Happy Valentine’s Day!

So…it’s that time of year again…Valentine’s Day. But do you love it or loathe it?

It is the one day a year that a cynic will tell you is aimed at charging people lots of money for poor quality food or near dead roses (they’re usually the same ones who tell you Christmas is too commercial) or gushy romantics will bore you to tears with cliche tales of true love.

Personally speaking I’m neither gushy nor cynical about Valentine’s Day, more mildly ambivalent really. Wow, with lukewarm sentiments like those you’d think I was completely heartless 🙂 but I think I must be a closet romantic. When you read a lot – especially YA books which tend to have some romantic element to them, often first love – you see the best parts of relationships. With a story about first love you see all the caution and fear and obsessing over every small detail – trust me, we all do it! And when they make that big jump and go for it? Well, we’re hooked aren’t we.

What’s the difference between love in ‘real life’ and what we read in our books? I believe that the core elements are exactly the same – magnetism, passion, friendship and trust – it’s just that in a novel it all comes in one big hit, whilst in real life it might begin that way but then other things happen to mellow it out so that you can actually consider living too!

So with that in mind – what’s a perfect Valentine’s Day? For me it goes one of two ways – if you’re with someone you care about, just do what you can to make it a special day and remind yourself why you love being with them – it doesn’t really need flowers and dinner, just each other. <- See I can do cheesy!

If not – why not grab a nice treat and settle down with one of your favourite couples and see them fall in love all over again? That sounds like a pretty good idea to me! If you’re stuck for ideas some of my favourites are Katniss and Peeta (in The Hunger Games or Mockingjay), Callum and Sephy (Noughts and Crosses) or Sookie and Eric (in Dead to the World). Of course I also love Cassie and Balik from Hope’s Daughter – but I would wouldn’t I? 😉