Meet Cute: Some People Are Destined to Meet is one of my most anticipated releases of 2018 since one of my favourite authors, Jennifer L. Armentrout, wrote a short story in this anthology. When NetGalley accepted to send me an e-arc copy of it, I simply couldn't believe it: I was extremely happy but still was a bit scared. What if I was disappointed? After all, it happened with Because You Love to Hate Me and maybe I just didn't love anthology. Well, I was wrong: This book is the cutest thing I have ever read and made me feel extremely happy.

The first thing that struck me while reading it was how diverse it was. I knew it was going to be, but I never thought it would be that diverse and I'm so glad it did. I felt so good reading it, and this book definitely is important. I may not be part of the LGBTQIA+ community as I am a straight cis woman but I can see how powerful this book is for people who belongs to this community.

I grew up reading books about girls falling in love with boys and boys falling in love with girls and it talked to me but I wish I would have grew up in a world in which every kind of relationships is portrayed, a world in which a gay boy can see himself in the main character, in which a trans bi girl can say that this book was about her. Everyone should see themselves in literature, and it was damn time a book like Meet Cute came out.

This book was natural. Boys fell in love with boys and girls with girls and boy with girls and girls with boys. Some were trans girls and some were trans boys and never once it was said that they were fake boys or fake girls; they just were who they were. Meet Cute also was about everyone, not just considering sexuality but also skin colours. It wasn't just about white people for once, but really about everyone. This anthology succeed in making everyone feeling represented, in just a few words and a few stories, something that is still missing a lot in today's literature.

Meet Cute made me feel good about our future. I dream to live in a world where people wouldn't assume you love boys because you look like their definition of a girl, where love is love is love is love is love.

Now talking about the anthology itself, I loved some short stories more than others. For example, I fell in love with Print Shop, Click, Oomph, The Dictionary of You and Me and Something Real. There were some that didn't work out for me, like Siege Etiquette and Say Everything (as I don't like the second person point of view), as well as The Intern (which deals with insta-love). The others were cute, sometimes weird but still adorable. In the end, the whole book is the definition of cuteness and love.

In conclusion, this anthology is simply amazing and I highly recommend it to anyone who loves romance or contemporary books.

Six word summary: Who doesn't love a meet cute?

Overall I enjoyed most of the stories - though it seemed the second half of the book was better than the first half for some reason. Some were much more original than others and some were a little too cheesy, even for a book about meet-cutes. I liked the diversity in the stories and the variety in the stories presented.
Here are the ratings out of 5 for each story:
Siege Etiquette by Katie Cotugno - 3
Print Shop by Nina LaCour - 3.5
Hourglass by Ibi Zoboi - 2
Click by Katharine McGee - 4.5
The Intern by Sara Shepard - 3.5
Somewhere That's Green by Meredith Russo - 3.5
The Way We Love Here by Dhonielle Clayton - 3
Oomph by Emery Lord - 4.5
The Dictionary of You and Me by Jennifer L Armentrout - 5
The Unlikely Likelihood of Falling In Love by Jocelyn Davis - 4.5
259 Million Miles by Kass Morgan - 3.5
Something Real by Julie Murphy - 4.5
Say Everything by Huntley Fitzpatrick - 3/5
The Department of Dead Love by Nicola Yoon - 4.5

I enjoyed this collection of stories much more than the last YA collection I read about summer romances. This book was full of stories from some really amazing authors and I could see each one's writing style clearly. It was great for my trip to Mexico, as I could focus just for a short period of time without forgetting details.

The difficulty with an anthologie is that you can not necessarily love everything, but the concept is so cute and cool that I have a good time reading this one.

I think that one of the things I loved is the richness and diversity. You will meet lgbt characters from different backgrounds, different physics and I must admit that it is so good to read about human and diverse characters. For me, the book is by women and for women since the romances are 90% from a female point of view.

I will not analyze each stories, but as always, some of them stand out. I really enjoy : Siege Etiquette by Katie Cotugno, Print Shop by Nina LaCour, The Intern by Sara Shepard, Dictionary of You and Me by Jennifer L Armentrout, The Department of Dead Love by Nicola Yoon. The others were cute but less strong in my eyes.

I also wanted to say that I had never read a lot of these authors, and even if the contemporary is not my favorite, I'm curious to discover some of them. This collection is fun and great, it will bring a smile to many people and from time to time read some cheesy book is good for the moral.

Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC! I often do not have much luck with books of short stories. I will usually like one or two (or sometimes none) of what is in there. This book had a lot of notable authors and a topic I felt I would enjoy, so I went for it. I am glad I did! I adored the one where the girl figures out mathematical probability and the airport meeting, and there were several I found cute. I was happy about the amount of gay, lesbian, and transgender love pieces in here as well and am happy we are seeing more and more of that being addressed. Overall, it was a good read. I did not like everything in here, but there were some I loved, some I found cute, and nothing I truly hated. I think it will be popular with a diverse audience of teens, and we need more of that!

This was such a CUTE read. Overall I enjoyed most of the stories and ended up giving it a 4 out of 5 stars, which was the average of all of the stories. Print Shop and Hourglass were some of the top stories in this collection and I hope there are similar anthologies to cone! :)

I don’t normally read anthologies, but this topic of meet-cutes and al of these fantastic authors, I just couldn’t resist.

I read a couple of paragraphs of each story to decide if I wanted to continue. I read all of the stories except 4 of them and the stories that I did read were fantastic.

Lots of great characters and clever set ups and representation. Some kissing, but looooooots of sweet moments. My ultimate favorite was JLA’s story that featured a library and an overdue dictionary.

Overall, a quick and super cute read.

**Huge thanks to HMH Books for Young Readers for providing the arc free of charge**

A perfect winter read to give you the feels that captures the very best of beginnings and possible human connections.

Siege Etiquette by Katie Cotugno: I don't understand why the author decided to write this story in second-person point of view since it didn't matter much in the end.
This story was a weak one to start with. 2/5 stars

Print Shop by Nina LaCour: I loved this one! I honestly had a feeling I was going to like it from the start. This was about a girl's first day at a queer, independent old-school business. 4/5 stars

Hourglass by Ibi Zoboi: a nice, well written story about a black girl, shitty friends, "revenge" & a dress shop. I've never heard about this author before but then I realized she wrote American Street, which I definitely knew about. A positive surprise! 3.5/5 stars

Click by Katharine McGee: the plot & idea at the base of it were very well developed. This story was adorable but in the end not very remarkable. 3/5 stars

The Intern by Sara Shepard: meh. It's hard to write a story about the start of a romantic relationship that doesn't feel like insta-love & this one failed, unfortunately. It was just way too unrealistic. 1/5 stars

Somewhere That's Green by Meredith Russo: this was way too short! It was about a girl afraid to come out & a transgender teenage girl fighting for her right to use the girl's bathroom at her school. This story should have been a couple of pages longer. 3.5/5 stars

The Way We Love Here by Dhonielle Clayton: sorry, not my thing. DNF

Oomph by Emery Lord: so surprised to read so many lesbian love stories, yay! This one featured one of my favorite places in the world: airports. 3/5 stars

The Dictionary of You & Me by Jennifer L. Armentrout: I'm pretty sure I was giggling (or at least smiling at my Kindle like a dork) while reading this one! SO. FUCKING. CUTE. 4.25/5 stars

The Unlikely Likelihood of Falling In Love by Jocelyn Davies: this one was definitely my favorite so far. So well written, funny, with a smart girl as a protagonist. The idea behind the story was also great. Loved it! b>5/5 stars

259 Millions Miles by Kass Morgan: this one was a bit of a stretch in terms of "every romance has to start somewhere", which I guess is the main theme of the anthology. Meh. 2/5 stars

Something Real by Julie Murphy: The idea was interesting but I had to read this one in two sittings & forgot about it the second I stopped reading. 2/5 stars

Say Everything by Huntley Fitzpatrick: Meeeeehhhhhh. A bit unrealistic. A bit cheesy. 2/5 stars

The Department of Dead Love by Nicola Yoon: The concept was really interesting (it kind of reminded me of an Adam Silvera's novel). The execution... meh. The MC ended up sounding desperate & I couldn't see any type of real connection between the characters. 2/5 stars

Actual Rating: 3.54/5 stars

Siege Etiquette by Katie Cotugno: 2 stars
Unfortunately, I disliked both the POV of this story and the author’s writing style. Siege Etiquette was cute, but I also think that it wasn’t that interesting and I definitely wouldn’t be interested in reading more of this story.

Print Shop by Nina LaCour: 3.5 stars
I once again didn’t like the POV but unlike the first story, this one was very well written and also a lot more interesting.

Hourglass by Ibi Zoboi: 3 stars
This time, I really liked the POV the author chose for this story and I also really liked Ibi Zoboi’s writing style. I just think that ‘Hourglass’ was a little boring.

Click by Katharine McGee: 4 stars
I loved the idea of this short story and also think it was very well written. I would even be interested in reading more of this because it was just so interesting.

The Intern by Sara Shepard: 4.25 stars
‘The Intern’ was a cute and gripping story and I would definitely be interested in reading more of it. I also really liked the characters and Sara Shepard’s writing style.

Somewhere That’s Green by Meredith Russo: 1.5 stars
Unfortunately, this was my least favorite short story from this anthology. I really loved how the main character of this story was transgender because you don’t get to see that very often but I just feel like the entire plot was a complete disaster. The whole story was extremely confusing and at the end of it, I still hadn’t completely understood how all the characters were related to each other and what was actually going on. ‘Somewhere That’s Green’ was just very boring and I definitely wouldn’t be interested in reading more of this.

The Way We Love Here by Dhonielle Clayton: 4.5 stars
‘The Way We Love Here’ was a very interesting story and I loved the plot. I also immediately fell in love with the characters and would be interested in reading more about them.

Oomph by Emery Lord: 4.75 stars
This was such a cute story and I would love to read more about how their story continues once they both live in New York. I also loved Emery Lord’s writing style and I think I will definitely go and check out some of her other books because I’d never heard about her prior to reading this anthology.

The Dictionary of You and Me by Jennifer L. Armentrout: 5 stars
This was definitely my favorite story out of all the ones featured in this anthology. I just loved the characters and the whole idea with the library. It would’ve been great if this story had been a lot longer.

The Unlikely Likelihood of Falling in Love by Jocelyn Davies: 4 stars
I loved the idea of writing this like a statistics project and also think this was very well written. The plot was interesting and I also really liked the characters. A great short story.

259 Million Miles by Kass Morgan: 4 stars
This was an interesting story and I liked how it had a little bit of a different ending from all the other stories. Furthermore, I also really liked how it was written from the male main characters point of view.

Something Real by Julie Murphy: 3.5 stars
This was such a cute, little, fun story that was very well written and had an ending which I think was really interesting.

Say Everything by Huntley Fitzpatrick: 2.5 stars
I once again just didn’t like the POV of this story and also think it was a little boring even though it was still cute.

The Department of Dead Love by Nicola Yoon: 3 stars
I loved the idea of the ‘Department of Love’ but even though this was an interesting story, I also thought it was quite boring at some points.

Overall, this was probably one of the most adorable books I’ve ever read and it’s definitely a great anthology that deserves to be read!

I guess it's always slightly inevitable that an anthology won't have me completely singing its praises because while there were some stories I really loved in here, there were others that I definitely wasn't wowed by. Overall, definitely a really cool collection with a diverse group of relationships explored. I've already added a fair few of the authors' other books to my to-read pile, which shows it was a decent anthology.

Personal story highlights:
**Print Shop** - From the moment Nina LaCour started describing all the beautiful print shop artwork, I was sold. Plus, such an interesting premise, the two of them meeting on a customer service twitter conversation.

**Click** - I'm not going to lie, I saw the twist in this one coming a mile off, but it was still adorably sweet and I loved how it challenged the idea of any dating app algorithm being able to figure out who the one for you really is.

**Somewhere that's Green** - I automatically love anything to do with musicals, and it was interesting seeing the transgender bathroom ban being talked about as the main issue in a "meet-cute" story. I liked how this was handled.

**Oomph** - Best. Story. Ever. I was sold from the two girls being adorable making Marvel references. 10/10 would love being delayed in an airport if anything like that were to ever happen to me.

**The Unlikely Likelihood of Falling In Love** - Statistics to replicate a chance meeting. Awesome idea, love how it played out!

3.5 Stars - It’s hard for me to give this a star rating. I have absolutely nothing against the author’s in this anthology – in fact I’m a huge fan of each and every one of their works and think the idea of this collection is absolutely adorable. My problem is with the short story itself. I struggle with them, primarily because it is insanely difficult to do them well. With such a limited platform I often find short stories to be underdeveloped, unsatisfying, and unbelievable. I always find myself wanting more and this collection was no different. With that in mind, however, I also think that’s why I rated it higher than I normally would a collection of short stories. I never really wanted any of them to end, which speaks volumes of the author themselves. Of all the stories, Huntley Fitzpatrick, Meredith Russo, and Nicola Yoon’s were probably my favorites. I think in terms of the short story structure they were the most satisfying and felt the most developed considering the limitations that come with constructing a short story. However, as I mentioned, all of the authors in this collection brought their A-game and each was entertaining and heartfelt in their own right. Ultimately, I think this is definitely a collection that teens will get on board with – particularly reluctant readers. While I, selfishly, wanted more story, I can see how these short stories are not only perfect for those who may want to enjoy stories by their favorite authors but not have a lot of time but it is also an excellent opportunity to introduce new authors to new readers.

Meet Cute is exactly that-- cute. It's lighthearted and fun, but it's not necessarily a must read. I enjoyed some stories ("The Unlikely Likelihood of Falling in Love" and "The Department of Dead Love") and others not so much ("Say Everything"). Short stories need to be evocative and poignant in fewer words. Some stories ("Somewhere That's Green") simply didn't have a plot fitting for a short story.

Overall, I would definitely recommend to my students. It's a good gateway into reading short stories, and it's also good for the slower paced readers.

My average rating of all stories was 3.5. I can’t decide whether to round down or up, but I’ll go with up for now.

Siege Etiquette by Katie Cotugno - 1 star. Told in second person, I just really didn't like the main character at all.
Print Shop by Nina LaCour - 4 stars. This was the exact kind of cuteness you would expect from Nina LaCour.
Hourglass by Ibi Zoboi - 3 stars. This one is more focused on friendship and I really didn't like the best friend. I liked the actual romance bit, but it doesn't come until right at the end.
Click by Katharine McGee - 4 stars. World where an app's algorithm matches people. This was a really cute one.
The Intern by Sara Shepard - 3 stars. This one was just kinda bland? Nothing wrong with it, but nothing especially right either.
Somewhere That's Green by Meredith Russo- 3.5 stars. I have such mixed feelings about this one, but I really loved Nia.
The Way We Love Here by Dhonielle Clayton - 2 stars. I just didn't really get this one. It was a lot sadder than you would expect from a meet cute and idk, it was like the mechanism of the story was too big for a short story.
Oomph by Emery Lord - 5 stars. This is the first story that made me actually feel that giddy happiness you get from a really good romcom. I want about 500 more pages of this, please. This was more along the lines of what I was expecting from this anthology.
The Dictionary of You and Me by Jennifer L. Armentrout - 4 stars. This was super cute but as a librarian I would've fined that boy so much (not really, but that's definitely not how this would go).
The Unlikely Likelihood of Falling in Love by Jocelyn Davies - 4 stars. I really liked the way this one was told, how it was set up like a paper.
259 Million Miles by Kass Morgan - 3.5 stars. This one was just okay, again not really anything wrong but not really anything that made me especially happy.
Something Real by Julie Murphy - 5 stars. This one is tied with Oomph for being my favorite, hands down. SO CUTE.
Say Everything by Huntley Fitzpatrick- 2 stars. I just didn't enjoy this one. The second person perspective is just not for me and I also just didn't care for the relationship.
The Department of Dead Love by Nicola Yoon - 5 stars. I would read a full length novel of this, Nicola Yoon please get on that. It was super interesting and I felt like the worldbuilding was really nicely balanced with the meet cuteness of it all.

Definition of meet-cute

plural meet-cutes
: a cute, charming, or amusing first encounter between romantic partners (as in a movie)

Pardon my lame, "Maid of Honor" speech introduction of Merriam-Webster's Dictionary definition of meet-cute; however, I thought it should be there just in case you hadn't heard the term previously. The first time I heard the term used was in the movie "The Holiday" (which is AMAZING and you should TOTALLY watch it if you haven't yet) and I have to say I LOVE a good meet-cute. It's arguably the best part of a rom-com movie or any book with a romantic plot/sub-plot. FOURTEEN meet-cutes in one book? Sign me up! I'm also a big fan of compilations of short stories. It gives you a chance to read more of authors you love while also trying out other authors as a good fit for yourself as a reader. Plus, they feel like a quick read and give great stopping points if you are putting the book down. I didn't do this. Hahaha!

I LOVED all of the short stories in this book; however, my favorites were "Click" by Katharine McGee, "The Intern" by Sara Shepard, and "The Unlikely Likelihood of Falling in Love" by Jocelyn Davies. My absolute favorite was "The Dictionary of You and Me" by Jennifer L. Armentrout. Is there a book lover in existence that wouldn't also love a meet-cute in a library?!?

I highly recommend picking this book up if you love romantic comedies, meet-cutes, or any of the authors listed. There is a good variety of genres included as well--something for every taste.

Thank you, Netgalley and HMH Books for Young Readers, for providing me with an advance copy of the book in exchange for an honest review.

Meet Cute is a delightful collection of "meet cutes" from today's most popular Y.A. authors. The collection was refreshingly diverse and inclusive, shattering heteronormative rom-com tropes. While some stories didn't ring as true as others, there's a little something for every Y.A. fan, ranging from realistic fiction to sci-fi. In particular, I really enjoyed the stories from Nina LaCour, Jocelyn Davies, and Emery Lord (the super-hero flirting was GREAT). If I had any complaint it is that the stories ended, leaving me wanting more. This is my first time reading the works of any of these authors, but I'll definitely be checking them out now that I'm done with Meet Cute.

Let’s start by saying, “Did you see ALL the amazing authors associated with this book?!?!” Personally I really love collections of short stories, and this book was no exception. There is not one story included that I wasn’t absolutely in love with. Each story was so uniquely adorable, I had a hard time not smiling the whole time I was reading this book. It wasn’t called Meet Cute for no reason, each story is just that, ridiculously light and cute.

This was the first time reading many of the authors for me. I must say I’m now excited to pick up any books by each of these authors. I was surprisingly not turned off by any of these instalove stories, probably because I knew what I was going into before reading them. I loved the fact that there were a multitude of different love stories. There were stories with male, lesbian, transgender, female etc. main characters.

Overall I would highly recommend this book if you love any of these authors. Also if you are looking for a cute short read, where you can read one or two stories a night, this will be great for you.

Sweetest little book of little stories about falling in love. It was great. Loved it.

Awwww.

I'm not sure if I can do this book justice in my review. I loved it because of the brilliant little stories and the fantastic meetings that were crafted by these authors. This anthology has stories about all different kinds of first meets and many different kinds of relationships. I picked it up to read because it features some of my favorite YA authors and it in no way disappointed, it did leave me wishing for full stories about some of these brilliant characters. From the first to the last in this book, I was happily drawn in and delighted.
Thank you netgalley for this ARC for my honest opinion.

This book was sweet, heartwarming, and just made me happy while reading it. It is so interesting to have a book filled with only the first meetings of those falling in love leaving the reading to imagine everything else that will happen to them. As with every anthology of short stories by various authors there were some stories that I enjoyed more than others, but there were no stories I didn't like. The amount of diversity and representation throughout the stories was wonderful and I love how every story was different and unique and together created a wonderful group. My favourite stories were probably those written by Nina LaCour, Merideth Russo, and Jocelyn Davies.