Love Sucks!

If you want to avoid V-day sentimentality, then this bizarre narrative of a dysfunctional family is sure to amuse. Are their disappearing parents for real, or is this part of their act? WHO KNOWS!

According to Buzzfeed, "Alison Poole is the ultimate coke-addicted, booze-swilling party girl of the ’80s who falls in and out of love at the drop of a hat."

If you've had a lover like that, maybe you might want to revisit those glorious days without actually hurting yourself. #Emo

“I say let the world go to hell, but I should always have my tea.” Tbh #lifegoals for those who just want to watch the world burn.

This is some Lady Eve realness as protagonist Becky Sharp cons her way through high society, all in the manner of seducing other women’s men and swindling them out of their money. Moral of the story? Watch your men harder than you watch your money.

Mallory finds out her boyfriend is cheating on her, and just before prom too. But instead of moping, she goes to prom without a date, swears off dating, tries new tags, and shoots romance straight in the face with Cupid’s arrow. This is one girl we can get behind.

“That’s one of the reasons I never wanted to get married. The last thing I wanted was infinite security and to be the place an arrow shoots off from. I wanted change and excitement and to shoot off in all directions myself, like the colored arrows from a Fourth of July rocket.” Oof, Sylvia. We get it.

Renée is the concierge of an upscale Paris apartment complex. Paloma is the 12-year-old genius daughter of two residents. An unlikely friendship forms and it proves that yes, all you need is love. But it's not always a romantic love that you're looking for.

Who run the world? GIRLS. This one is a guide to everything from career tips to navigating tricky love situations and the tough choice of defriending. If you don't have a shoulder to cry on this time round, let Melissa Kirsch be that friend.

If you're tired of all the questions asking where your boyfriend is, when you're getting married, why are you alone blah blah blah, then be energised by Kate Chopin's feminist text. Protagonist Edna Pontellier hates the society's rigid ideas for femininity, and instead of fitting in, decides to explore her own desires and thoughts. #grrlpower

Maybe you're not getting the D this holiday, but instead of lamenting and feeling sorry for yourself about that, delve into this fascinating and hilarious 411 about virginity and sex. Hear stories from real people like Edna, who lost her virginity at 1940 (!!) to Charlie a young, disabled punk rocker.

George Eliot said about this book, "It is a still more wonderful book than Jane Eyre. There is something almost preternatural in its power.” And Virginia Woolf says Bronte expresses an “untamed ferocity perpetually at war with the accepted order of things”. Wow.

This is a "Oops, I married a sociopath???" kind of book. Hannah is waiting for her husband to fly in from New York, but when he doesn't arrive, his assistant tells her she thought they were in Rome together. AND their bank account is emptied. Wow, thank goodness you're not married right?

This one's the opposite of a typical happily ever after. In fact, it opens with Olga’s husband walking out on her and their two young children for a younger woman. Yet there's a freedom and a power to her new found life and it's this honesty and heartbreak that makes us want to weep.

Enough about all the lovey-dovey romances. Take on a good old murder/thriller by the classic Agatha Christie, and instead of feeling sorry for yourself, you get to feel all badass and on edge.

Love is hard, we know. So if you're getting over an unrequited love, a breakup, a cheating bastard, let the wise words of Cheryl Strayed soothe your hurt soul.

The title says it all for this one.