This was a delightfully inclusive anthology of YA romances with each author tackling a trope of the romance genre and putting their own spin on it. As such, there was a huge amount of diversity across the collection. Most of the stories ventured away from heteronormative standards which was wonderful to see and meant that there’s a wide range of sexualities and gender identities represented here.

As is the case with any anthology, there were some stories that I enjoyed and others that I didn’t. The ones that stood out to me most in this collection were:
- Mistaken Identity by Amy Spalding
- Unfortunately, Blobs Do Not Eat Snacks by Rebecca Kim Wells
- Edges by Ashley Herring Blake
- These Strings by Lilliam Rivera
- The Passover Date by Laura Silverman
- Boys Noise by Mason Deaver
- Disaster by Rebecca Podos

Overall, this is a great anthology that I think will be well received by YA readers especially those whose identities are maybe not as represented in existing anthologies.

This anthology has both bestselling and up-and-coming authors writing stories that center around reimagining some of the most popular tropes in the romance genre.

This was a wonderful collection of some of my absolute favorite tropes, and honestly I couldn't get enough of this anthology. There is a story for everyone that is a romance reader within this. Fake relationships, enemies to lovers. Love triangles, best friends, mistaken identities, missed connections. It also features powerful flora, a superhero and his nemesis, a fantastical sled race through snow-capped mountains, a golf tournament, the wrong ride-share, and even the end of the world.

Within this collection of genre-bending and original stories celebrates it shows how love always finds a way. It was such an enjoyable read. Thank you NetGalley for an arc of this book.

3.5 stars

YA has long been in need of many more short story collections, and we are seeing some great ones lately; this will be a welcome addition to the group.

Each of the stories in this collection focuses on a specific romantic trope and on characters who represent LGBTQIA+ identities in distinct ways. To me, the naming of the tropes is a fun, audience appropriate way to familiarize this group of readers with the nuances of romance. My hope is that folks get inspired to look for these tropes - and for these authors - in book-length romances as a next step.

For me, any text that effectively focuses on intersectional representation is already a win, but I do wish there had been a bit more variety and expansiveness within the queer representation here. Since this is a primary focus of the collection, I was hoping for/expecting a little more than I got in this area.

Like any anthology, there are some stories that I found more engaging than others, but I do think this is an enjoyable collection overall. I'll be recommending the stories - likely specific ones for specific purposes - to my students.

This is the best romance anthology I’ve ever read, and I truly believe that there is a story in here that will resonate with every reader. Fools in Love takes all of the most well-known tropes and spins them on their heads. Think “enemies to lovers,” “one bed,” “love triangle,” — you name it and it’s in here somewhere. And normally, I think of those tropes as cheesy, and overdone. But Fools in Love proved me wrong time and time again!⁣
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I think my favorite story was Bloom by Rebecca Barrow, with the trope “love transcends time and space.” In Bloom, Mera plans to travel back in time to kill the man who would end up murdering her mother. The writing and the magic system in here was so beautiful! Mera’s mother taught her flowers have magical properties, and that consuming an orange blossom can give you the power to travel in time, but you can’t control your destination. Instead of finding the man who killed her mother, Mera meets Delphine. This story was so heart-wrenching and tender, it absolutely stole my breath away.⁣
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But so many of the stories were incredible! Some of my other favorites were Five Stars by Amy Spalding, The Passover Date by Laura Silverman, and Girls Just Want to Have Fun by Melinda Lo. There were contemporary, fantasy, and sci-fi stories, and so much amazing representation! There were gay and lesbian couples, trans characters, and even a polyamorous trio, which I have never before seen in a piece of YA literature! There were Jewish characters, and Latinx characters, and Asian characters, and Black characters… this book truly had it all! Reading this made my heart so happy.⁣
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I don’t think I’ve ever been more impressed by a collection of stories. I really wasn’t sure how this was going to go when I cracked it open, but every story was wonderful to read! If you’re looking for a sweet romantic pick-me-up I promise you’ll find something special in Fools in Love! There is something in here everyone can enjoy, and I truly can’t recommend this enough! One of my favorites of the year, by far.

Short story collections are a challenging field, and at times it was difficult to stay motivated on finishing the book as a whole. However, each individual story was gold (except that middle one that was written in second person….hard pass on that). The varied and consistent queer representation was a delightful surprise and the inventive interpretations of the tropes was like…opening a birthday present in each chapter!

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for providing this eARC in exchange for an honest review.

Fools In Love is a short-story collection featuring reimagined romance tropes. Perfect for a YA audience, these stories offer a wealth of worlds and characters to fall in love with. Each piece was fresh, interesting, exciting, and diverse.

I don't have a ton to say about this collection, other than that I really, really enjoyed myself. Each story offered something new, and while some were a lot stronger in terms of character and world building than others, overall I left feeling quite satisfied with my reading experience. My favorite story was the last one, Disaster by Rebecca Podos. It had an interesting premise, but it wasn't so overcomplicated that I was focusing on the setup rather than the romance. I also particularly enjoyed The Passover Date by Laura Silverman and Bloom by Rebecca Barrow.

I also think that this anthology is important. Every single piece represented not just a different trope, but a different type of relationship, with characters with a range of identities. And every single one of them ended with joy. There are so, so many young readers who will be able to pick up this anthology and see themselves somewhere on the page, and that is incredibly valuable.

Fools in Love is an anthology of young adult romance short stories by a number of rising authors, with each story taking a pretty well known romance trope and running with it. For those who come to my blog for SciFi and Fantasy reviews, rest assured that Fools in Love comes with a bunch of Fantasy and SciFi Romance stories, although not every story fits in this category. What they all do have, like any good romance story, is a Happy Ever After ending (HEA), even as they feature a bunch of very different backgrounds for those relationships to emerge.

And this is an absolutely lovely anthology that's a lot of fun and has just the right amount of charm you'd hope for stories like this. The romance stories feature people and relationships of all backgrounds - Straight and Queer, Cis and Trans, different Religions, Races and Cultures, etc. - and they're generally all done well. A few stories are merely good rather than great, but some are real highlights, and even the more basic ones at least are charming and enjoyable, as you'd expect from romance stories.

More specifics and highlights after the jump:


This anthology features the following stories (and the Tropes they supposedly feature):

Silver and Gold (Trope featured: Snowed in Together) by Natasha Ngan

Five Stars (Trope featured: Mistaken Identity) by Amy Spalding

Unfortunately, Blobs Do Not Eat Snacks (Trope featured: Kissing under the Influence) by Rebecca Kim Wells

Edges (Trope featured: The Grumpy One and the Soft One) by Ashley Herring Blake

What Makes Us Heroes (Trope featured: Hero vs Villain) by Julian Winters

And (Trope Featured: Love Triangle) by Hannah Moskowitz

My Best Friend's Girl (Trope Featured: Best Friend's Girlfriend) by Sara Farizan

(Fairy)Like Attracts Like (Trope Featured: Mutual Pining) by Claire Kann

These Strings (Trope Featured: Sibling's Hot Best Friend) by Lilliam Rivera

The Passover Date (Trope Featured: Fake Dating) by Laura Silverman

Bloom (Trope Featured: Love Transcends Space Time) by Rebecca Barlow

Teed Up (Trope Featured: Oblivious to Lovers) by Gloria Chao

Boys Noise (Trope Featured: Only One Bed) by Mason Deaver

Girls Just Want to Have Fun (Trope Featured: Secret Royalty) by Malinda Lo

Disaster (Trope Featured: Second Chance Romance) by Rebecca Podos

Again, all are highly enjoyable and feature relationships of multiple varieties, but a few are clear highlights, at least for me.

Unfortunately Blobs do not Eat Snacks is an adorable fantasy romance, featuring two teen girl magic students on their practical final exam, with one girl being essentially the personification of Order and the other being basically chaotic, and them falling in love as the test winds up more and more awry.

What Makes Us Heroes features a black teen superhero regretting the end of his M-M relationship with a more popular white superhero, and then realizing that despite his parents pushing him towards that hero for popularity sake, what he really loves is the boy he grew up with who turned into a "Villain" - whose villainous acts are well intentioned and taking shots at the system (in case you missed the subtlety, Malcolm X is explicitly referenced in the dialogue).

Bloom by Rebecca Barlow is really great, as it takes a classic trope of a young woman going back in time and falling in love with someone from the past, but the person turns out to be the daughter of the man she was sent back to kill....and then seemingly she's separated from that person by time - or is she? Well, it's a romance so obviously there's a happy ending and it's very very sweet.

Teed Up by Gloria Chao is really cute as it portrays an Asian teen girl golfer competing in the US Junior Boy's Amateur, a girl who was pushed to do golf by her Asian parents and who has so much doubts about whether she really wants to do this, and trauma from a prior boy who dated her just to exploit her popularity, only to find a boy who doesn't really care about success who actually wants to cheer her on. It's some really great stuff.

Really the best of these stories are typically ones that mix the romance with other concepts and thoughts, like Teed Up and What Makes Us Heroes, which deal also with the intersection of race and parental pressure. The Passover Date for example also deals with why parents pressure their kids to date at all and how that's not fair, Disaster features a misunderstanding in an F-F relationship due to one girl being Bi and the other being Lesbian, as well as one girl essentially being closeted to her parents, Boys Noise features a secretly trans boy in a boy band on a surprise trip with the fellow band member he crushes on - but their contract prevents them from daring to be gay openly and he feels so chafed by it all, etc.

And again even the other stories are fine and enjoyable, even if they aren't anything you've probably read before or might have read better (the polyamorous "And" suffers for me from the fact that I read a similar story, ALSO in second person, in a different anthology just a week before, for example). The result is an anthology that is just a ton of fun, and if you enjoy romance, this will be really up your alley.

Reading this anthology has been so much fun.

Fools In Love is filled with all of the best romance tropes (from "there's only one bed" to "my best friend's girl" and everything in between) ready to warm the hearts of anyone who chooses to pick it up. There is a trope in here for everyone but only true romance lovers know which is the best trope*

Kudos to Rebecca Podos for curating such a cohesive short stories that are quick and easy to fall into.

My favourite stories in here:

Unfortunately, Blobs Do Not Eat Snacks (Kissing Under the Influence) - Rebecca Kim Wells (sapphic, magical, hijinks)

What Makes Us Heroes (Hero versus Villain) - Julian Winters (queer, banter, adorable)

The Passover Date (Fake Dating) - Laura Silverman (best trope ever*, awkward, obliviously cute)

I have a bit of a love hate relationship with anthologies. I love them because I can read a short story here and there without having to invest too much time in a whole novel. But I find that not every story in a collection interests me.

That was what happened with this collection. There were a couple stand outs to me (Mistaken Identity was prob one of my faves. It was so cute and I smiled the whole time I was reading that one!) but there were some duds that I DNFed.

This book was read thanks to NetGalley

I loved this anthology, it's a good mix of stories that literally have a good material for everyone.
Quick, cute and lovable love stories. I recommend this book to all the book lovers.

I received an ARC from the publisher and am voluntarily posting a review. All opinions are my own.
This anthology has a fun concept, although it does suffer from each story being too short. I enjoyed some, found others interesting, while others were skippable. I loved Natasha Ngan’s immersive “snowed in” story, as well as Amy Spalding’s fun take on mistaken identity to start off the collection. Claire Kann, Gloria Chao, and Malinda Lo also had some lovely stories. But then, there were some odd ones like the contributions by Rebecca Kim Wells, Julian Winters, and Rebecca Podos which felt like they could have benefited from more space to elaborate on complex concepts. However, a mixed bag is only to be expected with a collection from so many different authors, and I love that it features each one writing a different trope. Whatever you like in terms of romance, at least one story will likely pique your interest!

I was lucky enough to read an ARC of Fools in Love and let me tell you, the authors names are enough to draw you in, but the stories will REALLY make you stay.

In the anthology you'll get a solid mix of tropey (in the beat way) queer romances. I Loved that its also not just cis white gays, we get BIPOC characters who are all flavors of queer!!!

Now a few of the stories did drag a little, or seem to stray too far from the main character development, but nothing that i would overtly pass by.

Overall- Grab your copy, cozy up with a good snack and read some heartwarming YA romances 💛💛💛

(Review has been posted on Goodreads)

A very sweet anthology filled with some of the best tropes. Despite being romance-focused, it explored many different genres that were enhanced by a diverse representation of characters amongst the short stories. I do admit that I read this in order of the tropes I was feeling at the time, and enjoyed some stories more than others. In some stories, it was difficult to feel a connection with the main characters as they were so short, but I'm taking that as a good sign that it left me wanting more :)

This is a pretty sweet anthology of romance tropes, fifteen stories by fifteen authors, most with queer mains and poc rep and written in genres ranging from contemporary to fantasy and historical fiction. Some sci-fi, too, in the mix. As always with anthologies it was a little hit-and-miss - one or two were a struggle to get through, but most of them were pretty fun; a special shoutout to my favourites, Unfortunately, Blobs Do Not Eat Snacks by Rebecca Kim Well, The Passover Date by Laura Silverman, Girls Just Want to Have Fun by Malinda Lo, and Disaster by Rebecca Podos.

Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for providing me an ARC in exchange for my honest review.

When I heard about this anthology, I was definitely excited. I'm a big fan of anthologies and a big fan of tropes, so this obviously sounded like something I'd be interested in. However, I found most of the stories in here just fell flat for me, and just weren't my thing.

I've decided to rate each story individually, mainly because I'm a sucker for details. In parenthesis next to each author's name, I've put the trope that the story is listed under in the book!

Silver and Gold by Natasha Ngan (snowed in together) - 3.5 stars
If someone were to have described the premise of this story to me, I definitely would have been intrigued! The snowed in together trope is honestly such a fun one, and I love to read it. Something about this story just didn't hit right with me, though, and I was kind of bored with it.

Five Stars by Amy Spalding (mistaken identity) - 4 stars
Again, mistaken identity is such a fun trope, so I was looking forward to this! It turned out to be a light, fun addition to the collection, and I definitely enjoyed it. It does feel slightly ironic to give a story titled "Five Stars" four stars, but here we are.

Unfortunately, Blobs Do Not Eat Snacks by Rebecca Kim (kissing under the influence) - 3 stars
I feel like this story had so much potential...if it were a full-length novel. Instead, we're pushed right into the middle of the story, and even by the end of it, I was still confused by the lack of worldbuilding.

Edges by Ashley Herring Blake (the grumpy one and the soft one) - 3.5 stars
Again, one of my favorite tropes! The only thing I put in my notes was "just okay," though, and I don't really remember too much.

What Makes Us Heroes by Julian Winters (hero vs. villain) - 3.5 stars
I can definitely see this being a story that people will enjoy, but superheroes tend not to be my think when it comes to stories, and this was just another example of that. The relationship itself was really cute, though!

And by Hannah Moskowitz (love triangle) - 3 stars
I feel like the love triange is typically over-done, so this was a nice, fresh take on it! I'd never read a story (that I can recall) that focused on polyamory. I'm not a big fan of stories told in second person, though, so that definitely lowered the rating.

My Best Friend's Girl by Sara Farizan (best friend's girlfriend) - 3 stars
A trope I'm not a big fan of mixed with more superheroes is a story I probably won't be a fan of. And, wouldn't you believe it, that happened here too. I think having the two superhero stories sitting so close to each other in the anthology didn't help its case, either.

(Fairy)like Attracts Like by Claire Kann (mutual pining) - 4 stars
This is one of my favorite tropes of all time, and this story ended up being so cute!! The pining felt a little rushed, but of course, it's a short story, so that's sort of to be expected. I would definitely read a full-length novel version of this!

These Strings by Lilliam Rivera (sibling's hot best friend) - 2.5 stars
I'll be honest, this was probably my least favorite of the anthology. The dialogue felt very stilted and awkward, and regardless of how much reasoning you give it, having the main character's name be extremely similar to your own just feels off to me.

The Passover Date by Laura Silverman (fake dating) - 5 stars
I'll be honest, Silverman's story is 100% the reason why I requested this anthology. Recommended for You was so cute, and I was really hoping for something like that. It definitely delivered! It was such a sweet, wholesome one, and probably one of my favorites in the collection!

Bloom by Rebecca Barrow (love transcends space and time) - 3 stars
The only thing I have in my notes for this is, and I quote "huh." Thank you, past Alli, for your enlightening thoughts. Clearly, it didn't leave that much of an impression on me, since I'm struggling to even recall the synopsis for this one. I'm rating it a nice 3 stars to play it safe.

Teed Up by Gloria Chao (oblivious to lovers) - 3 stars
This one was cute enough, but nothing incredibly special, in my opinion. I also felt like it didn't really keep with the 'oblivious to lovers' theme, but that may just be me being nitpicky.

Boys Noise by Mason Deaver (only one bed at the inn) - 3.5 stars
This is another one of those stories where I definitely think there will be a group of people who enjoy it, but I'm just not one of them. The story itself was pretty endearing, but I'm not a big fan of boy bands, which I felt impacted how much I enjoyed it. I also felt like the trope was barely used, which is a shame, because it's another one of my all-time favorites.

Girls Just Want to have Fun by Malinda Lo (secret royalty) - 4 stars
This was a pleasant surprise! I'd recently read Lo's historical fiction (Last Night at the Telegraph Club), but I'd never read any science fiction or fantasy by her. It was certainly a fun read, and I think this just proves I'll have to check out more of her writing soon!

Disaster by Rebecca Podos (second chance romance) - 5 stars
I feel very conflicted on how to review this one, honestly. According to my notes, I loved this. I couldn't belive the ending, and I found it amazing. ...However I can't remember anything that happened, now. I'm going to keep the five star for the time being, but I might come back and revisit that.

Overall, this really didn't live up to my expectations. I think it could have been really well done, but it sort of just fell flat. The amount of LGBTQ+ and BIPOC rep was great, though!

An average anthology where there a few hits but most are average. I like the representation and range of genres and tropes, but there were only two I really enjoyed and had to dnf several. This will probably be the last anthology I try to read because I always struggle with them

Lovely read! All the short stories had a different feeling but all of them had someone stupiditly in love with someone else, also all the representation was so diverse and cute! Loved how we also got lots of genres, we had contemporary , fantasy, adventure...And the best part is that it gave me a taste of some authors I've never read anything by them and now I'm definitely going to check it out!

Fools In Love is a romantic anthology with short stories written by Rebecca Barrow, Ashley Herring Blake, Gloria Chao, Mason Deaver, Sara Farizan, Claire Kann, Malinda Lo, Hannah Moskowitz, Natasha Ngan, Rebecca Podos, Lilliam Rivera, Laura Silverman, Amy Spalding, Rebecca Kim Wells, and Julian Winters. The anthology is also edited by Ashley Herring Blake and Rebecca Podos.

This is a very unique collection of stories that features many different favorite romance tropes. It’s a very quick read.

This is a great offering for the LGBTQIA+ young adult community that didn’t exist when I was a kid. It’s good for teens to see themselves in books, especially romances, & know that it’s beautiful & ok. I enjoyed being able to hop from story to story.

What a fun compilation!

Fifteen unique stories all centered around love. This is a great casual read. Something you can pick up at random and fall into. I actually read it in a random order based off the titles, I found it made the experience so much fun as you don’t know what you’re going to dive into.

Obviously, not every story resonated with me. The first one for example, I felt needed a lot more exposition. A lot of them felt me wanting for more. But otherwise this is a great collection of short stories.

My favorite was “the Grumpy One and the Soft One” by Ashley Herring Blake. I could hear an entire book just on those two characters.

Thank you to Netgally for this arc in exchange for my honest review.