Fools in Love is an anthology of 15 short stories, edited by Rebecca Podos and Ashley Herring Blake, each featuring a different romance trope. They span a wide variety of genres and styles, and feature a good combination of better-known and somewhat less-known authors.
Here are mini reviews of each short story:
“Silver and Gold,” by Natasha Ngan: This story features the “snowed in together” trope as it follows two girls in a sled race who get hit by a snowstorm and have to share a tent as they weather the storm. It’s super cute, and the characters are lovable and well-developed; I just wish it had had a tiny bit more worldbuilding and character background, because I was super invested in all of it and just wanted more. 4.5/5.
“Five Stars,” by Amy Spalding: This story features the “mistaken identity” trope, and the long and short of it is that the girl’s crush mistakes her for her Uber driver (failing to recognize her from the class that they share together), and so she just goes along with it and drives her to her destination, and sparks ensue. The story was cute I suppose, but lacked much character depth (or realism? Like, if you’re being safe about taking Uber then this isn’t a situation that should be able to happen). 3.5/5
“Unfortunately, Blobs Do Not Eat Snacks,” by Rebecca Kim Wells: This story features the “kissing under the influence” trope, and follows two girls who go to a magic academy together and are paired up for their final examination. It was adorable, the character development and dynamics were amazing, and I’m a sucker for anything with magic. 5/5
“Edges,” by Ashley Herring Blake: This story features the “The Grumpy One and the Soft One” trope. It follows a girl (the grumpy one) who is tutoring another (the soft one) in art, and both are oblivious to the other’s feelings. It was kind of cute I guess, but I just didn’t connect to the characters at all. 3/5
What Makes Us Heroes, by Julian Winters: This story features the “Hero vs. Villain” trope. It follows a “hero” who is trying to get his ex-boyfriend (a more famous hero) back, and runs into his childhood friend who then turned intoa villain. I didn’t really care about the characters, and the worldbuilding was just confusing; it definitely could have done with a bit more exposition and a lot more character background. 3.5/5
“And,” by Hannah Moskowitz: This story features the “Love Triangle,” trope, and is basically about a girl falling in love with another guy in addition to her boyfriend and starting a polyamorous relationship. I didn’t connect with any of the characters and didn’t feel any connection between them. I appreciated her resolving the love triangle in a different way to how it’s usually done, but I was just really uninvested in this story. 2.5/5
“My Best Friend’s Girl,” by Sara Farizan: This story follows the “Best Friend’s Girlfriend” trope. It’s another superhero one, this time with the protagonist’s best friend being a secret superhero/alien, and the protagonist growing close to his girlfriend while covering for him. I hate cheating, so I already wasn’t going to like this story, but the worldbuilding was confusing as well. 2/5
“(Fairy)like Attracts Like,” by Claire Kann: This story features the “Mutual Pining” trope as it follows two girls who are camp counselors at a fairy-themed camp. The protagonist has a curse where she has to truthfully answer questions asked to her. It was really cute, but lacked the character depth to make me love it, I just wish it had been longer to allow for that. 4/5
“These Strings,” by Lilliam Rivera: This story features the “Sibling’s Hot Best Friend” trope as it follows a girl whose family runs a puppet show and has a crush on her brother’s best friend, who helps them. I just didn’t connect with this story at all; it was cute, but I didn’t find anything noteworthy about it. 3/5
“The Passover Date,” by Laura Silverman: This story features the “Fake Dating” trope. The protagonist’s family has a tradition where everybody has to bring a date to Passover Seder, so she asks her childhood crush to help her. It is so cute and I adored it so much. 5/5
“Bloom,” by Rebecca Barrow: This story features the “Love Transcends Space Time” trope, and follows a girl whose family grows magical flowers who uses a time travel one to go back to kill the man responsible for his mother’s death before he can do it, but ends up falling in love with his daughter. It’s so adorable and I loved it. 5/5
“Teed Up,” by Gloria Chao: This story follows the “Oblivious to Lovers” trope. It follows a girl who is competing at a golf tournament that has previously been only for boys, and a boy who has a giant crush on her, but she just views him with suspicion. It’s really cute. 4.5/5
“Boys Noise,” by Mason Deaver: This story features the “Only One Bed at the Inn” trope. It follows two members of a boy band who escape for a day to New York City, and it honestly just read like a fanfic. It didn’t feel like there was anything unique about it (there have definitely been thousands of fanfic stories with the same plot that have probably done it better and with more individuality), and it didn’t even do the “only one bed” trope that well. The romance was kind of cute I guess, but I honestly didn’t care about it. 2.5/5
“Girls Just Want to Have Fun,” by Malinda Lo: This story follows the “Secret Royalty” trope, and is about a mechanic who falls in love with a princess who has snuck away for the day. The opening is basically exactly like Cinder, by Marissa Meyer, which is recognizable enough in the YA world that I felt like I couldn’t forgive the story that, since it felt so much like a rip-off of it. However, that opinion did change due to the fact that I absolutely adored the characters and romance. 4.5/5.
“Disaster,” by Rebecca Podos: This story follows the “Second Chance Romance” trope, and follows a girl who has to go stay with her ex-girlfriend during what could possibly be the last few days of life on Earth. The romance was adorable; I just don’t like apocalyptic scenarios as settings, particularly in this case where the scenario in question didn’t seem to make much sense. 4/5.
Overall, I’m giving the book 4/5 stars.
My opinions on the stories varied wildly; there were some I absolutely adored, and some I hated, but overall I really did enjoy the book. I particularly appreciated the abundance of wlw romances in it; they were all so cute and I enjoyed the representation a lot. I’d definitely recommend reading this book if you remotely enjoy YA romances; I would still happily buy it, even knowing that I disliked some of the stories, because the rest were just that good.
Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with a free eARC in exchange for a fair and honest review.
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