What a fantastic collection of beautiful, engaging, diverse stories! I read some stories by a few old favorites and got interested in some new names. Each story made me want a full book!

Interesting premise. Likable/hated characters. Cool plot. I would recommend this story to others. Some spots I found that didn't hold my attention, but overall, I still liked it. WHAT A GREAT COLLECTION OF STORIES!!!!!!!

It is hard to rate a book that is a collection of many stories, but I did really like most of these. They are all well written and gripping short stories. I found some new authors that I have added to my to-be-read shelf!

A Universe of Wishes edited by Dhonielle Clayton - 3/5 stars

I received a free copy of this novel from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

I always enjoy the We Need Diverse Books Anthologies and I was so excited when I got the chance to read A Universe of Wishes Early! This book was chalk full of unique stories and beautiful representation. Down below are a few of my favorites!

The Silk Blade: Gay warriors getting distracted in battle? Everyday of the week, yes please.

Liberia: I really enjoyed the all-teen space crew and Kweku's relationship with his grandmother. The space and spaceship mechanics in this story were really well done and I want an entire story for this.

Wish: The genie storyline of this was heartbreakingly incredible and I could die, I want more so badly.

The Weight: I have actually read this story previously in an online web-anthology called FORESHADOW. So beautiful and I love the concept.

Unmoor: Ouch. OUCHHHHHH.

This collection was overall very well done. Unfortunately there were a couple that I could read as they were set in the worlds of stories I haven't read yet, but I will definitely come back to them after reading the series are set in. Solid anthology!

Sadly I will not be able to get to this book before it's archived. I am interested in picking it up in the future,

This is a book I will be buying. For once to see varying genres and writers using characters that fall outside the cis het white male is always comforting. How it feels to see yourself represented in a piece of media can't be understated. It's a fantastic feeling. The stories on their own are all great and as a whole it is a fantastic anthology.

Featuring 15-diverse stories from some of the best OwnVoices authors currently writing in the YA genre, this collection has a little something for everyone.
This is a really well-rounded collection. Obviously, there were stories that I connected with more than others, but that is always the way with anthologies.
Every person who reads this will have a different experience with these stories, and that's okay. That's what it's all about. I loved the LGBTQIA+ representation throughout these stories. I feel like I don't dive into enough books like that and I think all the characters were written really well. Another interesting thing was some of the novellas are making me want to dive into certain series next year - like Shades of Magic, and I'm beyond excited! Truly enjoyed the opportunity to read before purchasing for our YA section.

A Universe of Wishes is an attractive and well curated anthology of YA/NA fantasy edited by Dhonielle Clayton. Released 8th Dec 2020 by Penguin Random House on their Crown Books Young Readers imprint, it's 416 pages and available in hardcover, audio, and ebook formats. It's worth noting that the ebook format has a handy interactive table of contents as well as interactive links and references throughout. I've really become enamored of ebooks with interactive formats lately.

One reason I prefer collections and anthologies is that short fiction is really challenging. It's spare and the author doesn't have a wealth of wordage to develop characters or the plotting. Well written short fiction is a delight. I also love collections because if one story doesn't really grab me, there's another story just a few pages away. This is a nice diverse sampling and I believe the included stories are all previously unpublished.

There are 15 stories by authors both familiar and new to me. This is another big reason I love anthologies - they often introduce me to new authors to follow and read. This collection has the additional benefit of providing some much needed representation and diversity to a beloved (but traditionally overwhelmingly caucasian, usually male) genre. That's changing and in part it's because of the incredible endurance and fortitude of the groups of writers inviting *all* young readers to have a seat at the table. It fills me with hope and happiness that I truly believe we're starting to really understand that our diversity is our fundamental strength.

These are well written stories. There are some standouts (Habibi, Unmoor, and the titular A Universe of Wishes were all beautifully written and powerfully moving). There are a number of stories included from series authors with tie-in stories which will certainly appeal to fans (A Royal Affair was charming and will have V. E. Schwab fans dancing in the bookstore).

The stories as they affected me personally were all in the higher 3-5 star range. Fiction is so subjective it's pointless to rate, but I will say that nearly all of the stories contained in this anthology were engaging, well crafted, readable, and high quality. There were a couple which were outside my personal taste range and/or failed to hold my interest, but they were few and far between.

Four and a half stars for the overall collection - rounded up because thematically, representation is monumentally important. I'm writing this the day after I watched a strong young poet giving all of us wings, reciting her work at the inauguration of the 46th president of the USA and knowing that somewhere out there, there might be another young artist/poet/writer/philosopher being inspired by the characters being written here.

Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.

I'm normally not a fan of anthologies, but I actually liked the majority of these short stories. There were, however, still a couple of stories that didn't capture my attention, and I ended up skipping a couple.

I love to read anthologies, but at the same time I find them hard to review because a lot of them don't tend to really stick with me. This one is different, though. There were so many amazing stories that it felt like an incredible treat to read one every day. There's a continuation of Libba Bray's Gemma Doyle trilogy, a Cinderella retelling where the prince is a trans guy (seriously, Anna-Marie McLemore doesn't just write beautifully, they also write beautiful trans rep that just rings so true), and so much more. I don't think I read a single story I didn't enjoy.

In the fourth collaboration with We Need Diverse Books, fifteen award-winning and celebrated diverse authors deliver stories about a princess without need of a prince, a monster long misunderstood, memories that vanish with a spell, and voices that refuse to stay silent in the face of injustice. This powerful and inclusive collection contains a universe of wishes for a braver and more beautiful world.- Goodreads

Short stories should not feel as if you are reading the first chapter of a book. They should have their own world, within a beginning middle and end. The only cliff hanger I should feel after reading a short story is wanting to read more of the author but not more of the story.

With every story that I read in this book, I felt that it was a less of s short story and more of a promo to their possible upcoming book.

Do not get me wrong, it made me interested in some of these authors. But it made me not want to read their short stories.

Overall, 2 Pickles

If you want to read snippets of what feels like a full a novel, this is for you.

This is a wonderful collection of stories. Some were from worlds and characters that were familiar to me, others I hadn't met before, some had a distinct beginning middle and end, others read more like vignettes, some were light hearted and others a bit heavier, but the thing they all had in common was that they made me happy reading them.

The diversity of characters and the representation from OwnVoice authors was a huge part of the appeal of this book for me, and in reading it I was delighted at how fresh and interesting each story felt. It's such a well-rounded collection in both writing styles and representation.

My personal favorites were probably the title story A Universe of Wishes, a moving love story between an orphan and a boy who works at a morgue with just a little bit of dark magic, as well as V.E. Schwab's A Royal Affair featuring Alucard Emery and Rhy Maresh, with a couple moments of Kell, of course. Obviously in an anthology like this, one of the best aspects is that everyone will have different favorites and stories that grab their interest. This is the first 'We Need Diverse Books' anthology that I've read, but I'm likely to seek out the others because it was just so perfect for quick little escapes into wonderful fantasy worlds AND for finding new-to-me authors to follow.

I received an ARC from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

VE Schwab's story that takes place in the Shades of Magic world was phenomenal. The other stories were okay, but I found myself not enjoying them as much as I wanted to.

Overall 3.5 stars

Here are the stories I enjoyed:

Libba Bray - The Scarlet Woman (5 stars) I really hope the author has more to say about this world as the ending was pretty abrupt.
V.E. Schwab - A Royal Affair (5 stars)
Dhonielle Clayton - The Weight (4 stars)
Tessa Gratton - The Beginning of Monsters (4 stars)
Rebecca Roanhorse - The Takeback Tango (4 stars)
Zoraida Cordova - Longer Than the Threads of Time (3.5 stars)

The rest, I DNF'd or had lower than 3 star rating.

This book starts off on a high with the title story A Universe of Wishes. This was a beautiful story of loss and healing. Zoraida Cordova’s Rapunzel retelling is another high point with a fun twist. I’m sure many people wanted to read this due to the inclusion of A Royal Affair by VE Schwab. If this is you then you won’t be disappointed. Also of note are Liberia by Kwame Mbawa and The Takeback Tango by Rebecca Roanhorse. I think the hardest part is that the stories tend to be open ended. I kept finding myself wanting to keep reading and find out what happens.

This is the fourth We Need Diverse Books collaboration, and this anthology is all about sci-fi and fantasy, my entire jam. There are so many worlds of wishes within these pages. Authors include Samira Ahmed, Jenni Balch, Libba Bray, Dhonielle Clayton, Zoraida Córdova, Tessa Gratton, Kwame Mbalia, Anna-Marie McLemore, Tochi Onyebuchi, Mark Oshiro, Natalie C. Parker, Rebecca Roanhorse, V. E. Schwab, Tara Sim, and Nic Stone.

I loved this collection and particularly revisiting some worlds I’m already familiar with and having a quick catch up with characters I know and love. For example, Libba Bray takes us back to Gemma Doyle’s world for a quick adventure, and it was so cool.

I’m already familiar with many of these authors, but enjoyed being introduced to the ones I hadn’t read before. It came out in December, so if you need some nice story bites in between longer works and want to revisit the worlds of some really cool books, check it out.

This is a fabulous anthology--one of the best I've read in years. The authors are all top-tier, and their stories run the gamut from hopeful/uplifting to melancholy/somewhat disturbing. However, nothing is hopeless in this collection, no matter how tragic some characters' circumstances seem. And the rep is, as expected, great--there are tons of awesome queer characters and romances, tons of BIPOC main characters, and at least a couple of disabled central characters. There are also tie-in stories to Libba Bray's Gemma Doyle series (which was difficult to follow since I'm not familiar with the series) and to VE Schwab's Shades of Magic series (which might contain base-level spoilers for the series for those unfamiliar). But, even if these tie-ins are not a draw for you, the remainder of the collection is a must-read.

“A universe of wishes” é uma antologia que conta diversidade para valer em seus contos. Só por isso, já indico demais a leitura. Sim, além de ser own voices e editado pela autora Dhonielle Clayton de “The Belles” e “ Tiny Pretty Things” que foi recentemente adaptado para uma série na Netflix, e é também uma iniciativa da We need diverse books.

São 15 histórias contadas por nomes já consagrados como Victora Schwab, e outros nomes que talvez não sejam tão conhecidos para o grande público. Todas tem em comum o fato de escrever fantasia para o público jovem/jovem adulto e no final da leitura, impossível não encontrar alguns contos como favoritos.

Ao mesmo tempo que é um projeto muito legal, a leitura pode ser um pouco cansativa. Para mim não funcionou ler em uma sentada como eu imaginava que seria, e sim intercalando com a leitura de outro livro. Isso não quer dizer que eu li um conto por dia... devorei os cinco primeiros de uma só vez! Haha, mas entendi que aproveitaria melhor a leitura com pausas. A única coisa que senti como negativa, é que como não conhecia algumas histórias previamente publicadas, que não pude aproveitar um dos contos completamente.

De qualquer forma, foi uma leitura rica, bem diversa e que também me deixou intrigada. Imagina você e a pessoa que você ama, terem que descobrir por meio de uma balança “quem ama mais” ? Uma Cinderella de tênis ? Temos! Relacionamento à distância? Também! Uma Rapunzel num cenário mais obscuro? Também!

Nem todos os contos são fofos ou felizes. O da Victoria Swchab mesmo... excelente, muitíssimo bem escrito e me deixou super emotiva.

Por enquanto, não existe data de publicação aqui no Brasil.

I loved all of the stories, some more than others, but there wasn't a single story I finished that I didn't like.

One of the things I loved was the fact that there was such a great mix of sub-genres and representation, it made me so happy. Obviously this anthology is highlighting diverse stories, but the range of representation was wonderful. Every story brought something new to the table and were so different that it was like opening a new book every time. One thing I thought was interesting was the fact that some of the stories were set in books that the author had previously written, like V.E. Schwab writing a short story about Alucard from her A Darker Shade of Magic series. While the stories can stand on their own, I loved getting to relive the original story through these familiar characters. I honestly squealed reading them! And the original stories were amazing too. There were specific stories that got me to so intensely, I had to put the book down.

There wasn't a single story that I didn't like, but I noticed that the beginning had stories that I liked more than the middle to the end. I'm not sure if it was story fatigue, or if I genuinely liked the stories in the first half better, but it was something that I noticed and wasn't sure why.

Overall, I loved this anthology and I will be re-reading these stories! I can't wait for more anthologies like this one!

A Universe of Wishes is a collection of short stories written by a variety of diverse, own-voices short stories written by popular authors of the SFF genre. Full of amazing stories about magic and wishes, A Universe of Wishes takes the tropes and the qualities we love about sci-fi and fantasy and infuses them with some much needed imagination and representation. I really loved the vast array of diverse authors who wrote for this anthology as well as the variety of different identities represented in these stories. As Clayton writes, this anthology was meant so that people of all different races, ethnicities, gender, and orientation can see themselves in a genre that has been dominated by white stories and authors, and this is what A Universe of Wishes accomplishes in spades. Each writer's style is distinct, but it all comes together in a fantastical anthology that makes the senses soar. My one issue with this book was that some of the short stories included were pulled from popular series of some of the authors which I haven't finished yet, so I felt lost a lot of the time in those stories although they were well-written. I also felt that some of the stories were left a little too-open ended. In many of these cases, it worked to give an air of possibility to the story's tone, but it also felt a little unfinished and abrupt with some of the endings. But overall, I enjoyed A Universe of Wishes, which is a lovely celebration of diverse writing and writers in SFF stories, and how these authors reclaiming these stories from which they had been previously excluded is inherently magical.