My Bloody Valentine: The Best Romantic Horror
Welcome to The Best of Book Riot, our daily round-up of what’s on offer across our site, newsletters, podcasts, and social channels. Not everything is for everyone, but there is something for everyone.
Bad Romance: The Best Romantic Horror for Valentine’s Day
For a holiday that began in honor of various martyrs, Valentine’s Day tends to be pretty tame. Candy hearts and teddy bears. It’s 2025; if you’re going to bring me roses, they’d better still have thorns on them. It’s time to bring back the gore to Valentine’s Day and give the goths what they want. After kicking the year off with Robert Eggers’ Nosferatu, it’s impossible to think of Valentine’s Day reads without a few vampires and blood sacrifices.
Bookish Stickers for Your Nostalgic Heart
Bookish stickers never get old. Creative book lovers have covered about every possible angle, making it possible to deck out your notebook, planner, and water bottle—not to mention car bumper!—with bookish stickers that perfectly express your passions.
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Get Swept Away by This Romantasy Series
I’m a sucker for a particular type of fantasy: the type with solid worldbuilding, political intrigue, and a good love story. It may sound simple enough, but it’s actually proven to be quite a challenge. Good news, though: Thea Guanzon’s The Hurricane Wars series ticks all the boxes (and then some)!
7 Books by Black Authors to Read for the 2025 Read Harder Challenge
It’s the second month of the 2025 Read Harder Challenge as well as Black History Month, so today I have seven books for you by Black authors that also check off Read Harder tasks. More than half of these books are also queer, so if you’re going for that bonus task of completing the challenge using all queer and/or BIPOC books, you’re in luck.
Let’s Talk Oscar Nominations: Mystery Adaptation Edition
The 2025 Oscar nominations were announced at the end of January and there are a fair amount of adaptations on the list: 7 of 10 of the Best Picture nominations are adaptations. I was particularly thrilled to see that three of the adaptations—Sing Sing, Nickel Boys, and Conclave— are for fans of the thriller and crime genre, so I thought I’d give some thoughts on the nominations along with how you can watch the films and a little about the source material.
