I adored this collection of YA short stories and loved how each one took a classic rom-com troupe and turned it on its head. Each story had its on unique story and characters.-I found myself sad at the each story -- because I wanted more! On top of that, each story had a beautiful message. If you're a YA fan and love romance, you'll love this anthology. I couldn't help but smile while I was reading it. I can't recommend this enough.

This is a hard collection of stories to rate! It is a collection that plays on classic romantic tropes which to be honest, I am a sucker for most of them. However, instead of feeling fresh, a lot of them felt reused. They didn't really bring anything new or unique. With that being said, I did love a few of them and thought they were well written! I also appreciated the diversity that was represented in some of the stories! Unfortunately, majority of them fell short (pun intended), and left me wanting more.

I think ten-entry anthologies are the sweet spot for me as a reader. There are just enough to scratch the itch and not too many that I don’t feel bogged down after a while.

Serendipity is a YA anthology with ten authors each tackling a different romance trope.

Surprising no one, the ones I loved the most were from the authors involved whose work I already love reading and the tropes I love reading about.

The standouts for me included:
-Bye Bye, Piper Berry (The Fake Relationship) by Julie Murphy
-Auld Acquaintance (The Best Friend Love Epiphany) by Caleb Roehrig
-Shooting Stars (One Bed) by Marissa Meyer
-The Surprise Match (The Matchmaker) by Sandy Menon

This isn’t to say that the others weren’t good. They were! But these were so very much my bread and butter that I’m still thinking about them a few days later.

Having read a lot of anthologies in the past two years, I’m finding that the best entries aren’t the ones that make me want a whole novel of that one specific story. That defeats the purpose of a short story. The best ones, for me, are the ones with a fully realized ending that doesn’t feel rushed, or with a jarring resolution. I like the ones that play in the space, let us feel like we’ve known these characters for chapters and chapters, instead of a mere page or two before the real conflict emerges.

Overall, the stories in Serendipity did just that. They gave fresh looks to the romance tropes and wrapped them up in fantastic characters and plots. A delightful read.

4 stars.

Here’s a short story collection perfect for Valentine’s Day next month! ❤️

💕 REVIEW: SERENDIPITY: TEN ROMANTIC TROPES TRANSFORMED 💕

By (edited by) Marissa Meyer w/ contributions from other authors

📖 SUMMARY: Serendipity is a collection of ten YA romance short stories. Each one is written by a different romance author and inspired by a different romance trope — from “fake dating” to “matchmaking.” The stories might not use the trope in the traditional sense, but you’re still guaranteed a happy ending.

💭 THOUGHTS: I really enjoyed this collection! The diverse rep is great, as well as how the authors included a trope but not necessarily in the way that romance novels would typically use it. There is even a graphic short story in here, which I wasn’t expecting but was really cool to come across! I definitely recommend this if you need something quick/easy between heavier books, since each story takes less than 20 minutes to read. My personal favorite story from the collection was the one based on the “one bed” trope!

Thank you to @netgalley and @macmillanusa for the arc! SERENDIPITY pubs tomorrow, Jan. 4.

✨ RATING: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

🥰 YOU’LL ENJOY IF: you’re a fan of any of these authors: Elise Bryant, Elizabeth Eulberg, Leah Johnson, Anna-Marie McLemore, Sandhya Menon, Marissa Meyer, Julie Murphy, Caleb Roehrig, Sarah Winifred Searle, and Abigail Hing Wen

Very cute YA Romance short stories! I will say that the cover said that the stories would be "transformed", but I could tell you many books with the same plot line as the story I read. My favorite short stories in this compilation were written by Leah Johnson, Marissa Meyer, and Elizabeth Eulberg. I thought they were fun, swoony, and different than other YA romances I have read thus far. I mean...

WHO DIDN'T DREAM OF BEING TRAPPED IN A STORE AFTER-HOURS WITH YOUR CRUSH AFTER WATCHING DAWSON'S CREEK??

Thank you Macmillan Children's Publishing Group and YALL Fest for sending me a complimentary eARC for Serendipity for the purpose of early reviewing. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

"The only thing worse than being haunted by your past is being haunted by your future."

This collection of stories and authors was the perfect mix to represent famous romance tropes with twists! It was really cute, and I thought it was a quick, light-hearted read. If you like romcoms and contemporary romance, this is the book of short stories for you! My personal favorites were In the Blink of an Eye by Elizabeth Eulberg, Shooting Stars by Marissa Meyer, and Zora in the Spotlight by Elise Bryant.

Here are the authors that participated and the tropes they worked with:
- Julie Murphy - Fake Relationship
- Anyone Else But You - Leah HJohnson
- The Idiom Algorithm - Abigail Hing Wen
- Auld Acquaintance - Caleb Roehrig
- Marissa Meyer - One Bed
- Sarah Winifred Searle - Secret Admirer
- Elise Bryant - Grand Romantic Gesture
- Elizabeth Eulberg - Trapped in a Confined Space
- Anna-Marie McLemore - Makeover
- Sandhya Menon - Matchmaker

We love tropes for a reason. They bring together elements of storytelling that are predictable, fun, and oh-so fulfilling. Serendipity delivers as promised on a checklist of timeless romantic YA tropes, each with a slight update for a modern audience. Not every story is about a white, heterosexual couple living in a bland suburbia, which is refreshing, and I think we can all agree, should be the norm.

This collection of short stories made me squeal with delight every single time love was declared, and after much suspense, reciprocated. My favorites among the stories are Anyone Else But You, Shooting Stars and Zora In the Spotlight.

I highly recommend this read for someone who needs something lighthearted and fun to breeze through, without having to worry about getting their heart torn out of their chest. Perfect read for a lazy day that you’d like to fill with just a dash of optimism.

Thank you to Netgalley, Macmillan Audio, and Macmillan Children's for the ARC and audio ARC of this! I flipped back and forth between the audio and the ebook, and I definitely recommend both formats.

4.5 stars! This was exactly what I hoped for from this collection when I saw the description and the included authors. There was diversity within the couples, as well as the side characters, both in race and orientation, I could tell that thoughtfulness was put into collecting a variety, both in tropes and diversity. I would've liked to see some disabled characters, perhaps, or a character with a different gender expression, but overall think most readers will be able to find a character finding love that they identify with. Every story was adorable and enjoyable, none were flops for me, which can be hard to find in an anthology. My favorites were Bye Bye, Piper Baby, Auld Acquaintance, Keagan's Heaven on Earth (which did not appear to be included in the audio, as it is a comic), and The Surprise Match.

This was a cute selection of romance-based short stories with a good mix of queer and BIPOC representation. They weren't all 'happily ever after,' but they all gave you closure and the feeling that good things were coming for the protagonist. One was in comic format, which was a nice change up in the middle of the book. None of them are particularly taxing, or have a super strong character arc, but if you're looking for a fun read that lets you experience bite-sized YA romance (with no explicit scenes and a ton of pop culture references), then this could be a great fit for you.

It's hard to star-review an anthology as a whole because there were ten totally different stories with different authors and there were some I liked more than others, which is nice because there is probably something for everybody (even a graphic novel) especially someone just getting into this genre.
My favorites were Shooting Stars by Marisa Meyer and The Surprise Match by Sandhya Menon (I now need to check out her other books)

Thank you to NetGalley for the e-ARC to review in exchange for my honest thoughts.

Earlier this summer I felt myself falling into a reading slump and then I fell into something else, a romance trend. And it has not stopped yet. Serendipity, not only known to be my favorite word, has now come to be known as one of my favorite reads of the season. At first I was highly apprehensive to read a collection of short stories knowing that I have a past of disliking them but this book really just hit differently. Each and every one of these stories feels like the full story and I was fulfilled and not unsatisfied by the length. I felt like each were so expertly crafted that I could connect with the characters and fully understand the plot in such a small set of pages. This book features POC and Queer representation in such positive settings that it felt effortless and not forced. All in all an amazing collection of stories made by an amazing collection of authors.

If a book could be described as food, Serendipity would be a confection.

A delightful way to spend an afternoon, these ten stories are fluffy and (mostly) angst-free. For those who love any romance trope, this is the book for you: best friends to lovers, force proximity, one bed, it has it all! And as an ardent admirer of the fake dating trope, Bye Bye, Piper Berry made me smile the entire way through.

One thing I will mention: this book is obviously meant for the younger side of young adult books. While I love YA, at times the writing felt childish and simple across the authors. While it is a romance book, there can be some depth to short stories. But honestly, this book is just here for the vibes, not to make a statement.

Another point in its favor though is how often these romance tropes were subverted. The addition of a graphic novella was also such a pleasant surprise!

This book was a fun young adult contemporary romance anthology. All 10 of the story’s are engaging and use their assigned tropes in a creative way. The standout story to me was Shooting Stars by Marissa Meyer. My one complaint would come from the story Liberty where there is an uncomfortable focus on the characters weight and weight gain that detracts from the story and never is resolved. Overall a very enjoyable and fun read!

One of the reasons I really wanted to review this book is that the idea of “tropes transformed” totally had me intrigued. I wasn’t totally sure what that meant, but definitely felt curious enough to explore it. Turns out, it’s a collection of stories centered around a specific trope but where the trope gets elevated into something bigger.

For instance, one of my favorites is the story by Julie Murphy. In it, the main characters agree to fake a dating relationship. What transformed the story for me was the moment in which the boy realizes he’s been seeing himself as “the fat kid” and not as the funny, loyal, amazing guy he is. That moment felt so raw and sweet, and suddenly the story wasn’t about the fake dating and why it happened at all, but instead became about the way we see ourselves and how that can limit us.

I really enjoyed all the stories in the book, and I felt like they fit well together. It’s a great read for anyone who’s a fan of the authors represented in the collection or of romance and romance tropes in general. I felt like the book does a great job paying homage to tropes while adding some fresh, new sparkle to them.

I really enjoyed this anthology of YA Romance stories. I always live reading different authors together and comparing their styles. A great way to introduce someone to a new genre.

YA short story anthologies are one of the best resources I've found for my middle school and some high school writing students. SERENDIPITY is one I'll be adding to my personal library as well as recommending to my students. The approach to breaking and subverting tropes in this collection is very engaging. Many of the authors have provided inventive, memorable stories with a range of characters and situations. My favorite story is Anna-Marie McLemore, which combines YouTube makeup tutorials, body image, racism, sexuality, and cheerleading. It's such a surprising and smart mix of subjects, told through a fantastic main character, with a few great twists. It's so original and I can't wait to tell my students to read this short story--and then read the rest to find their own favorites.

I really love love. I love the meet-cutes, the angst, the happily-ever-afters. And I especially love the tropes. So when I saw that ten superstar romance authors were creating a young adult romance anthology revolving around the romantic tropes, I was thrilled—and I immediately requested an ARC on NetGalley. I wasn’t really expecting to receive said ARC, but when I did, I may have screamed in joy.

And trust me, Serendipity is worth screaming about.

Edited by Marissa Meyer and with stories by Julie Murphy, Leah Johnson, Abigail Hing Wen, Caleb Roehrig, Marissa Meyer, Sarah Winifred Searle, Elise Bryant, Elizabeth Eulberg, Anna-Marie McLemore, and Sandhya Menon, it’s no wonder this anthology is the romance jackpot. From idiom algorithms to matchmaker apps, with best-friends-to-lovers and enemies-to-lovers, from secret admirers to grand gestures, Serendipity is chock-full of romantic goodness. While I enjoyed all the stories, three in particular stood out to me: “Bye Bye, Piper Berry” by Julie Murphy, “Anyone But You” by Leah Johnson, and “Shooting Stars” by Marissa Meyer.

Let’s explore them together, shall we?


“Girl got cheated on by Boy. Girl faked relationship with Boy’s Best Friend. Girl started to maybe fall for Boy’s Best Friend? There was no script for how to survive this emotional double whammy.” –“Bye Bye, Piper Berry” by Julie Murphy

Serendipity begins with Julie Murphy’s take on a classic trope: the fake relationship. In dual-narrated “Bye Bye, Piper Berry,” we follow Piper as she recruits her neighbor and friend Gabe to help her get back at her ex-boyfriend (and Gabe’s best friend) who cheated on her. The solution? Fake dating, of course! But Piper doesn’t realize that Gabe has been in love with her since first grade, and Gabe has no idea that Piper has started developing feelings for him as well. With squirrels, the musical Bye Bye, Birdie, and lots of cute scenes, Julie Murphy goes above and beyond with this trope. It’s swoony, it’s angsty, it’s fabulous. And it’s full of love!


“No phones, no internet, no keys. Just me, Jada, and the unholy weight of eight years of mutual resentment festering between us. It’s my worst nightmare come to life: We’re stranded together until morning.” –“Anyone Else But You” by Leah Johnson

Ah, one of my favorite tropes: stranded together. In her story, “Anyone Else But You,” Leah Johnson gives us senior class co-presidents Perry and Jada who are trying to shop for supplies for their school’s Senior Send-Off and end up getting stuck in the Party Palace together overnight instead. It’s Perry’s worst nightmare, but there may be more to her relationship with Jada than she realizes. And when the doors are unlocked and they’re welcomed back into the real world, how much of their evening stranded together will follow them afterwards? I adore Leah Johnson’s writing, and “Anyone Else But You” was no exception. She did a wonderful job with the stranded together trope; it was everything I’d hoped for and more!


“When we see the bed, we both freeze.” –“Shooting Stars” by Marissa Meyer

In her story, “Shooting Stars,” Marissa Meyer tackles another one of my favorite tropes: one bed. Told from the perspective of chronically-awkward Misty, we get to see Misty’s senior class trip to Yellowstone National Park—which of course includes Roman, the boy she’s been in love with for years. Over the course of the trip, Misty and Roman are thrown together in the same train compartment, hotel room, and tent—all of which only have one bed. Marissa Meyer does a brilliant job of twisting this trope just enough so that we get to see the tension-filled situation again and again before finally, finally reaching a satisfying conclusion. Hats off to this fantastic writer and the editor of the anthology as a whole!

In summation, if you love love like I do, you’ll surely love this anthology! With so many fabulous romance writers pulling the strings of the stories, how could you not? Whatever trope you’re looking for, you’ll find it in Serendipity: meet-cutes, angst, happily-ever-afters, and all. Moral of the story? Pick up a copy of Serendipity today because this is one anthology you aren’t going to want to miss!


Content Warnings for Serendipity: Strong language, infidelity, toxic relationship, homophobia, classism, racism, mentioned kidnapping

(Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with an ARC in exchange for an honest review. Any quotes are taken from an advanced copy and may be subject to change upon final publication.)

A truly delightful collection with something for everyone. I like the varied takes on the 'right in front of my eyes' theme.

Thank you to NetGalley and Macmillan Children's for the e-ARC to review. This anthology is a great collection of authors I have read and loved in the past, along with some new-to-me writers who I'm happy to be introduced to. It's hard to star-review this work as a whole because there were ten totally different stories with different levels of my personal enjoyment, which is exactly what an anthology is supposed to be, in my opinion. As a whole though, I did enjoy reading the entire work together: no totally terrible stories that take down the entire book for me, but also no superstar standouts in any of the individual short stories. It all works together, and regardless of your favorite trope, I think YA romance readers will find something to love. I did enjoy the diversity of the work, from the characters, authors, story types, and styles - and there was even a graphic novel-type story included, which I personally haven't encountered in a compilation like this before.

I think one notable big success of this anthology is that I will definitely be on the lookout for/picking up other works by some of the new-to-me authors, which means it's a great introduction to their titles.

I am usually kind of iffy about books like this with multiple short stories by different authors. Typically there are ones I don’t enjoy or even skip. This collection did not follow that usual pattern of mine. I honestly loved every single story in the book. They were all super cute and I loved how inclusive they were (with sexuality, gender, and race!) I feel like this is the perfect Valentines read. Especially for people who love love stories and the best tropes (one bed! Fake dating! Makeovers!!!)