What a cute collection of short stories! Serendipity comprises 10 short stories, each depicting a different romance trope! The stories are YA, but I found them to be really uplifting and cute. Additionally, there is a lot of representation. This was a fun listen - thank you to Macmillan Audio for the ALC!

I received a free digital audio copy of this book from Net Galley in exchange for an honest review.

It's been almost a week since I finished listening to Serendipity. Overall, the stories were fun, though some were better than others. A few instances of suddenly having feelings for a person bothered me, but otherwise it was a cute book.

Like most compilations, I liked some of the stories and then others just weren't really for me. I love romantic tropes, like most readers I totally have my favorites like friends to lovers, marrying a stranger and then falling in love, enemies to lovers...and the list goes on. I was hoping for ten different romantics tropes told in a unique fashion to really bring this together. I will say the big twist to many of the tropes were they were LGBTQ+ stories instead of more traditional M/F. In fact, I would say half of the stories fell into that category.

Marissa Meyer is one of my favorite authors ever, and a cute romantic trope story told by her was exactly why I read the compilation. I will say her story was by far my favorite, probably due to personal bias but Shooting Stars was a cute story where on a class field trip two people keep getting thrown together. One has had a secret crush on the other for years and every time she is around him she drops something on her shirt or has cotton candy in her hair. Maybe on this trip the fates will help her out and throw them together enough they both get out of their own way.

Of all the other stories, only a few stand out. I didn't know any of the other authors and while a few of the stories were cute, a few just felt agenda driven and weren't really my cup o' tea.

Auld Acquaintance I completely enjoyed as it was a friends to lovers story where two bffs finally figure out they are made for each other when at a school New Year's Eve lock in. It was one of the most believable of all the stories and I loved how everyone else knew they would be great together, they just hadn't figured it out yet. This was a M/M romance done so well that I'd look into reading something else this author wrote.

I wish more of the stories stuck with me. They are all pretty quick and honestly most had either characters I didn't really enjoy or the trope felt like it was really missing for the heart of the story. Partially that is the fault of the short story format. It is just hard to really build a lasting bond with characters you are only with for 20-100 pages. I did like Liberty for its message of love yourself for who you are, but the love story felt second to that and I'm not sure what romantic trope was trying to be expressed.

If you would like to read some stories with a diverse cast and don't mind some agenda driven parts, then this probably exactly what you are looking for. The stories were full of racial and gender diversity along with one economic diversity story. Marissa Meyer put in a great short story and there are probably a few winners in this for everyone. But like most compilations, not every story is going to resonate with everyone.

Narration:
There are a number of narrators based on the stories. All were really good at conveying the characters in the stories. Liberty's narrator stands out a bit because of the Latin accent.

This book was not for me. 10 short stories that are more for a teen audience than adult. I liked maybe 2 of the stories, the other 8 were just average. My favorite story was Shooting Stars by Marissa Meyer.

I was given a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you NetGalley and Macmillan for the advanced reading copy of Serendipity edited by Marissa Meyer.

This is the perfect anthology for anyone who likes romantic tropes. The audiobook has a full cast of audiobook narrators. There is also LGBTQIA2S+ representation.

I am not the target audience for this book. If I was in middle school/high school I would have enjoyed this more.

Bye Bye, Piper Berry (The Fake Relationship) by Julie Murphy
3 Stars
When Piper’s boyfriend Travis cheats on her Piper decides to ask her best friend Gabe to fake date her to get back at her ex.

Anyone Else But You (Stranded Together) by Leah Johnson
2.5 Stars
Two classmate rivals/co class presidents get stuck in a Princess Palace together.

The Idiom Algorithm (Class Warfare) by Abigail Hing Wen
2 Stars
This short story was set at Christmas time. Overall, this was mostly just confusing. This is about the difference of socioeconomic backgrounds. Tan wants to impress his girlfriend Rebecca’s parents so they can make their relationship official. Rebecca was rude, not the best love interest. I enjoyed Tan’s character though and really just felt embarrassed for him. I wish the story had been about Tan and Winter instead.

Auld Acquaintance (The Best Friend Love Epiphany) by Caleb Roehrig
3 Stars
Taking place at a school New Year’s Eve dance two best friends decide to make a pact to be each other’s New Year’s Eve kiss if they can’t find any other boys to kiss.

Shooting Stars (One Bed) by Marissa Meyer
5 Stars
I love Marissa Meyer! This about a senior class trip about long standing crushes.

Keagan’s Heaven on Earth (A Secret Admirer) by Sarah Winifred Searle
2 Stars
This was a graphic novel short story. This needed to be longer and didn’t feel complete. It also didn’t seem to fit the “A Secret Admirer” trope. However, the art work was well done.

Zora in the Spotlight (The Grand Romantic Gesture) by Elise Bryant
4 Stars
Zora decides to go to winter formal to support her best friend with a grand gesture to win back her ex girlfriend when she is surprised with a grand gesture of her own, even if it wasn’t meant for her.

In a Blink of the Eye (Trapped in a Confined Space) by Elizabeth Eulberg
4 Stars
The show choir is on a trip to London. This one was more about friendship than relationships.

Liberty (The Makeover) by Anna-Marie McLemore
3 Stars
This is the first time I’ve read Anna-Marie McLemore. This short story is about a cheerleader who’s new teammate was a makeup YouTuber she use to follow. This should have been “Celebrity Crush” instead of “The Makeover.”

The Surprise Match (The Matchmaker) by Sandhya Menon
3.5 Stars
Rosie wrote code to pair couples based on their social media accounts. Her best friend asks to be put in the program to find his match.

So I really loved the first and second story, but the rest of the book was a bit meh aside from a slightly better story here and there. The first story about the fake relationship made me cry a little at the end because of how sweet it was. The second story had great character growth and mending the relationship of the two girls. The story about the grand gesture had a really creepy guy involved and I don’t understand how he got redeemed because his actions were a bit stalkerish. Overall, I thought the stories were very high school and I think I may have enjoyed them more if I was that age, but I’m not. I got a bit bored with some of the stories and thought they were a bit juvenile. I would definitely recommend this to teens (who are the intended audience lol), but probably not older readers.

3.5/5 Stars

This book was an absolute delight. 10 very versatile and diverse, cute short stories about teenage love. I really loved the diversity of the characters. I appreciated each story having its own voice in the audio narration which echos the differing voices of the writers.

Some of the stories were more "for me" than others, but on the whole this was a very enjoyable read.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publishers for making this ARC available

This was fun collection of YA short stories based on popular tropes. I liked the variety of authors and characters. There were a couple of stories I didn't enjoy though. I listened to the audiobook and I enjoyed the different voices.

This was a charming collection of short love stories. I did find myself wishing they were just slightly longer to get a little more invested in the romance, but they were bite-size happy stories that were easy to fall into.

I enjoyed the narration for all of the stories, and I am very excited to recommend this to students!

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for letting me listen!

Summary: The narrators on this were AMAZING. They absolutely made each and every story for me. I think I liked this infinitely more in the audiobook format because each narrator did such an amazing job building the characters in their story. I loved loved loved listening to this and found it very enjoyable even though I found each story pretty basic and a little overdone.


Bye, Bye, Piper Barry
Trope: Fake dating
Rating: 3/5
Thoughts: I love fake dating but this just didn't really do it for me! I didn't feel the chemistry between the main characters. It also had some really, really awkward parts that I just couldn't get past!

Anyone Else But You
Trope: Stranded together/forced proximity
Rating: 4/5
Thoughts: Definitely one of my favourites! The narration was amazing!! I loved the story, I loved the characters, I loved the background for each character. I really liked the representation in this story. It wasn't too rushed, there was a nice ending, all around, this was a really great story!

The Idiom Algorithm
Trope: Class warfare
Rating: 3/5
Thoughts: This was A LOT. I love Abigail Hing Wen but I think this was a story that needed to be a full length novel for it to be really well done. I didn't love a lot of the aspects of this story and found it super super dramatic which didn't bode well for other aspects of it (particularly the YA aspect of it). I liked the final epiphany and how it ended, but didn't love the story itself.

Auld Acquaintance
Trope: Best friends to lovers
Rating: 4.5/5
Thoughts: Definitely one of my favourites! I love best friends to lovers so this really worked for me. I loved the representation and I love the way the story was written and narrated. Such a great little short story!!

Shooting Stars
Trope: One bed
Rating: 4/5
Thoughts: This was another really great short story!! One bed to the max! Love the one tent aspect! Loved all the characters and the narration. Overall, really well done!

Keegan's Heaven on Earth
NA/5: Not included in the audiobook version

Zora in the Spotlight
Trope: Grand romantic gesture
Rating: 3/5
Thoughts: This one was not my favourite, it was very heavy on the trope itself in terms of all the romantic gestures, but I just didn't love it. It didn't really stick for me. The characters weren't my favourite. The narration was really good though!

In a Blink of the Eye
Trope: Forced proximity
Rating: 2/5
Thoughts: Easily my least favourite. The trope wasn't even for a romantic relationship! Her friend is really really really bad! The narration was great because all of the narrators in this audiobook were but I cannot recover from how terrible her friend was!!!

Liberty
Trope: The makeover
Rating: 4.5/5
Thoughts: Okay I admit that the trope itself wasn't really used which is why I took away half a star here but overall, this was my absolute favourite story. The representation was AMAZING and the characters were so lovely!!! I loved everything about this story. The narration was AMAZING. Love love loved this one.

The Surprise Match
Trope: The matchmaker
Rating: 3/5
Thoughts: This one was just kind of bland for me. I loved the idea of it, but found it a little bland. It was good, but not amazing.

Overall thoughts: The best thing about this was that it was in audiobook format!! The narrators deserve a huge round of applause for how much they added to this!

I would never have normally read this book. I don't tend to read rom-coms, I dislike most tropes, and contemporary is one of my least favorite genres, but like most people, I read this book because it involved Marissa Meyers.

Like others are saying, I wouldn't say that all these stories are highly original, but in my opinion, most contemporary rom-coms kind of end up having very similar make-ups. There were many things that left turned me off from some of the stories. There were a lot of pop-cultural references which I dislike in books because I want a book to take me far away from real life. Also, some stories were very unrealistic and some of the romances were forced and felt rushed. One particular story was just way too bizarre, (matching people up based on an app a high schooler made, and all the information that "pairs" them comes from their social media?!!?.) Also, the last story with the grand romantic gesture was hard to read because of how cringe it was and the audiobook made it even worse. Unsurprisingly Marissa Meyer's short story was my favorite and I have little to say wrong with hers. I loved the development and nothing felt, for lack of a better word, stupid.

But the good thing about this book is I can confidently say that I smiled at the end of most of the stories. How things fell together, no matter how cringe-worthy they were, I still felt a little giddy. I also never normally read anthologies, I am pretty sure this is my first one, and I was happy with the setup. I like that if one story wasn't my favorite storyline, there was something completely different up ahead.

I also liked that each story was short because I was less likely to get bored of it. And even though each story was short it didn't take away from the character development. For most of the stories, I still found myself quickly aware of the characters and their individual personalities.

"I received a complimentary copy of this book through NetGalley. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own."
I have been so excited to get my hands on this book, and I was beyond thrilled to receive the audiobook galley. It was such a great collection. I especially loved the Julie Murphy story

Serendipity (Ten Romantic Tropes, Transformed) by Elise Bryant, Elizabeth Eulberg, Leah Johnson, Anna-Marie McLemore, Sandhya Menon; Marissa Meyer, Julie Murphy, Caleb Roehrig, Sarah Winifred Searle, & Abigail Hing Wen
Narrated by Aida Reluzco, Alaska Jackson, Ewan Chung, Gary Tiedemann, James Fouhey, Jeanette Illidge, Natalie Naudus, & Reena Dutt
Publisher: Macmillan Audio
Genre: Teens & YA
Publication Date: January 4, 2022

Serendipity is a collection of ten romantic short stories by some of the best authors out there right now! There is definitely something for everyone in this collection.

I listened to the audiobook and loved the narration! It was so much fun to listen to! I definitely recommend checking this one out!

I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

Thank you to NetGalley, Macmillan Audio, Macmillan Young Listeners, Feiwel & Friends, Marissa Meyer (editor) and all other contributing authors and narrators for the opportunity to listen to the audiobook of Serendipity: Ten Romantic Tropes Transformed in exchange for an honest review.

This is a collection of ten teen romance short stories that take traditional romance tropes and give them a bit of a twist.

"Bye Bye, Piper Berry" (The Fake Relationship) by Julie Murphy
Rating: 4/5
The fake relationship trope is features as Piper seeks to make her ex boyfriend jealous after he cheated on her. When she asks her best friend, Gabe, to go out with her as a fake relationship, Gabe says yes, but only because he has loved Piper since childhood. Too bad her ex is also his best friend, complicating the fake relationship. A nice twist: Gabe is considered "fat", and larger people tend to not have a lot of representation in romance novels. It is nice to see this aspect of diversity in this story. The audio narration of this story was well done and added more flare to the characters and their relationships.

"Anyone Else but You" (Stranded Together) by Leah Johnson
Rating: 3.5/5
A very basic story. Two girls get trapped in a party store overnight. They seemingly never liked each other, but there was somehow a misconception of each others actions toward the other. They look into the future, as high school is over in a matter of hours. The only nice highlight to this story is the Black and LGBTQ representation, adding a nice thread of diversity to an otherwise bland tale with little romance and not much unique. The audio narrator for this story was great!

"The Idiom Algorithm" (Class Warfare) by Abigail Hing Wen
Rating: 4/5
This story was a bit droll at first. The narrator has a bit of a slow monotone voice, but once I got into this story, I got past that. Daughter of a Chinese billionaire wants to see what it's like to go to a public school in the United States. Tan, her boyfriend, is dying to finally meet her parents. She goes extra lengths to make Tan look like he is rich, but when he slips up at dinner, the girl is taken back to China by her family. Tan spends months developing an algorithm to find her based on her speech patterns and use of idioms. What he finds in the end might not quite be the romance he expected.
I thought this story had its realistic moments when it comes to dating parameters of different classes and I enjoyed the twist at the end (though it was expected as well). I can see a lovesick teenager spending months trying to find his girlfriend who was taken by her parents, though it is truly unrealistic to seek someone out as such. Teenage brain is great at taking over when it comes to love! This was a pretty wholesome story with a good message about class and romance.

"Auld Acquaintance" (The Best Friend Love Epiphany) by Caleb Roehrig
Rating: 4.5/5
Got to admire the "auld" use of "old" in the title for alliteration. Great audio narration. Definitely a basic best friend love story, but by far one of the best in the collection. New Year's Eve party and two gay best friends are determined to find a match by the end of the night so they can have their kiss and start the year off with the gay romance they have both always wanted. They share a pact that, if they can't get each other boyfriends by the end of the night, they will share the kiss themselves. Their friend doesn't think that's the best idea...you can see where this story is going. Quirky, positive, and well-written, I loved the realization the narrating character has of his love for his friend and how it comes about being admitted. A very worth-while LGBTQ story.

"Shooting Stars" (One Bed) by Marissa Meyer
Rating: 3.5/5
I am a bit disappointed, as I had higher expectations from Marissa Meyer's story. The narrator was great. In fact, I think it is the same narrator that does a lot of Meyer's books. But that didn't help the fact that this story was very generic and bland with not much of a twist. Camping trip. Scheme between friends to allow for the sharing of one bed between crushes. Hiking. Star Gazing. Nothing wrong with that, it just felt like there wasn't enough romantic spark to trigger what my teenage years yearned for.

"Keagan's Heaven on Earth" (The Secret Admirer) by Sarah Winifred Searle
Rating: NA/5
This story is told in comic book format and was not included in the audiobook version.

"Zora in the Spotlight" (The Grand Romantic Gesture) by Elise Bryant
Rating: 3.75/5
Good audio narrator. At first I didn't like this story. Why are all of these stories taking place at a school dance? It gets boring with the same setting over and over. The main character, Zora, felt a bit bland talking about her popular best friend and Instagram. She notices a random "noticeable" hot guy at the dance who ends up bursting out of a paper phone at her blaring "Call Me Maybe." Oops, wrong girl. Totally embarrassed, Zora disappears, but finds that she wasn't the only embarrassed one and bonds with Mr. Noticeable.

"In a Blink of an Eye" (Trapped in a Confined Space) by Elizabeth Eulberg
Rating: 3/5
Something about London. A crush on a guy. The London Eye. Meh. Good narration but average story.

"Liberty" (The Makeover) by Anna-Marie McLemore
Rating: 3.5/5
This was well narrated and I enjoyed the premise. When cheerleading, you have to occasionally touch butts, boobs, and thighs of other girls to make those towers and jumps and land cool flips. When You are a lesbian cheerleader, it's hard to not feel like others are always assuming that you are turned on by those necessary physical touches. Well, that's not the case, unless said cheerleader might just have a crush on a fellow cheer member.

"The Surprise Match" (The Matchmaker) by Sandhya Menon
Rating: 3/5
This one was okay with a good narrator. Female friend tries to help male friend hook up with his perfect match. He mentions the name of someone he likes and his friend works on matching them up, only to find an even more perfect match through her search.

Overall a very average collection of teen romance stories that hardly even use the trope well.
Favorite: "Auld Acquaintance." I absolutely loved this story. It had good romantic tension, great characterization, and a very heart-felt conclusion.
Least Favorite: "In a Blink of an Eye" which just felt very flat. The setting was different than the rest of the stories, which I really appreciated, but I just wasn't feeling the characters. I even restarted this one from the beginning to try and give it a second chance, but it still just didn't ring well with me.
This collection has quite a few LGBTQ stories, and if anything, I would recommend this collection for that target audience for the experience-related stories for those in the LGBTQ community to find connections to their own experiences.

For an anthology I think the concept works well having different romance tropes for each story. This is 100% a YA book. The stories will work for the intended audience but I don't see them crossing over in appeal to older readers at all. The stories do capture the feelings and dramatics of teenagers really well. Its diverse in the characters and settings so I think many teenagers will be able to relate to the stories.

I really enjoyed this audiobook. Each story averaged out to about 45min to just under an hour, which was great for me. I tend to play games while listening to audiobooks, so an hour or less was just right for timing.
Each story is based around a romantic trope, but flipping it on its head a little in most cases. Fake relationship, stranded together, best friend love epiphany, the makeover, etc. They were all handled really well and most of them did not end like the typical trope would. There was a good diversity here, too. Both in including BIPOC and queer individuals/relationships.
My favorite of this collection was probably the second one, which was two girls getting stranded in a grocery store overnight. It was a little bit of enemies to lovers and it was two black queer girls. I just really liked how it developed and how it counted out their hours they were stuck together. The fact that they didn’t actually have anything physically happen during the lock-in made it interesting to me.

I definitely would recommend this collection to anyone who loves YA and romance. It’s a very enjoyable collection of short stories.

I love a great short story collection. The stories in this book flip traditional romantic tropes on their heads in surprising ways. I've been such a sporadic romance reader that this book made realize it's time I brush up on my tropes, even though I did recognize a few of them. There are all kinds of flipped love stories in the book. This is a great book for those in need of a short story or in need of a change from some of the typical romance novels.

Thank you Netgalley & Macmillan Audio for the arc!

I requested this on a whim yesterday and finished in one sitting! The book is a collection of short stories based on YA romance tropes, with middling results (for me). Some of the stories I ADORED and others just didn't do it for me (which is par with YA romance tropes, tbh).

<b> Bye Bye Piper Berry by Julie Murphy </b>
3 - I'm a solid middle on the fake relationship trope in the first place. I can't decide how I feel about the premise/existing relationship of Piper & Gabe. Throughout the whole story I waffled between "yes this is totally fine" and "mmmmm this toxic."

<b>Anyone Else But You by Leah Johnson </b>
2.5 - This just wasn't for me. I didn't connect with either character, and the stranded together premise wasn't believable (and neither was the resolution).

<b> The Idiom Algorithm by Abigail Hing Wen </b>
1.5 - Whew hard pass on the male character. I couldn't get around it, and it distracted me from everything else.

<b> Auld Acquaintance by Caleb Roehrig </b>
4.5 - This was so cute and the characters were so enjoyable! It's so easy to buy into this story, and the payoff is worth your emotional investment.

<b> Shooting Star by Marissa Meyer </b>
4.5 - The one bed trope doesn't usually work for YA, but Marissa Meyer handled this exceptionally well. It was a healthy relationship, and a believable story. Loved it!


<b> Keagan’s Heaven on Earth by Sarah Winifred Searle </b>
This was not included in the audiobook, so no review!

<b> Zora in the Spotlight by Elise Bryant </b>
3 - This was cute, if a bit on the nose.

<b> In a Blink of the Eye by Elizabeth Eulberg </b>
3 - I thought this was sweet, and a twist on the trope instead of an outright abandonment of it.

<b> Liberty by Anna-Marie Mclemore </b>
1.5 - I appreciate and admire the impetus behind the makeover, but the trope super isn't for me and always makes me uncomfortable.

<b>The Surprise Match by Sandhya Menon </b>
3 - Teens don't say text speak out loud y'all.

Genre: Young Adult
Actual Rating: 3.5 stars
Content Warnings: None that I can think of.

“Serendipity” addresses different romantic tropes, twisting them into extraordinary and more inclusive versions of the tales we’ve heard a hundred times before. Following prompts like unrequited love, fake relationships, and grand romantic gestures, the stories are sharp and entertaining.

This compilation of stories delivers what’s promised. This book is perfect if you’re looking to delve into different worlds and stories without the time commitment of reading a whole book. Think watching a movie versus watching a short Youtube video. If you’re in the mood for short videos, then this is the book for you.

I was lucky enough to be provided with the audiobook thanks to NetGalley. I found most narrators to be charming and their voices fit their characters perfectly. There was just one occasion in which I felt the voice didn’t match the character I imagined, but even then, listening to this audiobook was amazing.

I would recommend this book to anyone looking for short, heartwarming stories. This compilation reminded me of Rainbow Rowell, Maureen Johnson, and John Green (think the Christmas-y compilation they were a part of in 2016, “Let It Snow”, this book kind of has those vibes), so I would recommend this book to anyone who’s liked their writing.

ARC provided by NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

This is a darling collection of diverse YA romance stories. I loved every one of them. The audiobook has a variety of narrators, each well chosen for the story. I was sorry when the book ended!

Thanks, NetGalley, for the ARC I received. This is my honest and voluntary review.