Romantic Reads for the Weekend

Valentine's Day, like Christmas, seems to require a lot of preparation with the fun and joy gone in a matter of hours. Life returns to normal. The alarm clock still goes off the next morning.

Extending the fun, joy and love of the day can be as simple as starting a new book; getting to know new characters, visiting different cities and towns, and losing time in another world.

Here are some Patch Picks to get started, so swing by or and see if they are available:

Born Under a Lucky Moon, Dana Precious: This story follows real-life events that have been turned into fiction and told in first-person. Jeannie takes readers from her childhood in the Midwest to her present in Hollywood to discover a wonderful love story.

Undead and Unwed, Mary Janice Davidson: A few days after Betsy was mugged, she was killed in a car accident and woke up three days later horrified to find herself wearing "cheap, knock-off shoes." Now she's Queen of the Vampires, trying to repair her relationship with her dad, spend time with her mom, and trying not to like the handsome and equally undead Eric Sinclair.

Water for Elephants, Sara Gruen: Don't wait for the movie to hit theaters. Read the book first and go inside the world of traveling circuses during the Depression. Jacob Jankowski meets Marlena, one of the stars of the circus and the wife of the cruel ringmaster, and Rosie, the elephant. It's a great adventure and romance at the same time as events spiral into a sort of organized chaos that finally brings Jacob and Marlena together, and the two of them take Rosie to their new life with a new circus.

Like Water for Chocolate, Laura Esquivel: Tita and Pedro love each other, but Tita's mother insists that family tradition continue. As the youngest daughter, Tita is bound to never marry so she can care for her mother. Because she can never really express herself, Tita finds release for her feelings through cooking. Each of the 12 chapters begins with a Mexican recipe that ties into what happens at that part of the story, which expertly inserts supernatural elements the reader won't question. Eventually, Tita and Pedro do come together, and the result is as satisfying as the taste of one of Tita's recipes.

The Notebook, Nicholas Sparks: Noah and Allie first fell in love as teenagers in the 1940s. The Notebook follows their love story from the first youthful blush of infatuation through a years-long break-up, back to love, and into and beyond marriage, raising a family, and a husband's devotion to a wife with Alzheimer's.