Well this didn’t work for me. It says ten romantic tropes transformed and I didn’t get the transformation part myself.
Per usual, here are my ratings of the following short stories. As a collection I gave this a three because some of the stories dragged a lot and my attention started to wander.
Bye Bye, Piper Berry (The Fake Relationship) by Julie Murphy (5 stars)-Told from the point of view of Piper Berry and one of her best friends, Gabe. Piper finds out that her boyfriend has been cheating on her and that Gabe knew. To get back at her boyfriend (who is also Gabe’s best friend) Piper wants them to pretend to be boyfriend and girlfriend. I thought this was sweet and I smiled throughout. I am really like Julie Murphy. I read her take on Cinderella last year and will definitely keep an eye out for her other books.
Anyone Else But You (Stranded Together) by Leah Johnson (3.5 stars)-So I love the lead in this one but realized I don’t think I even figured out her first name. Jada calls her Perry. Is that her first or last name? Wow. Okay, moving on. This one is told in the first person and we hear about how much she can’t stand fellow student Jada Baxter. And when the two of them get locked in a store it leads to all sorts of discoveries. I found the lead to be exhausting throughout this story. And I felt like the character of Jada was just a manic pixie girl situation happening and I hate that trope. A lot.
The Idiom Algorithm (Class Warfare) by Abigail Hing Wen (3 stars)– Is class warfare a romance trope? I guess in historical romance novels. But I never thought of it as such. I honestly got lost while reading this one. This one was one of the longer stories and it dragged. The flow was not consistent I found.
Auld Acquaintance (The Best Friend Love Epiphany) by Caleb Roehrig (5 stars). I loved this one a lot. We follow Ollie and his best friend Garrett. Both boys are gay, but are not dating each other. Both have come out of so so relationships. Now they are and their other friends are at the school’s lock in and there’s a lot of revelations coming Ollie’s way.
Shooting Stars (One Bed) by Marissa Meyer (3 stars)-Sorry guys I don’t recall a one bed romance trope. Am I old? I can’t think of one romance novel where that was central to how the hero/heroine got together. I liked the story well enough, but it didn’t knock my socks off. We follow Misty on a class adventure trip where she gets close with her crush Roman. God love teens these days, our senior class trip was to an amusement park. It sucked. I wish I loved the story more, but it just didn’t wow me.
Keagan’s Heaven on Earth (The Secret Admirer) by Sarah Winifred Searle (5 stars)-This was put together like a comic book. I loved it.
Zora in the Spotlight (The Grand Romantic Gesture) by Elise Bryant (2.5 stars)– I had to reread this one real quick cause I totally forget about it. It’s just not interesting. Two friends agree to accompany their best friend to a winter formal since their friend (Astrid) is still smarting over her girlfriend breaking up with her. There were so many moving parts I kept getting lost.
In a Blink of The Eye (Trapped in a Confined Space) by Elizabeth Eulberg (2 stars)-Reading about the main characters fetish for all things British (she loved Kate and William’s wedding) got to be a bit much. Her blaming Disney for her wanting to be a princess someday had me going good grief. I just couldn’t get into the headspace of 17 year old Morgan. She’s off on a class trip to London and not really feeling her best friend’s Dani’s boyfriend being there. And Morgan’s jealously of her best friend leaving her behind didn’t feel very “romance” like to me. And then we find out why there’s a lot of angst going on and I shook my head. Won’t spoil, but the story ending on “It appears Disney was right: Sometimes dreams do come true.” made me roll my eyes.
Liberty (The Makeover) by Anna-Marie McLemore (3 stars)-It wasn’t bad. I just didn’t stay focused while reading this one. I think because the plot centered on cheerleading it just didn’t hit me as well as the other stories.
The Surprise Match (The Matchmaker) by Sandhya Menon (3 stars)-A girl named Rosie is getting pressured to tell her crush how she really feels. And how she chooses to tell him had my no PDA around groups of people sirens going off.