July 2024 GN's/Novellas/Manga/Poetry/Nonfiction BOTM - Serendipity: Ten Romantic Tropes, Transformed, by Marissa Meyer

[Alaina]

Love is in the air in this is a collection of stories inspired by romantic tropes and edited by #1 New York Times-bestselling author Marissa Meyer.

The secret admirer.
The fake relationship.
The matchmaker.

From stories of first love, unrequited love, love that surprises, love that’s been there all along, ten of the brightest and award-winning authors writing YA have taken on some of your favorite romantic tropes, embracing them and turning them on their heads. Readers will swoon for this collection of stories that celebrate love at its most humorous, inclusive, heart-expanding, and serendipitous.

Contributors include Elise Bryant, Elizabeth Eulberg, Leah Johnson, Anna-Marie McLemore, Marissa Meyer, Sandhya Menon, Julie Murphy, Caleb Roehrig, Sarah Winifred Searle, and Abigail Hing Wen.

**This BOTM thread will be open until August 5th @ Midnight (in your time zone)**

[Felicia]

So far I've listened to the first story and it was very cute. This does read very young but still in a sweet way. The first story covers the (view spoiler)[fake dating trope (hide spoiler)]

[Felicia]

I think the best story was the one where the boys are going to an overnight at the gym but I can't remember which one.

[Felicia]

I did speed it way up to get through them quicker. Some were slow and tedious.

[Felicia]

Check out my review
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

[Felicia]

Also I feel like I choose the obscure BOTM to read lol. Hardly any commentors. All good

[Jamie]

1 - Bye Bye, Piper Berry (view spoiler)[ So this one felt very juvenile. It also didn't flow very well. It was almost like the beginning starts to suck you in and then the author realized they needed to finish it and then we rushed everything. Didn't work for me. (hide spoiler)]

[Jamie]

2 - Anyone Else But You (view spoiler)[ This was a stranded enemies or rivals to lovers. Cute, but not sure that anything was turned on it's head with this one though (hide spoiler)]

[Jamie]

3 - The Idiom Algorithm (view spoiler)[ This one was a little weird to me. I don't think I realized that the 'Class Warfare' was even a trope, lol (hide spoiler)]

[Jamie]

4 - Auld Acquaintance (view spoiler)[ I usually love these type of stories, but this one felt really predictable. I get that these are short stories, but they are advertising these stories as being somehow better in some way. (hide spoiler)]

[Jamie]

5 - Shooting Stars (view spoiler)[This was another predictable short story. Maybe that's my problem with this. It's a lot of short stories that you can easily predict. Make yourself a teenager, get all giggly, and add in whatever trope they are talking about. Except this one is just a kiss, lol. Not really what the one bed trope exactly means... (hide spoiler)]

[Jamie]

6 - Keagan's Heaven on Earth(view spoiler)[This one wasn't good.
I feel like things were missing and didn't make sense. Which is unfortunate because I like secret admirer (hide spoiler)]

[Jamie]

7 - Zora in the Spotlight (view spoiler)[This one started out with high hopes and then tanked for me. Ending wasn't so great (hide spoiler)]

[Jamie]

8 - In a Blink of the Eye (view spoiler)[OMG, this one was not for me. This is partially my fault because I didn't realize how YA this book would be, but God I'm so far past any of this being remotely enjoyable in my life, lol. These tropes are so off for what I consider romance. (hide spoiler)]

[Jamie]

9 - Liberty (view spoiler)[Again, this one didn't work for me. I've never been a fan of stories where someone wants to change something to fit in or be like someone else. We should just be ourselves.
There are too many insecurities in this one for me. (hide spoiler)]

[Jamie]

10 - The Surprise Match (view spoiler)[This one should really be best friends trope vs matchmaker. This one was pretty predictable as well. (hide spoiler)]

[Felicia]

Jamie wrote: "1 - Bye Bye, Piper Berry [spoilers removed]" I completely agree. A lot of these built up and then rushed off.

[Alaina]

Today is the last day to add comments for BOTM points!