I didn't feel like the title really matched the stories at all. From the title I thought it would be some light, romantic tales that I would read & review to consider purchase for my high school library. Instead I found pretty dark stories about all kinds of relationships, mother-daughter, daughter-granddaughter, groups of girlfriends, boy-girl, brother-sister (this one was for more mature readers), etc. A lot of these stories were pretty dark and I didn't find any hope or happiness in them. I bumped it up to 3 stars from 2 because I did like the high number of Asian American characters as main characters, not just supporting roles. I have a fair number of Asian students who are often looking to see themselves reflected in the novels they read. I'm not sure who I would recommend this book for but it is definitely not for younger or less emotionally mature readers.

I wanted to like this so much! I love short stories, especially short stories by women of color. But after getting through "Popular Girls," which felt a bit too long for the concept but was still mostly enjoyable, I then struggled to get through the stories after it. It felt like such a slog, like there was no spark. I might pick this up in the future in case it's just my mood, but I mostly felt like I was wasting my time.