Flowers are fine, chocolates are nice — but if you really want to impress the object of your desire (and prove how brainy you are at the same time) a well-chosen book will speak volumes as a Valentine’s Day gift. Entice a new lover, remind your partner that your passion still runs deep — or simply light some candles and lose yourself in one of these wildly romantic stories.

The Time Traveler’s Wife, by Audrey Niffenegger (2003)

This novel is one of the most inventive and observant stories about a marriage ever written. Henry and Clare are entwined in a complicated passion that has had the chance to deepen over time and space — because Henry, due to a genetic variant, is a time traveller. Clare must constantly wait for his return. “Why is love intensified by absence?” she asks. Give this book to the person you’re certain you’re going to love forever. Or use it to weed out sociopaths from your dating pool (because if you don’t find this novel romantic, you’re probably dead inside).

For Whom the Bell Tolls, Ernest Hemingway (1940)

The story of an American soldier in the Spanish Civil War is not, at first glance, the most romantic fare. But Hemingway’s writing contains everything that is perfect about love: “Then they were together so that as the hand on the watch moved, unseen now, they knew that nothing could ever happen to the one that did not happen to the other, that no other thing could happen more than this; that this was all and always; this was what had been and now and whatever was to come.” This is why so many women fell madly in love with Hemingway despite the fact that he was a mercurial alcoholic.

IQ84, Haruki Murakami (2011)

Originally published in Japan as a trilogy, this weighty novel is sexy, suspenseful, disturbing and gorgeous. The romantic component is subtle at first, overshadowed by the many competing — and riveting — plot twists. But eventually Murakami reveals — with delightful slowness — a hope that exists when all seems lost. This novel is full of poignant observations about the effects and staying power of love, but this is the best one: “If you can love someone with your whole heart, even one person, then there’s salvation in life.”

The Thorn Birds, Colleen McCullough (1977)

This epic tale spanning three generations, set in the Australian Outback fearlessly examines the pain of loving someone as well as the idea that no matter how much it hurts, we are powerless to turn away once we’ve given away our heart. Although it’s ultimately not the most uplifting read, there is enough heart-pounding romance and fierce longing in the story of a young woman who falls in love with a priest and spends her life trying to convince him to love her back, to last a very long time.

Eleanor & Park, Rainbow Rowell (2013)

This novel is technically for young adults, but will make readers of any age feel nostalgic about their first love. (Remember how intense and all-consuming it was? Remember how you believed it would last forever because otherwise what was the point of loving at all?) Set over the course of one high school year and told from the alternating perspectives of alluring misfit Eleanor and beautiful boy Park the passion between these sixteen-year-olds is nothing short of swoon-worthy. This book will make you long for your high school boyfriend and for the innocent days before texting and Vine.