So far as Valentine’s Day is concerned, there are two kinds of people: those who revel in prepackaged tokens of love and those for whom such tokens elicit the response of retching. Regardless of what camp one falls into, one thing is certain: stores are currently brimming with cherubs and chocolates and hearts. And according to Bookslut’s Melissa Fischer, even book covers aren’t immune to the seasonal onslaught of red-hued crass commercialism. In the litblog’s February issue, Fischer takes stock of some seasonal offerings, visually critiquing each one. Some of the featured titles include a couples workbook with bold, utilitarian design; a collection of dark short stories more appropriate for those who love Halloween; and an anthology of poetry for loners by the likes of Pablo Neruda and William Carlos Williams called The Hell With Love: Poems to Mend a Broken Heart. This last book’s cover image features four conversation candy hearts, each bearing a word from the book’s title.

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Click here for Melissa Fischer’s Bookslut piece