4 Fictional Books that Nail the Passion, Agony, Monotony, and Endurance of Relationships

Plus Five Reflections on Love

I didn’t plan to hand off a list of book recommendations on Valentine's Day. Then, an unbelievably fantastic offer on one of the four must-read modern novels caught my eye. I wanted you to nab the deal I wish I did…

Why these books? They brilliantly narrate the transition from love-filled origin to the repetitious rhythm of home life - far from a fairy tale.

If you've parented, you know. You've removed diapers, wiped, gagged, and put another one on. Served up breakfast for them, not you. Cheerios. Pop-tarts. Really small pancakes cut into really small squares. Mopped up the spillage. Cleaned their sticky hands. Changed the stained shirt you just put on. Faster. Just a little faster and you can make the next event on time. The doctor appointment. Daycare. School. Playdate. Family visit. You've negotiated, pleaded, and wrangled with them to do another thing for them. Must clean the stained clothes. You've laid on carpets and floors. Building towers of blocks. Putting together puzzles with 12 pieces. Moving blue plastic toys into a pile separate from green plastic toys. You winced, finding one of these plastic objects embedded in your foot. You pushed swings. Enjoying their smile for minute one through eight. But they asked for more. Harder. Longer. More. More. More. Tried to squeeze into child playground slides, searched for lost socks and lost mittens, fixed broken zippers and shoelaces. Bandaged imaginary wounds. Offered them snacks they asked for earlier and now refuse. Tears. So many tears. You've carried the weight of a growing child, and tried to ignore the pain in your forearms. Pain that will not go away. You just switch arms. Again. Again. You dread the next sequence of dinner, complaints, new dinner, untouched food, tears, dishes, and bath time. You tuck them in with their favorite story - the same one as yesterday. You've pleaded with them to sleep. Just need five minutes of solitude. Five minutes. And then, you woke up to do it again.

If that last paragraph resonates then you need these 4 books. Better than any psychologist writing about love in the time of minutiae. Let’s start with the most recent one…