Happy Valentine's Day!

Happy Valentine's Day!



I’m not sure what I think of Valentine’s Day. Call me demanding (and my husband does, frequently) but I don’t really want romance to turn up just once a year on a specific date allocated by others. And although I love being taken out to dinner, is it right to be charged extra just because it happens to be February 14^th? I’d rather go out for two dinners the day after. That would make me greedy and possibly very uncomfortable but I’m sure you see my point. For me all this ‘it’s Feb 14 so now we must all be romantic’, misses the point.

Having said that, it is true that everyone leads very busy lives (I swear that everyone in my neighbourhood is secretly feeding my laundry basket) and sometimes in the downhill slalom of life we’re negotiating so many twists and turns we forget to show our nearest and dearest that we love them. Which is why I’m not sure what I think of Valentine’s Day because one thing it does do is remind us to show that special someone that we think they’re, well - special.

Which brings me to the question of how. What gesture makes you feel loved? The hopeful dreamers amongst us will even now be picturing a luxury villa with a hammock swinging over turquoise blue sea, but while I’m prepared to be forced onto the Orient Express if someone really wants to take me (kicking and screaming, obviously), I don’t think a romantic gesture has to be extravagant.

What does romantic mean to you? Is it a beautiful bunch of flowers? Chocolates? Or is it more about thoughtful gestures that say ‘I love you’ and ‘I care about making you happy.’ Maybe it’s about noticing what you need at a particular moment and that might be a foot rub or someone to make dinner so that you can finish your book.

Talking of books, if your love life is currently a romantic desert then Valentine’s Day might be the perfect time to turn to fiction. There’s nothing quite like a good escapist read with a guaranteed happy ending to conjure up a warm feeling. And on the subject of romantic deserts, the heroine in my February release for Harlequin Presents, Bella and the Merciless Sheikh, is finding all that sand anything but conducive to romance. She’s trapped with a moody alpha male without so much as a bottle of decent conditioner to smooth things over. Used to relying on her looks, she’s forced to fall back on her wits and soon she’s discovering a whole new side of herself.

What’s your idea of romantic?