In a publishing industry oversaturated with guaranteed happily ever afters, I wanted to highlight a set of books that portrays what many may be feeling this Valentine’s Day season: heartbreak and sadness, feeling as if something is missing in life or just not being excited about the idea of downloading another dating app.

While a happily ever after romantic comedy can remedy a saddened heart, these novels will mirror the frustration, disappointment and heartache that can go hand in hand with love, providing a sense of connection for the many struggling in the affairs of the heart.

‘Adelaide’ by Genevieve Wheeler

Genevieve Wheeler’s “Adelaide” was my favorite release of 2023 and is a perfect book to accommodate your heartbreak this Valentine’s Day season. “Adelaide” explores love, heartbreak, grief and the weight mental health struggles can exert over one’s life. At 26 years old, Adelaide Williams is pursuing her graduate degree in England when she meets the charming Rory Hughes. Even though Hughes does not respond to her texts, cancels their plans at the last minute and appears quite the commitmentphobe overall, Williams cannot help but fall for the man.

Wheeler’s novel displays the pain of unrequited love and the complications of dating in the face of grief and past trauma. “Adelaide” is written immensely well, to the point where I forced myself to read the novel slowly so I could sit with the full effects of Wheeler’s prose. Her story of love and heartbreak is sharp and honest and will leave the reader face to face with the depths of depression heartbreak can cause in one’s life. “Adelaide” is unflinching in its portrayal of modern relationships and heartbreak.

‘Call It What You Want’ by Alissa DeRogatis

“Call It What You Want” will resonate with those who have struggled with “situationships” and the frustration and disappointment they can amount to. Alissa DeRogatis’s self-published novel centers around a college situationship and its heavy effect on one’s heart.

DeRogatis describes her book as a “nostalgic ode to all ‘almost love’ stories— the ones with no label, no title but an undeniable intensity.” The novel centers around the relationship between college students Sloane Hart and Ethan Brady. Hart, after witnessing her parents go through a divorce, swears off dating until she meets Ethan Brady and becomes instantly infatuated. After the two begin dating without labels, “Call It What You Want” follows the couple through their on-again, off-again situationship. Despite Hart’s clear interest and devotion (and Brady’s occasional mirrored interest), Brady remains closed off and refuses to let Hart get too close, forcing her into heartbreak and disappointment. DeRogatis delivers a bittersweet story encompassing the self-growth that comes along with pain and the heartbreak a lack of commitment can bring.

‘Normal People’ by Sally Rooney

Sally Rooney’s “Normal People” is everything a reader would want in a heart-wrenching story about love. It displays the connection and love found through romantic relationships alongside the paralyzing, debilitating despair and depression a failed relationship can evoke.

“Normal People” is sharply honest, filled with brilliant writing and an unflinching portrayal of young love through an on-again, off-again relationship filled with miscommunication. The novel centers around Marianne and Connell, with their relationship beginning their senior year of high school. Pulled apart by Connell’s social inhibitions, the two eventually reconnect during their time at Trinity College Dublin. Marianne and Connell find themselves in a constant cycle of being pulled apart and finding themselves together again.

Amidst their late teens and early twenties, while witnessing each other’s academic accolades, mental struggles and new significant others, Marianne and Connell cannot let each other go.

“Normal People” displays the pain of two individuals who cannot stay firmly dedicated to one another but cannot stay away from each other, constantly putting each other through romantic highs and emotional lows. Rooney’s “Normal People” will stay with the reader long after the novel’s final page.