Read If You Like The Notebook: A Reader's Guide to All Things Sappy

I know your type: the lonely, hormonal teenage girl, the hopeless romantic, the boyfriend that claims to “only watch romantic comedies with his girlfriend”, but secretly watches Sandra Bullock marathons on ABC Family. You could at this very moment be buried in a box of tissues, ungracefully wiping snot from your nose as the end credits of The Last Song scroll across your television. Or, perhaps you’re blaring Taylor Swift’s new album while Googling pictures of Harry Styles and doodling your future wedding plans on what was supposed to be your math homework. The point is you’re out there, and this list is for you.

1. Any Lurlene McDaniel book

Lurlene McDaniel must live in a pretty incredible world, because she can craft some amazing love stories.  The thing that’s even more astonishing is the sheer number of these stories that she’s written. I literally don’t think that there’s a single person that could come up with a romance idea that she hasn’t written about. Want to read a book about someone falling in love in an African jungle? There’s a book about that. Want to read a book about a girl trying to reconnect with her brain damaged boyfriend post car crash? There’s a book about that too. Want to read a book about a teenager getting cancer then randomly connecting with her hospital roommate’s Amish brother? Like I said, there’s a Lurlene McDaniel book for everything.

2. Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte

If you’re in to the whole romantic tragedy type of thing, Wuthering Heights will probably be the book for you. There’s love, death, and of course, a love- and-nature-come-full-circle happy ending. Besides, saying you read Wuthering Heights will make you sound much more intelligent than saying you read Twilight.

3. Twilight by Stephenie Meyer (I said it wouldn’t make you sound intelligent, not that it wasn’t romantic)

It’s pretty much like any other teenage love story, but with vampires.

4. The Lucky One by Nicholas Sparks

Yet another book made movie by The Notebook author himself. Sparks once again reverts back to his redundant yet effective recipe of romance, all the while making the movie industry millions in the process. Once you’ve read the book, make sure to watch the movie, because chances are if you like romance, you probably like Zac Efron as well.

5. John Mayer (I know he’s not a book, but variety’s the spice of life, right?)

The sultry sounds radiating from the dark confines of John Mayer’s well trained vocal cords are surely enough to make any heartfelt romantic swoon. He can do raspy, he can do smooth, but one thing is for sure, that man can do romance like no one else can.