By: Ryan Chamberlain, Publisher Account Specialist

February is a troubling month. We do strange things for it. The highest-fi equipment and NYC-based reporters travel to a campsite in Punxsutawney to bear analytical witness as a dirt-dwelling animal walks around under a rumored sun. Candygrams are given to classmates at algorithmically-derived remoteness to the intended Valentine. We’re hoarsely critical of movies we would have, in any other month, quietly enjoyed. The point is something is missing, and—let’s put it out in the open—we’re burning for it.

At OverDrive headquarters, we’re well acquainted. Not all of us go for the Navy Seal billionaire, or the latest cozy, souped-up with alimentary puns, but we can all of us relate that this is a month of yearning. And that’s why we’ve stocked this month’s curated lists with every strand of antidote. And out of fearful respect for this month and what it can do, we’re offering several thousand titles at 25-50% off through our Romance Sale.

For the younger readers new to February’s sense of incompletion, we have First Love: YA Romance. (The candygram routine—please write in with counter stories if I’m wrong—will not pan out.)

The cozier set, the thread and butter, if I may, of library patronage will delight in our Sweet Reads for Valentine’s Day list. A few truly punderful titles, as an aperitif: Going, Going Ganache, The Chocolate Bunny Brouhaha, and, my favorite, Bewitched, Bothered, and Biscotti.

Many inveterate readers of romance will want something more, some atmosphere where mere trysts have become routine. Help them gussy up their pleasure reads with Royal Romance. In case you were worried, the Romance Abs still abound. Of the seasoned romance readers, you will also find the Purists, who want no jewels or crinoline getting in the way. Also covered. Prairie Romance is made for their grazing.

Then there’s our librarian-built romance grab bag, Love Is In The Air: Romance Reads, where you can find every stripe of romantic read.

And then you have your holdouts. Many women of good sense prefer to take this time refusing the commercial snares of forced romance and would rather celebrate womanhood. We have the goods: Galentine’s Day: Ladies Celebrating Ladies.

In the Sale itself, you can browse Romance by category. Among many others, we have Christian, Manga, World Languages, and outright, no-apologies Erotica. We all know this is what a lot of patrons want year-round from their libraries. In this month of need, give the people what we want. Please also include a scone recipe at the end.