Review: Meet Cute: Some People are Destined to Meet by Various authors

Meet Cute: Some People are Destined to Meet by Various authors
Publisher: HMH Books for Young Readers
Publication Date: January 2nd 2018
My rating: 4.5 stars 

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.

“All love ends”, she says. 
“Maybe” I say. “But it has to start somewhere”. 

This anthology was probably one of the best that I’ve come across, the stories were short yet sweet (sometimes too short in my opinion), but I ended up liking so many of them, and could imagine them being written as full novels and me just devouring them up. Here I thought I’d share some of my favourites. 

Siege Etiquette by Katie Cotugno 
This was such a cute story, but also made me feel quite mellow after finishing it; two classmates end up hiding out in the bathroom together when the police show up to break up a party. Despite barely knowing one another, I loved how with just the small amount of time Wolf and Hailey end up spending together hiding out, they end up forming some sort of meaningful connection. I liked how Cotugno gave us little snippets into their lives outside of the bathroom and party, how two people who’d formed wrong opinions about each other, but were exactly what they needed in that moment in time. I was really gutted when I came to the end of this story, as I was so left wanting more. 

Print Shop by Nina Lacour 
Again, this was another book that I loved the direction the author took the story in, Evie ends up taking a job in a print shop, the first day she starts work, she’s told to try and promote the shop through social media, they’ve never done it before, so want some sort of online presence. Evie’s never done something like this before either, but once she has the shop’s Twitter page going, she’s overwhelmed with negative tweets about the shop’s service. I loved this story from the get-go, I wanted Evie to do well at her job, but felt really sorry for her dealing with the wrath of these negative tweeters just because someone else had messed up with a customer’s banner. But like I said I loved the direction that Lacour took with this story, as she went onto show you really could find love in the most unexpected of places. And it was thrilling seeing Evie experience it first-hand. 

Hourglass by Ibi Zoboi 
This short story had so many things going for it, I adored the main character Cherish, her voice was strong and I admired her for sticking to what she believed in, (her best friend messes up, but Cherish still decides to go to prom on her own, and with a few days left still needs to get an outfit). It did take me a little longer to get into this story, but again I felt this story just ended so abruptly, what happened with Cherish? did she get her outfit? did she go to prom? and is she even talking to Stacy anymore? these are things I need to know! 

Click by Katharine Mcgee 
I think Click was probably my favourite story from this anthology collection, Mcgee gives us a great futuristic take on what dating could be like for us in the next few years and a wonderful chase over the city when our MC leaves her phone in the taxi and her date agrees to help her locate it. What I loved about this story was how our MC really thought her date wasn’t her typical guy, but as they spend time together in search of her phone, they get to know each other more. And that twist at the end was just pure brilliance! 

Meet Cute is one book I highly recommend reading, it was really the perfect book that reminded me of why I loved YA romance in the first place. The stories were ones that left a big goofy grin on your face and yearning for more, I know this is one anthology that I will go back to for re-reads especially when I need a quick pick me up.