2026 Reading Challenge: February Love Stories

February's prompt for the Boundless Books 2026 Reading Challenge is to read a book about love.

Love doesn't have to mean romantic love, nor does reading a book about love mean having to read a romance book. Love can be for a person, a pet, a place, or a time period in our life. There are thousands of options, but if you're struggling to find something that speaks to you, here are a few recommendations to get you started.

The Neuroscience of Self-Love by Alexis Fernandez-Preiksa

Let's start this list with a little bit of self-love!

Thoughts and moods are chemical reactions in your brain that you might think you are powerless to control. But modern science has shown beyond doubt that changing your behaviour and thought patterns can rewire the neurological pathways of your brain to literally change how you think, feel and view yourself. In The Neuroscience of Self-Love, Alexis Fernandez-Preiksa takes the theory out of neuroscience and gives you practical tools and exercises to create a new self that is happier, more balanced and less dependent on others for validation. By re-engineering your habits, optimising your decision-making, curbing negative thoughts and harnessing the power of exercise and meditation, you will become more centred, connected and creative, and learn how to trust, prioritise and truly love yourself.

My name is Gucci by Sun Jung

From loving ourselves we move on to loving others - and who better to start with than 'man's best friend'.

After living in a Singapore dog shelter for five years, Gucci - a vaguely Dalmatian-like crossbred - is losing hope of ever being rescued. One day to his surprise he is adopted by her, a writer, and moves to inner city Sydney. On arrival, however, an anti-dog war breaks out in their apartment block; Gucci's owner receives a letter threatening the possibility of 'euthanasia'. The incident triggers nightmares in her and brings back distressing childhood memories.My Name Is Gucci is a charming novel about the relationships between pets and their owners and about how the past shapes the present.

How to Kill a Guy in Ten Dates by Shailee Thompson

What's a bit of romance without a bit of murder thrown in for good measure?

When cinephile Jamie Prescott attends a speed-dating event, she expects to meet some mediocre men and have a laugh – she doesn’t expect one of her dates to have his throat slit at her table during a blackout. When the lights come back on, there are more bodies on the floor and the doors are locked. Armed with makeshift weapons and her extensive knowledge of what not to do in a slasher, Jamie must figure out how to make it out of the building alive. But as the night progresses, she begins to suspect the killer is committing the slayings to woo one of the daters. Whatever happened to roses and perfume? And why can’t Jamie stay focused on the important thing here, which is obviously not getting murdered, instead of being distracted by a few hot guys? And what if one of those hot guys happens to be the bad guy? Oops. 

Two Women Living Together by Kim Hana and Hwang Sunwoo translated by Gene Png

Okay but what about the love for the space we live in?

At some point between living alone and becoming single, Hwang Sunwoo and Kim Hana found each other, and decided to live together in a nice apartment where their four cats would finally have the freedom to run around. Together they became a family - and redefined it. At a time when housing costs have skyrocketed whilst the birth rates plummets, these two independent Korean women in their late forties share their views on society and its expectations of them. And, intent neither to marry or to live alone, they reflect on the comfort of their cohabiting friendship as it blossoms into a life full of joy and meaning. From housing insecurity and access to health care, to solo dining and stigmatised cat ladies, the loaded, self-sacrificing demands of filial piety and obligations to in-laws, Two Women Living Together impugns social scripts by spelling them out plainly. But also, and especially, by showing what it's like to choose differently. Quietly radical, full of warmth and wit, Two Women Living Together celebrates carving out your own path, cats, female friendship, and a different kind of family.

Far Horizons by Aaron Tait

We all know that people change when they fall in love, but just how much can one person change your life?

Far Horizons begins on September 11, 2001, with a young, conflicted Aaron enduring the rigours of Special Forces selection. Soon after, he is deployed to Iraq, where his desire to make a positive difference collides with the harsh realities of military service. His quest for peace and purpose takes him through India, Brazil, Spain and East Africa, where humanitarian work with Kaitlin, a free-spirited Californian, further complicates his understanding of what it means to be ‘good’. In a world where notions of masculinity are evolving, Far Horizons brings a fresh, introspective voice to the conversation. It is a story for readers who are open to exploring not only the far corners of the world but also the uncharted aspects of themselves. Far Horizons is a globe-spanning coming-of-age memoir of a soldier turned peace-seeker, grappling with the timeless question: What does it mean to be a ‘good’ man?

A Thousand Splendid Suns by Haled Hosseini

Parental love can help shape our whole lives…

Mariam is only fifteen when she is sent to Kabul to marry Rasheed. Nearly two decades later, a friendship grows between Mariam and a local teenager, Laila, as strong as the ties between mother and daughter. When the Taliban take over, life becomes a desperate struggle against starvation, brutality and fear. Yet love can move a person to act in unexpected ways, and lead them to overcome the most daunting obstacles with a startling heroism.

Eros: Queer Myths for Lovers by Zoe Terakes

Even the Gods love love!

Eros is a stunning collection of short stories, grounded in truth and coloured with dazzling imagination and alluring unpredictable mystery. Revealing how queerness, nature and myth have been intertwined for eternity, these are stories of gods and goddesses: of Zeus, of Aphrodite, of Hermaphroditus, of Icarus before he flew into the sun. Stories of queer life, lust, revenge, wrath, passion and sex. Of yearning, love, loss. Some stories span across a life, and others, an evening. Perspectives will shift. Houses will burn. Lovers will learn their fate. Zoe Terakes has skilfully blended myth and modernity to illuminate the complex and enduring truth of trans lives, resisting a history of erasure and delivering a sexy, soul-touching book to read to your lover . . . or yourself.

Love Stories by Trent Dalton

Love can be found in all of us, all the time, on every street corner.

Inspired by a personal moment of profound love and generosity, bestselling author - and one of Australia's finest journalists - Trent Dalton spent two months in 2021 pounding city pavements, speaking to Australians from all walks of life and asking them one simple and direct question: 'Can you please tell me a love story?' For two straight weeks he sat at a desk with a sky-blue 1960s Olivetti typewriter, on the bustling corner of Adelaide and Albert streets, Brisbane, with a sign saying, 'Sentimental writer collecting love stories. Do you have one to share?' The result is Love Stories - a warm, wise, poignant, funny and moving book about love in all its guises, including stories, observations and reflections on lovers in parks; people in cemeteries, hospital wards, pubs and bingo halls; and newlyweds walking out of registry offices. There will be stories of people falling into love, falling out of love, and never letting go of the loved ones in their hearts.

Loved One by Aisha Muharrar

Love can bring people together even when it hurts.

When Julia’s first-love-turned-best-friend Gabe, a musician with a cultish following, dies unexpectedly aged 29, Julia launches herself into an intercontinental quest to recover the possessions he left with friends and acquaintances across the world.Along the way, she encounters Elizabeth, Gabe’s effortlessly perfect and endlessly cool last ex-girlfriend. Now, Julia can’t stop talking to, thinking about and googling Elizabeth. As the two women struggle to reconcile their respective claims on Gabe’s memory, can they find their way from rivalry to friendship?

Galentine's Day by Rebecca Anderson

As the Spice Girls famously sang, 'if you wanna be my lover, you gotta get with my friends!'

Thirteen years. Three women. One annual sleepover. 13 February 2013. Alicia, Marnie and Hannah have their first Galentine’s Day sleepover. They’re eighteen, single, and the world is at their feet. Soon they’ll go their separate ways after college, but they promise that every year, they’ll have their sleepover. 13 February 2026. There are only two friends at the annual sleepover. Their friendships have been tested by life, by partying, breakdowns, and even by pregnancies. Are their best Galentine’s Days now behind them? Galentine’s Day is a love letter to female friendship, that celebrates messiness, real relationships, and growing up together.

Persuasion by Jane Austen

What would this list be without a classic Jane Austen recommendation to prove that love is a topic at the very heart of literature.

Persuasion, Jane Austen's last novel, is a moving, masterly and elegiac love story tinged with the heartache of missed opportunities. It tells the story of Anne Elliot, who, persuaded to break off her engagement to the man she loved because he was not successful enough, has never forgotten him. When he returns, he brings with him a tantalizing second chance of happiness...