Ever
We won’t sugar coat it: This list is emotional. Sadness doesn’t have to be a detriment to your love life, but a long-term romantic relationship with sadness, betrayal, or other negative emotions can have a chilling effect on your love life.
One of the best things about these books is that they explore life without the moping and catty back-and-forth that comes with being single, so you don’t have to go through an entire book with only your own emotions for companionship.
These books will help you feel the right amount of pain — and enjoy it — with someone you can’t imagine life without.
1 ‘A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini Amazon In this timeless tale, two women, Mariam and her daughter Laila, are forced to flee Afghanistan after the Taliban captures the city of Kabul.
The Great Gatsby
Okay, this one might be a bit of a cheat. Originally published in 1925, but beloved all the same, F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby is a sweeping tale of love lost, love lost and found, and one of the most famous novels of all time.
It’s also the tale of how it all started for F. Scott Fitzgerald himself. The novel tells the story of Nick Carraway, a high school drop-out who begins a summer job at the family mansion of Jay Gatsby.
the mysterious man with dreams of building a waterway that can connect the two oceans. Along the way, Nick falls head over heels in love with Daisy Buchanan, and his beautiful but carefree life begins to crumble. Meanwhile, Gatsby pulls his entire life together.
Me Before You
If you’re in the mood to watch a movie about being in love, this is one of your top choices. And because the film had a book written from both the man and the woman’s perspective, you can watch and read from both perspectives.
Anne of Green Gables Cue lots of crying. It is one of the best Sad Romance Books I ever read. Although she is prone to tearing up, Anne’s character is also fiercely loyal and compassionate.
which makes her a great heroine for any relationship, even if it’s the kind that lasts two books and one TV series.
Charlotte’s Web Will someone please check on the spider that washes up on the shore and then just hangs around with Wilbur for days? Wilbur clearly has some serious romantic.
feelings for this otherworldly arachnid, and he shouldn’t have to waste any more time figuring out what to do about it.
To All The Boys I’ve Loved Before
Based on the bestselling novel of the same name, this 2017 YA romance made it onto our Top 10 Books That Depict Queer Love.
Lana Del Rey’s beautiful ballad was even made into the movie’s soundtrack. Sex With Strangers Another pick from the list of “bests,” Sex With Strangers is a 1984 novel about the sex lives of three strangers (one of them is in the publishing industry).
You’re The Worst You’re The Worst is pretty heartbreaking. At the time, Swimming With Sharks was a popular 2003 movie that focused on the break-up of two New Yorkers in the midst of a ski vacation.
A 2003 film called Everybody’s Fine also tells the story of two people in New York City. It just doesn’t have an ’80s rom-com vibe.
The Girl You Left Behind
By Héctor Tobar Synopsis: In a future Brazil, where the king rules with an iron fist, Marisa’s parents have allowed their daughter to walk about unsupervised, a rebellion against the misogynistic kingdom’s strict hierarchy.
There’s no telling where Marisa might fall in line — but when she’s caught in a slum after a fight with her parents, she suddenly finds herself in a different kind of trap: society’s merciless treatment of its “unwholesome women,” those who have the misfortune of bearing children.
As Marisa falls deeper into a terrifying corruption that costs her everything and everyone she loves, she comes to understand that rebellion is the only way out — or rather, the only way to survive.
The Time Traveler’s Wife
On a surface level, Eric’s love story with Clare is one of the most complicated ones you’ll ever read, since Clare comes to him in the past and time travels back to him in the present, their relationship spanning decades and changing the course of history.
That’s not even considering the fact that they’re both cursed to have no future together. From the very beginning, Eric has known that their story wouldn’t end happily, and while his sacrifice to be with Clare is a beautiful, wrenching moment.
of heroism, the decision ultimately sacrifices their future together for the gift of their present-day love. How To Be A Woman For readers who are looking for a simpler, more realistic depiction of romance, Jennifer Weiner’s How To Be A Woman is the one for you.
The Fault in Our Stars
Shocker: This book isn’t exactly sad. It’s just understated and intimate. When a teenage cancer patient and his best friend meet an untimely end, Hazel is sent to live with her brother and sister, who live in a remote area.
If You’re Feeling Nerdy The Last Lecture by Randy Pausch The Last Lecture isn’t exactly the standard weepy and sad novel, but it certainly gets our pity glands going. Randy Pausch is a former professor who has a terminal brain tumor.
Just before he is set to receive his final lecture on the history of the University of Pennsylvania, he gives his life to lecturing, spending his final months traveling the world with his family. The Last Lecture is at once funny and sad, funny and moving.
My Sister’s Keeper
By Jodi Picoult, The premise of Jodi Picoult’s award-winning My Sister’s Keeper isn’t entirely “totally heartbreaking.” Instead, it’s one that hits close to home.
Meg is a 31-year-old lawyer, who after being diagnosed with Hodgkin’s Lymphoma, is given an eight percent chance of survival by doctors.
During her treatment, she forms a close bond with her twin sister, Kate, who is diagnosed with leukemia and given a one percent chance of survival. When Meg finds out that Kate has died, she vows to get a cure so that she can save Kate.
So, yeah. She’s an awful human being and we all wish her sister were still around.
The Girl You Left Behind
If you’re feeling up for heartbreak, you’ll absolutely adore The Girl You Left Behind. Just like her namesake book by Kristin Hannah, this British bestseller centers on a married woman who has a stillbirth.
The husband remarries, and her new husband is the exact kind of man who will do anything to keep her husband and unborn child from grief — including having an affair with her.
A Soldier’s Wife A Soldier’s Wife by David C. Cook might be the saddest contemporary love story ever written.
After his wife is killed in Afghanistan, a former Army Ranger leaves behind his beautiful, strong, and capable wife, who is pregnant with their second child. He doesn’t plan to get involved with anyone else, but he meets a young widow with two children.
The Time Traveler’s Wife
Nathan Bransford called it “the saddest and most beautiful book I’ve ever read.” It follows a husband and wife, Henry and Clare, as they go on trips through time through a mysterious book Henry find at a bookstore.
The novel is about their struggles to make a life together when they’re emotionally disconnected, and of the pain of having to move forward without them.
What A Mother Doesn’t Know It is incredibly easy to fall in love with this book because it’s such a bittersweet love story.
When Tom encounters a girl named Bel on the beach, he knows it isn’t a crush; he wants to be with her, but he’s afraid.
He tells his parents and they tell him it’s just a summer fling. But he’s falling in love with her, and when she moves away, he’s heartbroken. You can guess what happens next.
