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 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.  (via Goodreads)

I received an eARC of Meet Cute via Netgalley, courtesy of HMH Books for Young Readers in exchange for an honest review.

In news that will surprise no one, three of my four favorite stories from this anthology featured f/f meet cutes. I loved that there were a good selection of stories of women meeting other women.

There were a few content warnings throughout though – racism, an abusive father, sibling death, parental death, trans-antagonistic slurs, homophobic family, and aro-antagonistic comments.

Some of my favorites were Print Shop, Something Real and The Dictionary of You and Me.

Print Shop was the perfect artsy, modern meet cute for me.

Hands down, though, Oomph by Emery Lord was my favorite. It was exactly what I wanted from the rest of this anthology, which many of the stories left me wanting more.

For example, I really loved the concept of Nicola Yoon’s The Department of Dead Love, but I wanted more of the story, and of the love interest’s emotion beyond where the story ended. I’d happily read a full book of that story.

Same with Meredith Russo’s Somewhere That’s Green – I loved the writing and the characters, but the end of the story left me with so much anxiety for both the main character and the love interest. I wanted just a page or two more, and to know that everyone was safe.

I had a similar issue with Ibi Zoboi’s Hourglass, which was stunningly written, but I wanted a page or two more about the decision that Cherish had to make at the end. I was so proud of her for standing up for herself, but I just wanted a little bit more to give me some closure.

You can pick up a copy for yourself on Amazon or Indiebound. You can also find each author’s backlist on Book Outlet.

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