14 romantic Canadian books to read on Valentine’s Day | CBC Books

Get into the Valentine’s Day spirit with one of these great Canadian books.

In The Stand-In, Gracie Reed’s world is turned upside down when a mysterious vehicle pulls up beside her on the street, revealing its occupants to be Chinese cinema’s famous couple, Wei Fangli and Sam Yao. Fangli asks Gracie to be her stand-in, due to how much they look alike, and attend public events with the incredibly attractive yet infuriating Sam. Gracie, who needs the money to get her mother into a new nursing home, agrees, and is thrown into a world of luxury, glitz and glamour. 

The Stand-In is Lily Chu’s debut rom-com novel. Chu writes romantic comedies set in Toronto with strong Asian characters. The audiobook of her second rom-com, The Comeback, came out in 2022 and will be in print in spring 2023. 

In Sari, Not Sari, Manny Dogra is the CEO of a highly successful company that helps people manage their breakups. She’s planning her wedding to a handsome architect, while in the midst of grieving the deaths of her parents. Her parents, who were both born in India, wanted Manny to become an ‘All-American girl,’ so that’s what she did. Knowing next to nothing about her South Asian heritage, Manny meets an irritating client who agrees to give her a crash course in being Indian at his brother’s wedding.

Sonya Singh is a writer, producer and former entertainment reporter. Sari, Not Sari is her first novel. Singh lives in Toronto.

LISTEN | Sonya Singh discusses Sari, Not Sari with Shelagh Rogers:

Made in Korea is a YA rom-com about two teenagers who are running competing Korean beauty businesses at their high school. Valerie Kwon and her cousin Charlie run a successful student-run enterprise called V&C K-BEAUTY. Wes Jung is the new kid at their school — after seeing the enthusiasm from his new classmates for the K-pop-branded beauty products that his mother gave him to help him make new friends, he comes up with an entrepreneurial idea that could help him pay for the music school he hopes to attend after graduation. Valerie and Wes try to resist their growing attraction to one another, while competing to be the most successful business in school. 

Sarah Suk is a YA writer living in Vancouver. Made in Korea is her debut novel. Suk’s next book, The Space Between Here and Now, will be published in fall 2023.

In The Romance Recipe, restaurant owner Amy Chambers hires Sophie Brunet, a former reality-show finalist, to work as head chef in her restaurant. Sophie and Amy explore their feelings for one another, while trying to save the restaurant by signing up for a new foodie reality TV show. 

Ruby Barrett is a writer based in Ottawa who writes romances about big feelings. Her previous novel, Hot Copy, was published in 2021. 

Kamila has a nearly perfect life. While she keeps herself busy by throwing Bollywood movie parties, hanging out with her endless array of friends and running her dog’s wildly successful Instagram account, her love life is lagging behind. So Kamila decides to start flirting with a handsome family friend named Rohan and eventually develops a crush. When Kamila’s secret nemesis returns to town with an eye for Rohan, things start to unravel and Kamila’s life gets turned upside down.

Farah Heron is a writer from Toronto. She is also the author of the rom-com novels The Chai Factor, Accidentally Engaged and the YA novel Tahira in Bloom.

In Starry-Eyed Love, London Spark is the business administrator for Spark House, her family’s event hotel. A large company is interested in a partnership, and London is determined to win them over until she discovers that the company’s CEO, Jackson Holt, is the same person she turned down at a bar a few months prior. Jackson and London soon find themselves throwing an event together at Spark House and their working relationship begins to blossom into something more.

Helena Hunting is a writer who lives outside of Toronto with her family and two cats. Her previous books include Love Next Door and Meet Cute.

Donut Fall in Love follows actor Ryan Kwok, who is back in Toronto after promoting his latest movie, a rom-com that’s being slammed by critics. The sudden death of his mother prompts Ryan to take his first break in years and spend more time with his family — though his father would rather troll him on Twitter than meet for dim sum. Ryan’s fate takes a turn when he knocks over a bunch of specialty donuts by an innovative baker named Lindsay McLeod. When he signs up for a celebrity episode of a baking show, he enlists Lindsay to help him prepare.

Jackie Lau is a Toronto-based author of over a dozen romantic comedies, including the Holidays with the Wongs series and the There’s Only One Bed at Christmas novella anthology. She went to school for engineering and worked as a geophysicist before writing romance novels. 

The Foghorn Echoes is a novel about forbidden love and finding a home in the midst of war. Set in war-torn Syria in 2003, two boys act on their feelings for one another and in an instant, their lives are changed forever. Ten years later, as they struggle to find peace and belonging, the past continues to reverberate and both men must face heartache and history.

Danny Ramadan is a Syrian-Canadian author, public speaker and advocate for LGBTQ+ refugees. His debut novel, The Clothesline Swing, was shortlisted for the Lambda Literary Award and was longlisted for Canada Reads 2018. He has an MFA in creative writing from the University of British Columbia and currently lives in Vancouver with his husband.

LISTEN | Danny Ramadan discusses The Foghorn Echoes with Shelagh Rogers:

In the sequel to Love from A to Z, Adam and Zayneb must find their way back to one another. Adam is in Doha, Qatar, making a map of the Hijra, a historic migration from Mecca to Medina, and Zayneb is in school in Chicago. When the pair get a chance to reunite for Thanksgiving week on the Umrah in Saudi Arabia, the trip goes nothing like what they expect and their love is put to the test.

S.K. Ali is a writer and teacher from Toronto, best known for her debut YA novel, Saints and Misfits. She is also the author of Love from A to Z.

Lucien & Olivia is a comic novel that explores the often transactional nature of life and how humans interact with each other. In 1980s Halifax, a time before mobile devices and social media, a marine engineer working on a Canadian tanker and a university student working on her philosophy degree randomly connect and are both repulsed by yet drawn to each other’s differences. They try to navigate love and a healthy relationship — despite how much the odds are stacked up against them.

André Narbonne is a Canadian professor and author. He teaches English and creative writing at the University of Windsor and is the fiction editor of the Windsor Review. Narbonne’s poetry collection, You Were Here, was published in 2016. His short story collection, Twelve Miles to Midnight, was a 2017 finalist for the Danuta Gleed Literary Award. Lucien & Olivia, debut novel, was on the 2022 Scotiabank Giller Prize longlist.

Sophie Go’s Lonely Hearts Club is about professional matchmaker Sophie Go. Sophie has just moved back to her hometown of Toronto. When a scandal is set to destroy her career, Sophie takes on her most challenging clients yet: a group of seven elderly Chinese men who never married. Is she up for the professional and personal challenges she’s about to face?

Roselle Lim is a writer who lives on Lake Erie. She is also the author of the novels Natalie Tan’s Book of Luck and Fortune and Vanessa Yu’s Magical Paris Tea Shop.

In Bad Girl Reputation, former bad girl Genevieve West has returned to her hometown in the wake of her mother’s death. While there, she must confront her past along with dealing with grief — which includes facing her ex-boyfriend, Evan Hartley. Evan is determined to give their relationship another shot, while Genevieve wants to keep her bad girl days behind her. Can they work it out, once and for all?

Elle Kennedy is a writer from Toronto. She is also the author of the novel Good Girl Complex, as well as the Killer Instincts series and the Off-Campus series.

Every Summer After is a coming-of-age novel involving friendship, romance and forgiveness told over the course of six years and one weekend. Childhood summer friends Percy and Sam were inseparable — until a fateful moment forced them apart. Years later, a funeral draws them together once more to navigate love, loss and broken hearts. 

Carley Fortune is a Canadian journalist who’s worked as an editor for Refinery29, The Globe and Mail, Chatelaine and Toronto Life. Every Summer After is the Toronto-based author’s debut novel.

Love after the End is an anthology of speculative fiction that imagines a utopian future for LGBTQ and two-spirit people, curated and edited by poet and novelist Joshua Whitehead.

Contributors include Nathan Adler, Darcie Little Badger, Gabriel Castilloux Calderon, Adam Garnet Jones, Mari Kurisato, Kai Minosh Pyle, David Alexander Robertson, jaye simpson and Nazbah Tom.

Whitehead is an Oji-nêhiyaw, two-spirit writer, poet and Indigiqueer scholar from Peguis First Nation. His book, full-metal indigiqueer, is a collection of experimental poems that aim to provoke discussion and debate. Jonny Appleseed, his debut novel, won Canada Reads 2021 when it was championed by actor Devery Jacobs.

LISTEN | Joshua Whitehead & Darcie Little Badger discuss Love After the End: