Whether or not you believe in fate, or luck, or love at first sight, every romance has to start somewhere. Meet Cute is an anthology of original short stories featuring tales of “how they first met” from some of today’s most popular YA authors. Readers will experience Nina LaCour’s beautifully written piece about two Bay Area girls meeting via a cranky customer service Tweet, Sara Shepard’s … Tweet, Sara Shepard’s glossy tale about a magazine intern and a young rock star, Nicola Yoon’s imaginative take on break-ups and make-ups, Katie Cotugno’s story of two teens hiding out from the police at a house party, and Huntley Fitzpatrick’s charming love story that begins over iced teas at a diner. There’s futuristic flirting from Kass Morgan and Katharine McGee, a riveting transgender heroine from Meredith Russo, a subway missed connection moment from Jocelyn Davies, and a girl determined to get out of her small town from Ibi Zoboi. Jennifer Armentrout writes a sweet story about finding love from a missing library book, Emery Lord has a heartwarming and funny tale of two girls stuck in an airport, Dhonielle Clayton takes a thoughtful, speculate approach to pre-destined love, and Julie Murphy dreams up a fun twist on reality dating show contestants.
This incredibly talented group of authors brings us a collection of stories that are at turns romantic and witty, epic and everyday, heartbreaking and real.
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For someone who doesn’t tend to like insta-love as a trope, I was surprised by how much I enjoyed most of these stories! Here’s my breakdown:
“Siege Etiquette” by Katie Cotugno: 4
“Print Shop” by Nina LaCour: 4.5
“Hourglass” by Ibi Zoboi: 4
“Click” by Katharine McGee: 4
“The Intern” by Sara Shepard: 3.5
“Somewhere That’s Green” by Meredith Russo: 4
“The Way We Love Here” by Dhonielle Clayton: 3.5
“Oomph” by Emery Lord: 5
“The Dictionary of You and Me” by Jennifer L. Armentrout: 4
“The Unlikely Likelihood of Falling in Love” by Jocelyn Davies: 5
“258 Million Miles” by Kass Morgan: 4
“Something Real” by Julie Murphy: 5
“Say Everything” by Huntley Fitzpatrick: 3
“The Department of Dead Love” by Nicola Yoon: 4.5
I love anthologies, and this was no different. It focused on several authors writing short love stories. There was a lot of LGBTIQ+ rep, something I personally thought was amazing. Some stories were sad, some had you laughing out loud, and some just made you feel jubilant.
I was left wanting to visit the Print Shop created by Nina LaCour, and falling for Nia and Lexie in the poignant “Somewhere That’s Green”, a story by Meredith Russo. I broke into bouts of laughter when reading “Something Real” by Julie Murphy. The stories are fantastic. I would say this is a must-read!
Okay for 11+
Ready for another anthology recommendation? MEET CUTE is a contemporary anthology with stories by some of the biggest names in YA. I’m not in love with the cover art (anyone else think they look like Raggedy Ann characters?) but I did fall head over heels for a lot of these meet-cute stories. My favorites were The Way We Love Here by Dhonielle Clayton (a magical realism story about a boy and girl who get to jump through possible futures for their relationship–bittersweet and lovely), The Unlikely Likelihood Of Falling in Love by Jocelyn Davies (about a girl who might have fallen in love at first sight with a boy she locked eyes with on a passing train who uses math to try and find him–this one needs to be a movie with that James Blunt song playing in the trailer! So cute!), and The Department Of Dead Love by Nicola Yoon (a semi-futuristic story in the vein of Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind where you can have failed relationships diagnosed and even erased and the boy who needs to know why his true love ended things–fascinating with a sweet happy ending).
I read most of these cute stories and my favorite was Jennifer Armentrout’s. I loved the meet-cute situation in this one, especially because it is based in a library! It was super cute.. some might even say zazzy.
Overall, this was a really good collection of stories! Some were definitely better than others, but there weren’t a lot of disappointments, which I appreciated. I just wanted a few to keep going, though, so now I have a few new authors to look into.
This was confusing as heck. But I got through it. I fell in love with Nicola Yoon’s short story about the DODL…. Best part for me. Some of the other stories were relatable and sweet, but NICOLA YOON <3
Some of these stories stood out more than the rest, but even then I only liked about a handful.