Thank you, NetGalley and the publisher for the chance to read this anthology!

Overall rating: 3.5 stars


1) I Ate the Whole World to Find You by Tom Wilinsky & Jen Sternick (4 stars)
Rep: M/M relationship

A very sweet story about a swimmer and a chef. Basil's ambition is to be an Olympic swimmer, he has a strict diet and a packed routine. When he meets Will, an aspiring chef, they strike up a tentative friendship over Will's love of cooking, especially for other people.

I really liked the writing style, and while the plot did have some pacing issues during the middle/end, I ended up really enjoying Will and Basil's story!


2) The August Sands by Jude Sierra (3 stars)
Rep: M/M relationship

This short story is about Tommy, a teenager on the cusp of heading off to college, and his last family holiday, on said holiday he meets a boy called Chase and they begin and short but sweet holiday romance.

I didn't really mesh with the writing style for this one and I was a little bored in places. But I loved the focus on family and first romance.


3) Love in the Time of Coffee by Kate Fierro (2.5 stars)
Rep: F/F relationship. Lesbian MC, bisexual love interest.

"Love in the Time of Coffee" follows Gemma and Anya, who meet as children and grow up as best friends. This is a friends-to-lovers romance.

This one didn't really work for me as I found the constant time skips jarring, especially as this is a short story, and I wasn't a massive fan of the romance element. It was cute in places and I liked the writing style, but overall it wasn't my cup of tea.


4) Gilded Scales by Julia Ember (3 stars)
Rep: F/F relationship

I adore fantasy, especially queer fantasy and dragons, so this seemed perfect for me, and while I did like it, I was left feeling a bit unsatisfied by the ending and the worlding building was confusing in places. However, I really liked the writing style, the plot was hooking and very fast-paced and the main character was great! I would say this is more of a friendship story rather than a romance.


Overall, a very short and accessible short story collection with LGBTQ+ main characters that I'd recommend to readers looking for diverse anthologies!

I LOVED THESE STORIES!!! I think they were such fun, light LGBT+ YA romance short stories and would be a quick read for any reader.

This book might have been the cutest thing I've ever read. This is a collection of four queer romance stories ranging from contemporary to fantasy, and each and every one of them hit me right in the heart.

"Love in the Time of Coffee" was my favorite out of the collection; it was so sweet and wholesome to read about queer girls coming together throughout their friendship and falling in love. If you're looking for a warm and happy romance read celebrating LGBTQ+ relationships, this one is for you. I appreciated that the stories were in the YA genre but it felt like any age could read them and connect to the story. Honestly, I could have read even more stories in a collection like this but I'll take what I can get!

This was really heartwarming and nice short "stuff" stories! I think i really like the first one the best, they had such good chemestry! But i liked the others too.

This is such a deeply enjoyable LGBTQ+ anthology! It features two m/m stories and two f/f stories, and so much queer goodness!!

I Ate the Whole World to Find You - Tom Wilinsky & Jen Sternick 4/5

This was the absolute cutest story, about a professional swimmer training for the Olympics, and a young aspiring chef feeding him truckloads of meals. I absolutely loved this dynamic, and it was a really funny story as well.

Rep: m/m romance

The August Sands - Jude Sierra 3/5

This was a really cute summer romance, about an 18 year old gay boy having his first kiss and his first romance, and about what it feels like to grow up and have your life changing, and you know you're leaving your childhood behind forever. Unfortunately, the writing style didn't really work for me though.

Rep: m/m romance

Love in the Time of Coffee - Kate Fierro 4/5

This was a very quick, slice-of-life kind of story, sharing short scenes from the characters' lives together. I'm a big fan of the childhood friends to lovers trope, so I really enjoyed this story! It also made me crave coffee really badly.

Rep: f/f romance, lesbian MC, bisexual love interest

Gilded Scales - Julia Ember 4/5

As a big fan of dragons and shapeshifters, this fast-paced and easy to follow fantasy story was perfect for me!

Rep: f/f romance

I really loved this book! It contains 4 stories of queer meet-cutes, 2 of which really stood out to me. I adored Love in the Time of Coffee!

I really enjoyed the four stores in this book! I am a little sad that the female/female stories seemed like they weren't allowed to be as open or physical as the male/male stories, but I really loved the romance in those two. The fact that the boys in the first two stories never had the doubting "does he like me?" "is he gay too?" was actually really refreshing and just so wonderful to read. As someone who has to come out what seems like constantly, the idea of living in a world where you don't have to worry if the person you have a crush on, could be attracted to your gender too, is pretty great. I was surprised by the last one being a fantasy story, I didn't remember the description saying it was different genres and since the first three were all contemporary, it through me a little. I was (and still am to be quite honest) very much in the mood for lady knights stories so I'm glad to have gotten a little bit to satisfy me. I'm definitely interested in reading more from these authors so I'm really glad I got a little taste of their work here. Thank you so much for the opportunity to read this!

I absolutely loved this book. I was in a bit of a reading slump and it completely broke my curse! I adored all four of these stories, and the contrast of different settings, styles, characters and plots! The last one especially stood out to me, and I'm going to go read everything by these authors!!!!!

A wonderful, warming anthology of four uplifting stories. From the introduction to the last page, I loved everything about this collection.