a great time. OMG — like Leslie from Parks & Rec, I just realised! Haha!

And, let’s be honest, Valentine’s Day is not the only day where romance is shoved in our faces — it’s basically 365 days of the year … which is all year. But on Valentine’s Day, it just explodes and it can be a bit too much for people. So I thought, what better way to celebrate this day by talking about books that have no romance? 😊

Sci-Fi & Fantasy 

Probably my favourite book without romance is V.E. Schwab’s Vicious, a sci-fi and fantasy novel about a man named Victor who, after a stint in prison, is determined to find his old college roommate and kill him. This world has superheroes with powers and Victor, along with a young girl who can bring people back from the dead, and his friend from prison, get caught up in revenge.

I love this fascinating world and I love these screwed-up characters. The relationship between Victor and his nemesis Eli is intense and violent, and you get caught up in both of their desires for revenge. I especially love that there’s no romance in this book — instead, the book focuses on the found family trope and world-building.

More recs:

 

Contemporary 

Fence is an amazing comic book series — turned graphic novel — about an elite boys boarding school and a young man named Nickolas who gets a sports scholarship there. Nick has to make the school’s fencing team to keep his scholarship, and the first two volumes of the series focus on him trying out for the team and his life at a new school.

While I’m pretty sure the series will eventually include a romantic plot — as the author herself has mentioned; its hate to love — so far there’s no romance in the series (except for a background character who just hooks up with boys and then dumps them). This series is really fun, and I love that a fan fiction artist is drawing the whole series for us, Johanna the Mad!

More recs:

 

Historical 

The Book Thief is a spectacular novel that I really encourage everyone to read at least once in their life. It’s so interesting because its set from the perspective of Death, who follows a young girl called Liesel during WWII. At her brother’s graveside, she finds a copy of a book called ‘The Gravedigger’s Handbook’ and so begins her love affair with books — which she would continue to steal for years, as the Nazi’s in Germany made it their mission to burn as many books as possible. With the help of her foster father — whom she is sent to live with after the death of her family — Liesel learns how to read. But these are dangerous times, for Liesel’s new father is also hiding and protecting a Jewish man, who is living in their basement.

It’s a really beautiful and inventive novel. But also be warned, it will make you cry like you’ve never cried before.

More recs:

 

Have you read any of these books? Do you celebrate Valentine’s Day, or are you like me who likes to pretend this day doesn’t exist? Do you like reading books without romance? Let me know!