What happens when a group of romance writers take common romance tropes and give them life using a multicultural and LGBTQ+ cast? You get some stellar short stories that breathe life back into some tired literary devices. This book is fantastic if you are looking for short stories situated within the romance genre that features BIPOC and queer characters. The stories aren't especially "spicy" and not all of them were incredible but the anthology as a whole is fantastic if you're looking for some romance escapism.

Some of my personal favorites included "Silver and Gold" by Natasha Ngan, "Passover Date" by Laura Silverman, and My Best Friend's Girl by Sara Farizan. The stories are easy to read, many of them are perfect length and tempo for a quick read before bed, and the characters are often incredibly believable.

Review: This was a great short story collection! My favorite stories were Gloria Chao's (An adorable couple who are oblivious!) and Laura Silverman's (Fake dating! The best trope!), but I think the whole collection was wonderful! I definitely think there is a story for everyone in the book, and I would definitely recommend reading it!

I received an e-ARC from the publisher.

Fools in Love is a series of short stories all about love, this book is adorable because the stories are so romantic and my absolute favorites are "Edges" by Ashley Herring Blake, "What Makes Us Heroes" by Julian Winters, "Five Stars" by Amy Spalding and "Silver and Gold" by Natasha Ngan. Each story follow a popular trope: enemies to lovers, love triangles, hero vs villain, mistaken identities, snowed in together, fake dating and relationships. There’s a great representation of diversity with LGBTQ characters. Some stories are contemporary and others are sci-fi/fantasy, I enjoyed reading stories of different genres. It’s an excellent collection of romantic stories and I recommend this book.

Characters

The characters in each of the stories were well developed, and they each had their own personalities. With anthologies like this, characters can start to run together, but all the characters were different, and I could tell who I was reading about. All of the characters were sweet and really cared about the other people in the stories. The characters had interesting hobbies and backstories as well.

Plots

The plots to all the stories in this collection were interesting. Each one was different, and they were all unique based on the trope used. Some were modern stories, and some were fantasy and sci-fi. I enjoyed reading most of the stories here. Bloom, using the trope, Love Transcends Space and Time by Rebecca Barrow, follows a woman named Mera who is looking for someone she has seen in her mother’s garden and was talked about in letters. The Passover Date by Laura Silverman is a fun story following the fake dating trope. My final favorite story was These Strings by Lilliam Rivera is a fun take on sibling’s hot best friend.



Writing

I loved all the writing in the stories. All the writers were wonderful, even the ones I didn’t know of before, which for this anthology was a lot. All the writing matched the stories well, and I felt each author’s writing added to the story without taking away from the characters or the plot.

Romances

All the romances in this anthology were so cute. Most of them were LGTBQ+, which made me happy, and they were all executed well. I loved how each of the stories had a trope but flipped the trope on its head, adding their own unique way to tell the story. Each romance was interesting and I enjoyed seeing the characters get together.

Enjoyment

I had such a great time reading this book. The stories made me happy seeing the romance tropes I enjoy seeing told in a new way. Some stories are longer than others are, but they were all the length needed to tell the story.

Fools in Love is a collection of sweet stories all by different authors, with lovely characters and settings.

What this book lacks is creativity. The book dragged on and on because every story was just like the last. The writing style and character arcs were a recycled formula with no fresh twits, whatsoever. Although I enjoyed that the stories featured LGBTQ+ and racially diverse characters, it was not enough to maintain my interest throughout it all.

Thank you to NetGalley for my approval of this arc.

Fools in Love is a collection of diverse love stories from multiple authors. I loved that all the characters were of the LGBTQ community and race inclusive.

However, I want to point out that there was nothing remarkable about the stories. None of them stood out where I went "Yup! That's my favourite!"

With 15 different short stories in this collection, after a point of time, all of them started to run into each other. It was the same "style" in each of them. Yes, there are 15 different authors, but it's like all 15 of them had the same idea when it came to the execution of their stories.
The second half of the title says Fresh Twists on Romantic Tales and honestly, there were no "fresh twists" to these stories.

Furthermore, the stories had plot lines that seemed to be better suited for full-length novels. Another problem that I encountered was that either the plots were too detailed and took away from the leads or they barely scratched the surface.

Overall, none of these stories, except one, did it for me. It is shocking since there are so many of them to choose from. These were, at best, nice.
I know there are readers out there who will love these and readers who will see themselves in these characters and stories.


★ ★ ★ ★ ★



Below you will find the individual rating for the short stories in this collection.

➜ Silver and Gold: Snowed in Together, by Natasha Ngan - 2 stars

➜Five Stars: Mistaken Identity, by Amy Spalding - 2 stars

➜ Unfortunately, Blobs Do Not Eat Snacks: Kissing under the influence, by Rebecca Kim Wells - 2 stars

➜ Edges: The grumpy one and the soft one, by Ashley Herring Blake - 3 stars

➜ What Makes Us Heroes: Hero vs. Villain, by Julian Winters - 3 stars

➜ And: Love Triangle, by Hannah Moskowitz - 1 star

➜ My Best Friend's Girl: Best friend's girlfriend, by Sara Farizan - 1 star

➜ (Fairy)Like Attracts Like: Mutual Pining, by Claire Kann - 2 stars

➜ These Strings: Sibling's Hot Best Friend, by Lilliam Rivera - 2 stars

➜ The Passover Date: Fake Dating, by Laura Silverman - 3.5 stars

➜ Bloom: Love Transcends Space & Time, by Rebecca Barrow - 2 stars

➜ Teed Up: Oblivious to Lovers, by Gloria Chao - 3 stars

➜ Boys Noise: Only One Bed at the Inn, by Mason Deaver - 3 stars

➜ Girls just want to have fun: Secret Royalty, by Malinda Lo - 1.5 stars

➜ Disaster: Second Chance Romance, by Rebecca Podos - 1.5 stars


2.5 Stars!

I loved all of these short stories. They were all so dynamic and sweet, and each one made me smile really hard. I loved the amount of representation in this book. The amount of queer authors that came together for this warms my heart. Can't wait for more people to read this. Such a cute collection.

While I'm not normally the biggest fan of shorter stories and anthologies, seeing the authors involved I just had to read this. I loved the largest majority of stories in this particular anthology, many making me wish they were full books so I could exist with the universes and characters for much, much longer. I laughed and I cried and I mostly had the best time. I rated down for the miscommunication trop in many of them, but that's more of a personal taste.

**Thank you to Netgalley for providing me with a free e-ARC in exchange for an honest review**

I'm not usually a reader of short stories anthologies but when I saw the authors of this one I was instantly hooked on the pitch, even more so when I read that it was all romance stories. However I didn't like all of the stories equally which is why I rated this book a 3 stars out of 5. My favorite stories were the ones by Ashley Herring Blake, Julian Winters, Hannah Moskowitz, Laura Silverman and Mason Deaver, most of which I'd already read books of.
I mostly enjoyed the contemporaries story because I found they delved more into character development, and just because I generally enjoy contemporary more than anything. However none of the stories were bad or anything, each of them had something cute and enjoyable. Also I found the diversity of this anthology to be so refreshing and effortless, ie the characters race, genders or seualities were never the focus point of the story but just a part of a characters live. I thoroughly recommend this anthology and it made me want to read some author's books even more.

Collection of 15 Romantic stories featuring mostly LGBTQ characters.

It has a variety of tropes such as enemies to lovers, love traingle, best friend's sister, fake relationship, love at first sight, mistaken identities. And a vast range of genres such as sci-fi, sports romance, super heroes, a fantasy fictional world, time traveling, summer romance and even end of the world.

I loved and adored each of the story. And each story plot and characters are so unique and different from each other you feel like you are getting transport to different world within seconds.

Majority of the stories are about LGBTQ characters and I think this book features them in one of the best ways. Even though being short stories you connect with the characters, feel their chemistry and root for them instantly.

It even depicts a series of emotion from being insecure about oneself to being certain what they want, one sided love to being vengeful, hung up on ex to loving someone from years.

This book is full of sunshine, rainbows, unicorn and everything good in the world. This book is a warm cup of coffee on a winter's day while snuggling with your favorite blanket. This book will definitely make you smile even if you are going through your worst days. I can't recommend this book enough.

Do you need anymore convincing or reasons to read this book? Just go buy & read now!

Executed With Panache And Flair….
Fifteen authors, fifteen tales. Each tale a reimagining of familiar romantic tropes and each done well and executed with panache and flair. A truly enjoyable book which will stir the reader as they immerse themselves in tales of the heart. Just lovely.

Entertaining, enjoyable, and sweet. This collection was wonderful. I had the chance of falling in love with short stories again thanks to this book. I loved the different tropes and enjoyed them a lot. I am sure many people will love this book. I couldn’t recommend it more to be honest! A 5 star read for sure.

I was bound to strike out sooner or later with being head over heels for every new short story collection that was coming out-- unfortunately I had to find a few diamonds in the rough rather than loving every story of romantic tales with twists. And I was even sadly disappointed in a few authors I truly enjoy not having stories that matched the books I've come to love from them.

The two that were winners for me: Amy Spalding's "Five Stars" that was a twist on the mistaken identity trope. And, Mason Deaver's "Boys Noise" which plays off of their version of "only one bed at the inn".

I was also surprised that there really isn't anywhere specifically that mentions they're LGBTQ love stories and there isn't a bit more description about explaining the trope whether in a paragraph before the start of the story or after or even at the end where they give the authors' biographies.

Fools In Love was the perfect short (and cute!) book I needed to get me out of a slump. This selection of LGBTQ+ and BIPOC stories ranging in genre, perfected so many of my favourite tropes; one bed, love triangle, fake dating and more! Some authors added their own spin to these much loved tropes and others stuck to the roots but so many of them were executed beautifully.
But although I adored most of these stories of fools in love, some were not great. They could've been improved with a longer page count possibly, to allow for more development. Despite this, I would love to see many of these stories as full length novels, especially Unfortunately, Blobs Do Not Eat Snacks

i think i'm giving this a 3.5!
I love romance stories, so i was over the moon to get to review this book! however, there were a lot of stories in this where i was just unsure of what was happening and i just didn't really enjoy. also, the way this anthology ended with the second chance romance where two exes reunite after the earth learns that an asteroid is going to kill everyone in three days.... i didn't enjoy that story and sped through it because it gave me anxiety lmfao.

Thank you to Perseus Books, Running Press and NetGalley for the earc of this anthology in exchange for my honest review.

This was such a fun array of queer, romantic trope stories! I loved seeing so many familiar tropes done in some absolutely new settings. I generally struggle with anthologies, but this one kept my attention and really turned quite a few tropes on their ear.

A few really stood out for me, and I think everyone will enjoy this collection a great deal.

Fools in Love is an anthology of queer stories from across genres and tropes and I enjoyed it so much! I have to admit, some of the tropes could have been executed better but the others were so amazing and really made my heart swell! Loved this and everyone should definitely read this!

THIS BOOK WAS SO GOOD! I love romance tropes and this anthology had them all. I couldn’t get enough. Each story took me to a happy place and left me craving more. The characters were dynamic and relatable. The stories were moving and memorable. Extra points for the queerness and beautiful writing!

I had a lot of fun with this one. The last 40% of the book really supported me through my hangover and everything becase there's nothing better then reading about meets cutes and romance while feeling like you need to vomit.
Obviously I enjoyed some more then others, that's just a fact of anthologies but none of them felt like a chore to get through. There are a fair few that I hope are being pitched for full length novels. Also, big yay for the amount of f/f pairings!!

So I will be reviewing this book story wise. Some were actually great while others just could not make the cut:
1. SILVER AND GOLD ( Snowed in together): 1 Star Rating: my very first read was a very disappointing one. I had so many expectations from this trope. But this story is just so not up to mark. First half is just dedicated to some mountain race- which we so do not care about- the other half was given to romance. It would be much better if the author was more concise and clear about the characters she was writing.

2.FIVE STARS ( Mistaken Identity): 2 star rating: This was an okay read. The starting is kind of over stretched. It would be so much better if the writing and editing were better.

3. UNFORTUNATELY BLOBS DO NOT EAT SNACKS ( Kissing under the influence): 1 star rating: This story was so kiddish, more like a middle grade book rather than a young adult story. 95% of the book dealt with weird magic stuff which was not even remotely interesting. And where was the kissing under influence in this. There were also no good dialouges .

___________and why were the main love interests in the above three stories so far cocky, oversmart, YOLO kind of females, and the main character is underconfident. Is this some kind of new side trope we readers are being kept in the dark about?!__________

4. EDGES( The grumpy one and the soft one): 4 star rating; This was a pretty good story - short, sweet and simple. I like that not a lot of time is spent on useless stuff like giving long winded descriptions and they get exactly to the point. The emotions felt raw and real in this one.

5. WHAT MAKES US HEROES( Heroes Vs Villains): 3 star rating; A new perspective on the whole hero vs villain trope. Even though it wasnt much of my style, I still liked it. I especially liked how the protagonists stops accepting his parents forced decisions.

6. AND( Love Triangle): 0 star rating: okay, so this trope is like a really easy common one and we can find thousands of stories with the same trope. But this book is like a huge punch in in the face to all those books who used this trope well. So this book strated off pretty promising the first few pages but it is so uttterly ridiculous. Protagonist is stupid. And she develops feelings for a boy but is already in a relationship . Its like she sees this boy ONE time and is like OMG I love, i cant be happy without him, and now I cant stay with my boyfriend of three years. She tells her boyfriend- oh I love him so much and then cries. The boyfriend being a doormat, goes like - "oh no worries, lets all three date each other and forever be happy. easy peasy."
I am not against such time of relationships at all. But I really hate the way this story has been executed. Very poor story.

7. MY BEST FRIENDS GIRL:4 star rating: This was a nice story. The characters were well developed and actually had some character to them. There was an actual plot conflict to build the story up. The superhero element was also kind of interesting.

8. THESE STRINGS(Siblings hot best friend)-4 star rating; A very good story. Even though I am not a huge fan of this trope,I still ended up liking it because the writing had a very good flow and was overall well written. The main character was very likeable. It felt kind of short though.

9.THE PASSOVER DATE( fake dating)-3 star rating- Good story, nice and crisp writing. Trope is executed well. Ending was not rushed and felt apt. The humour was good too.

10.BLOOM( Love transcends space): good concept and idea. This was the first story i read for this kind of this trope. But it was just too long. tighter editing would be better.

11. TEED UP( Oblivious to lovers);- 4 star rating- I love dhow they explored the asian american theme in this one. the intense pressure sometimes put by asian parents, the sexism in a male dominated society, the misogny, everything has been presented well. romance was simple and cute.

12.BOYS NOISE( Only one bed at the inn): very very cute story. A simple writing style made it even more beautiful.

13. GIRLS JUST WANT TO HAVE FUN( Secret Royalty)- 2 star rating- okay okay story. expected more from this trope
overall this was not a great read and but really liked all the representation. It was so very inclusive and diverse which i really appreciate. But I would not be reccomending this book to anyone.