short stories – Whimsical Dragonette

ARC Review: Serendipity by Marissa Meyer, various (short story collection

Publishing Date: January 4, 2022

Synopsis:

Love is in the air in this is a collection of stories inspired by romantic tropes and edited by #1 New York Times-bestselling author Marissa Meyer.

The secret admirer.
The fake relationship.
The matchmaker.

From stories of first love, unrequited love, love that surprises, love that’s been there all along, ten of the brightest and award-winning authors writing YA have taken on some of your favorite romantic tropes, embracing them and turning them on their heads. Readers will swoon for this collection of stories that celebrate love at its most humorous, inclusive, heart-expanding, and serendipitous.

Contributors include Elise Bryant, Elizabeth Eulberg, Leah Johnson, Anna-Marie McLemore, Marissa Meyer, Sandhya Menon, Julie Murphy, Caleb Roehrig, Sarah Winifred Searle, and Abigail Hing Wen.

My Review:

This was delightful. The first story was cute and funny but followed the plot of the movie Drive Me Crazy rather too closely. Other than that the stories were wonderful and I loved all of them. The romances were cute, often surprising (hence the twists on classic tropes), and delivered swoonworthy romances which is hard to do in a short story. It’s hard to pick favorites, though I did love Anna Marie McLemore’s and Marissa Meyer’s the best. The twist on stuck in a small space was also quite lovely.
If you love YA romance, romcoms, classic tropes, or twists on classic tropes, definitely give this one a shot.

*Thanks to NetGalley and Feiwel and Friends for providing an e-arc for review.

ARC Review: The Tangleroot Palace by Marjorie Liu

This book is Dark. Most short stories are pretty dark but these are just. Beyond dark. I should have guessed after Monstress, but this is somehow darker. Maybe because I understand what’s going on more than in the graphic novels? Some of the darkness gets lost in translation to pictures I think. These stories are quite good just. Need to read in small doses. And the images – often disturbing – stick with you no matter how you might wish to forget.

*Thanks to NetGalley and Tachyon Publications for providing an e-arc for review.

ARC Review: A Universe of Wishes edited by Donielle Clayton

I LOVED this anthology. Short story anthologies are generally hit or miss with me, and I tend to be very picky about them. But this one I absolutely loved Every. Single. Story. I don’t know if it was the focus on diversity, but every story was so fresh and new and bold.

I haven’t read a Darker Shade of Magic, but it’s definitely moved up my list after the background story in this volume. It’s been years and years since I read the Gemma Doyle books, but I was immediately sucked into the related story and actually was shocked out of the book, blinking, when it ended and I remembered that I was reading a story in an anthology and not another full novel. I would definitely read a full novel about Gemm and her friends after the original trilogy.

For that matter, I would read an entire novel about pretty much all of these stories and will be searching out full novels from all of its authors.

*Thanks to NetGalley and Random House Childrens Books for providing an e-arc to review.