Valentine’s Day is sneaking up on us and ready to ambush the unprepared. “And the lonely and vulnerable,” added a crusty colleague who happened to read what I was writing.

Perhaps you need to know that I am a cynical woman of a certain age who tends to think of it as a Hallmark holiday. In other words, an event promoted by those with a commercial interest in it.

Now that I have that out in the open, here are three books from the collection that might appeal to your romantic nature.

Simply Romantic Decorating: Creating Elegance and Intimacy Throughout Your Home promotes a romantic style based on ruffles and floral fabrics. If you have a gilded white grand piano, the author will show you how to stage it. Hint: you will need a hand-blown Murano glass chandelier and a fabulous bay window.

You know, sometimes you just can’t take the cynic out of the woman.

Beautiful Bedrooms, a book from the Better Homes and Gardens franchise, offers decorating ideas for the room most often associated with romance. Happily, it’s not all ruffles and flowers.

There is a glamorous room with lilac walls and drapes and a chic rose velvet chaise. Another inviting space offers an understated palette of pale greens, blues and cream. It features fine artwork and a towering tester bed.

Romantic English Homes, a new book by Robert O’Byrne shows the romance that comes to a home with age and a storied past. You get to travel through Austen and Bronte landscapes.

The book offers a layered approach to decorating by people who love to collect things - a style that creates the impression that successive generations have occupied a home. The author notes that this is often an illusion.

But hey, isn’t that what romance is all about?