A review by mazee
Fools in Love by Ashley Herring Blake, Rebecca Podos

inspiring lighthearted slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Loveable characters? It's complicated

2.0

Except from knowing what tropes would be in the stories and that it was (obviously) about love, i did not know much about what would be inside this anthology. The premise does a very poor job at describing the book. This book contains 13 love stories about the reimagining of the most popular tropes in romance like fake dating, enemies to lovers, one bed trope, friends to lovers, all tropes that YA loves! There’s strong lgbtq+ rep and some stories have POC rep. I have to say this book is cute and the cover is really pretty (which is actually what drew me to it). 

As much as i liked a few stories, and just like in any anthology i guess, some stories stood stronger than others. Not every story is going to appeal to you, so keep an open mind about that. The different genres not being described in the premise is definitely a turn off. A reader might pick up the book thinking it’s all contemporary romance but then there’s fantasy and magical schools and space royals. I’m not saying it’s a bad thing, cause that might make it more appealing to some readers but it’s something that should be told in the synopsis and not something you discover when you open the book like surprise! Personally, the SFF elements in some short stories derailed me from the story more than get me interested in it. It’s mostly due to the fact that the world building in these short stories was well… quite a mess. It’s not because it’s a short story that the world building has to be lacking this tremendously, at some point I was more focused on understanding the setting and the world than the characters and their relationship (which should be the focus). I don’t know if it’s an unspoken rule when it comes to SFF short stories that the world building automatically don’t matter anymore and i’m just not aware of it, but if so then i’ll pass

I like characters and the relationships between these characters to have depths no matter the genre. I also felt like some relationship and love declarations were rushed and maybe it’s due to the nature of the book but that’s how i felt at least. Some characters felt a bit flat, some totally generic and more annoying than anything. Some relationships were great and i liked how some ended at the beginning of these I could empathize with a few characters tho even if i didn’t really understand the way they were doing things (+1 point). Overall, i really do feel like it just may be my preferences clashing with the anthology’s elements. I don’t like rushed relationships, rushed stories, yes these are short stories but short stories = does not equal rushes stories, and the majority unfortunately felt like that to me

Frankly i’m not entirely sure anthologies are for me as i’m not much of a fan of short stories but this time i thought “why not?”, and well… no, so i might just pass on them in the future. 

Objectively speaking, this anthology could be great for someone especially if you’re looking for quick (some did felt dragged on tho…) and not too complicated love stories. Its audience is here definitely, i’m just not part of that audience.