Thank you to NetGalley for this copy of Fools in Love! I absolutely love short stories so I’m sooo excited I got the chance to read this!

What makes this collection so fun is that the authors each had their own trope and wrote a short story about whatever love trope they were given. I liked that the trope was listed under the title so you knew what kind of story you were reading before you started. I think this will work out great for people because we all have different taste! Me personally, I’ll give anything a try, but for those who have specific taste, they are able to skip around and read the stories that most speak to them!

Overall I would recommend to anyone needing some cute YA love stories!

Individual story ratings:

Silver and Gold by Natasha Ngan 3 stars
Five Stars by Amy Spalding 4 stars
Unfortunately, Blobs Do Not Eat Snacks by Rebecca Kim Wells 3 stars
Edges by Ashley Herring Blake 3 stars
What Makes Us Heroes by Julian Winters 5 stars
And by Hannah 3 stars
My Best Friend’s Girl by Sara Farizan 4 stars
(Fairy) Like Attracts Like by Claire Kann 3 stars
These Strings by Lilliam Rivera 3 stars
The Passover Date by Laura Silverman 5 stars
Bloom by Rebecca Barrow 4 stars
Teed Up by Gloria Chao 3 stars
Boys Noise by Mason Deaver 3 stars
Girls Just Want to Have Fun by Malinda Lo 5 stars
Disaster by Rebecca Podos 4 stars

This book is perfect for LGBTQ+! Even if you are not part of the community, the stories are still very enjoyable to read. There was a lot of variety in the different stories. I enjoyed how one chapter would be fantasy and the next contemporary. Most of the stories were very well written. There was one that read like a Wattpad type story which was terrible, but the rest were pretty good. Some of the different tropes were interesting. Some stories didn’t actually follow that trope very well. Like one literally just mentioned how there was one bed just briefly and that was it, but the story was still very good. If they followed the tropes a little more than it would be even better.

Overall I liked all of the stories, but some of them could have been written a little better.

I acquired the e-arc through Netgalley, thank you!

Fools In Love is a collection of stories all focused on romance. It varies from contemporary, fantasy to science-fiction. Each story focuses on a different popular romance trope.

I really enjoyed this anthology! The thing I appreciate the most is how LGBTQIA+ representation there was! I also definitely discovered some new great authors. I think this type of book could be very good for new readers who want to explore different romance tropes and find out what they enjoy, or also discover new authors to check out. My personal favourite stories were "Unfortunately, blobs do not eat snacks" by Rebecca Kim Wells, "My best friend's girl" by Sara Farizan, and "(Fairy)like attracts like" by Claire Kann. I would have read fulls books about these stories!

.............


Silver and gold by Natasha Ngan - 4
"Snowed in together"

Five stars by Amy Spalding - 2,5
"Mistaken identity"

Unfortunately, blobs do not eat snacks by Rebecca Kim Wells - 5
"Kissing under the influence"
My favourite quote: "Tess," the blob said, sounding infinitely patient. "I'm not a blob."

Edges by Ashley Herring Blake - 3
"The grumpy one and the soft one"

What makes us heroes by Julian Winters - 2
"Hero vs. Villain"

And by Hannah Moskowitz - 1
"Love triangle"

My best friend's girl by Sara Farizan - 4
"Best friend's girlfriend"

(Fairy)like attracts like by Claire Kann - 4
"Mutual Pining"

These strings by Lilliam Rivera - 1
"Sibling's hot best friend"

The passover date by Laura Silverman - 5
"Fake Dating"

Bloom by Rebecca Barrow - 5
"Love transcends space time"

Teed up by Gloria Chao - 2
"Oblivious to lovers"

Boys noise by Mason Deaver - 4,5
"Only one bed at the Inn"

Girls just want to have fun by Malinda Lo - 3,5
"Secret royalty"

Disaster by Rebecca Podos - 5
"Second chance romance"

Fools In Love is an inclusive and charming collection of stories! It puts a new spin on well-loved classic tropes such as: only one bed, sunshine/grump, hero vs. villain, fake dating, and more. I absolutely loved how much LGBTQ+ representation was included in almost every story. While I was previously familiar with several of these authors, I also enjoyed hearing from the new voices! By the end of this anthology, you’ll undoubtedly have added these authors’ previous works to your TBR.

Several stories that really stood out to me were Julian Winters’ “What Makes Us Heroes,” Malinda Lo’s “Girls Just Want to Have Fun,” Gloria Chao’s “Teed Up,” Mason Deaver’s “Boys Noise,” and Rebecca Barrow’s “Bloom.” In What Makes Us Heroes and Girls Just Want to Have Fun, I wanted a full book that followed these characters!! I loved how typical gender dynamics in regards to sports were flipped in Teed Up and Boys Noise explored what you have to sacrifice as a celebrity in the music industry. Bloom was reminiscent of an Anna-Marie McLemore story, combining magical realism and love across time.

This anthology has superb pacing; I flew through these joyful and poignant stories. With settings ranging from contemporary to outer space, there’s something for everyone. Fools in Love is the perfect book for anyone who enjoys romance, classic tropes, and seeking excellent LGBTQ+ rep in love stories. Fools in Love releases on December 7, 2021. Thank you to Ashley Herring Blake & Rebecca Podos, all the participating authors, Perseus Books/ Running Press, and Netgalley for a free ARC in exchange for an honest review.

For publisher: My review will be posted on the publication date and I will publish it on Instagram, Goodreads, Amazon, and Barnes & Noble etc.

I loved these stories. I love the LBGQT stories as they are eye opening and it is a good way to understand others.

I also love short stories.

A compilation of short stories that are LGBTQIAP inclusive! This collection is a refreshing take on love stories for Young Adults which still provides a variety of genres and tropes to fall in love with. By having an anthology with amazing authors, it gives the reader the opportunity to get a taste of each writing style the author does. Providing the reader new authors and books for them to read.

FOOLS IN LOVE is an eclectic collection of joyful teenage teenage love stories, and I loved every second of reading them. Many of these stories struck me as very experimental; concepts and techniques are developed in these stories that you wouldn't see from a full-length YA novel, which was very refreshing, if not risky. Of course, given the diversity in genre and author style there were stories I preferred over others; however there is truly something for everyone in this collection.

Each story centers around a trope, such as Mason Deaver's "only one bed" boyband romance, and Lilliam Rivera's "older sibling's hot best friend" forbidden love story. Some stories feature meet cutes, some feature second chance love stories, and others center around a coupling who has known each other for a while.

Standout stories were written by: Mason Deaver, Julian Winters, Ashley Herring Blake, Laura Silverman, Amy Spalding and Lilliam Rivera. (AKA the contemporary ones, which is my preferred genre)

Thanks to the publisher for providing an eARC of Fools in Love in exchange for an honest review.

If you're looking for a diverse collection of love stories, you've come to the right place. I knew looking at the author's list that some of these authors are queer or frequently write about racial or religious minorities, but every single story in here takes a trope white-cishet people have been seeing themselves in for years and diversifies it. As with all multi-author anthologies, some stories felt stronger than others (I also think it's a lot trickier to tell a short YA fantasy/sci-fi romance than it is to tell a contemporary one so that was definitely a big factor in my enjoyment) but all in all, this rocked.

What a superb assortment of 15 short stories from 15 different authors! I think it covers every readers’ preferences. It has LGBTQ+ in different genres and almost all the “troupes” I could think of.

Each story was interestingly unique and would keep you glued till the end. In fact, you’ll be wishing it’s a full length novel!

I can’t pick a favorite since each has its own charm. I like the different writing styles -it was a real treat to read!

For those looking for good short stories with a strong diverse representation, this one’s worth to binge read!

I received an ARC of this title from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

3.5 stars

I’m always a fan of anthologies. It’s super satisfying to get little glimpses into multiple stories, without having to commit to reading an entire book. However, there are pros and cons that come with reading an anthology, and this particular collection was no different.

There truly is a great amount of diversity and representation in this book, and not just with LGBTQ characters and relationships as is noted. There are definitely more F/F pairings than I expected in this book, but many different sexualities and gender identities are featured and discussed throughout the book. The genre collection was also diverse. If you’re looking for a queer-inclusive, romantic, quick-read type of book, this is honestly a great choice. My favorites included “Boys Noise” by Mason Deaver and “Bloom” by Rebecca Barrow.

Some of the stories were stronger than others, as is the case with many anthologies, and so there came certain stories that I just wanted to skim through because they didn’t hold up as well as the others. For example, a majority of the sci-fi and fantasy stories were harder to get through. Since the stories are all pretty short, there isn’t enough time to give ample detail on the background of the location, the magic, the history, etc., and often left a lot to be desired (or confused about) as you kept reading. This wasn’t as much the case with the contemporary pieces. All of the endings also wrapped themselves up in a pretty little bow, which was a bit aggravating. While I love romance and understand this was an exploration in twisting cis-het tropes, some more angst, open endings, or slightly unresolved/sad endings would have been great as well. All happy endings can be a little tiresome/expected.

All in all, there was a great deal of representation, each story had its own strength, and it was a genuinely fun book. There were some areas it struggled since it is an anthology, but not so much to make it a bad read overall.

Okay what can i say about this anthology which would be enough. It was filled with love stuck people who left my heart into a fuzz .
Honestly picked up this book for Mason Deaver but every single story was written with such beauty that I loved it through out .
People like me who love fast romcoms , would love how each story didn't stretch out a lot but still was it's own complete world . And all the representation just made it 10x better

An interesting anthology, despite some short stories varying in quality. Mason Deaver's, Amy Spalding's, Ashley Herring Blake's were wonderful! Also really enjoyed the diversity in each title composing this anthology despite the fact that the superheroic themes might have been quite redundant from one story to the next!

Rating: 3.5
I loved so many stories of this book!
There was so many great LGBTQ+ representation, I really appreciated all the fun takes of the various romantic troupes like enemies to lovers and fake dating and those were my favourites.
The stories was also of many different genres like contemporary, fantasy and sci-fi which is great as it can appeal to more diverse fans.

3.5 stars rounded up!

Thanks Netgalley and the publisher for the ARC!!

Fools in Love is a series of short stories all about love, they all have different romance tropes like best friend's girlfriend, fake dating, only one bed at the inn etc and they made me really happy when I was reading them and the stories were so cute! Some of them were contemporary and others went deep into the sci-fi fantasy realm which was really fun, and the writers have such gorgeous writing styles (like, I could not get Natasha Ngan's story out of my head, some of the lines she wrote were amazing) and its really different and diverse and overall I really enjoyed this!

However, while most of them were really good, a couple of them took me forever to get through, to the point where I just wanted to skim them. I was excited about the tropes but the execution of them bored me a little bit.

I would recommend reading this, I think you'll find at least a few stories that you love!

A kind thank you to the publisher for the e-ARC.

This was a lovely collection of YA diverse stories. I enjoyed it, and I do believe that teens around the globe will enjoy it, too, and more than anything, relate to the diverse cast of characters. I also liked the variety of genres in this anthology.

My favorite stories were those by Natasha Ngan, Ashley Herring Blake, Julian Winters, Sara Farizan, Claire Kann, Laura Silverman, and Gloria Chao.

My one small issue with some of fantastical stories (except Natasha Ngan's and Malinda Lo's) was that the world-building was explained a little later, and I was already confused by the point I reached the description.

Overall, it was a nice "feel-good" collection of YA diverse stories where characters of all backgrounds and identities find love and their HEA, and what's not to love about that?!

I genuinely enjoyed most of the stories in this book! The romances were sweet and I thought building each one around a common romance trope was a clever approach that definitely drew me in. I loved the diversity in genre and approaches these authors took to 'romance tropes'!

I found this to be a bit middling. Some of the included stories were GREAT - they're fun tropes, the writing is exceptional, etc. There were a handful that just left a lot to be desired and didn't really keep me engaged despite their short length.

Overall, the good stories outweigh the less-than-ideal ones, so I would definitely recommend this - just with a caveat that not all of them will be great.

3.5/5 rounded up to 4/5

As is to be expected for a collection of stories, there were some I liked more than others. Overall, I wouldn't say there were any I hated, and I really appreciated the inclusion in each story. I also (spoiler) loved that they all had happy endings - currently, it's just the sort of thing I need and appreciate. I'm also a MASSIVE fan of tropes, so this was already right up my alley.

My favourites:
What makes us heroes (I adore the hero / villain trope, even if I think there could have been a bit more drama between the two MCs)
Unfortunately, blobs do not eat snacks - really liked the dynamic in this one and the magical bits
Teed up - who knew a short story could get me so invested in golf?

My least favourites:
These Strings - the brother's best friend trope is one I'm not a fan of and the story didn't grip me
And - liked the change on the love triangle trope but didn't care much for the writing itself
My Best Friend's Girl - was a superhero story...not about the superhero? Maybe that's why I wasn't interested...but also I just don't think the story was as good as it could have been

Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review!

I like short stories for moments when I want to read but I need something light and this was cute, funny, and romantic, a really good combination

Very cute little anthology of love stories and the range was really nice to read and change between!