Reimagining tropes in literature is an interesting premise for this anthology, and it's what lured me in. The diversity and range of LGBTQ+ characters are refreshing, especially since non-heterosexual, non-cisgender representation in literature is still lacking. For me, the best stories were the contemporary and realistic ones, like "Five Stars" and "Edges." Krista, the narrator of "Five Stars," is amusing and sweet. The banter between Krista and her crush was funny and helped develop both characters. "Edges" also had good character development and "The Grumpy One and Soft One" trope is a fun one. The dark, misanthropic artist and the bubbly, popular girl coming together is usually a crowd-pleaser ("She's All That" in reverse), and it did not disappoint. Both of these stories felt relatable, and many YA readers would likely be interested in these stories because they can see themselves in the narrators and characters.

However, most of the other stories did not work for me. The most important way to reinvent these tropes/themes is through the characters, but many of the stories felt rushed, or I was distracted by genre-bending elements. Stories like "Silver and Gold," "Blobs Do Not Eat Snacks," "What Makes Us Heroes", etc. were jarring. For instance, in "Silver and Gold," the unclear setting and mythical elements distanced me from the characters. It was hard for me to believe that the characters felt as strongly for one another as the narration claimed because a lot was happening in exchange for character development. The end result was an unfortunate distraction from the most important part of these stories: the characters and the exploration of themes and tropes. Readers can reimagine love and the stories that have been told to us over and over without spider squids, mages, and superheroes. Finally, I also felt like many of the stories ended in the same way: kissing. After reading the first few stories, I felt like I read the same ending over and over.

Thank you to NetGalley for providing an early read of this collection in an exchange for an honest review.

Fake relationships. Enemies to lovers. Love triangles and best friends, mistaken identities and missed connections. This collection of genre-bending and original stories celebrates how love always finds a way, featuring powerful flora, a superhero and his nemesis, a fantastical sled race through snow-capped mountains, a golf tournament, the wrong ride-share, and even the end of the world.

This was such a fresh take on romance. I loved how diverse the characters were. Each and every story had a charm to it.
Thoroughly enjoyed it.

This is definitely a great read for romance-lovers craving sweet and short stories with a diversity of tropes that will please anyone : enemies/friends-to-lovers, fake dating ... and genres (contemporary as much as Sci-fi) with BIPOC & LGBTQ+ relationships.

I'm not usually fond of romantic books so the short stories were perfect for me. (Between 20 to 40 pages per stories).

What I liked :
- The diversity of the characters
- Fast paced
- Quick summer read

What I didn't like :
- The writing style of some authors
- As much as I liked the fact that the stories were short they were often rushed, and not enough "character driven" with too much unnecessery background information
- They were all happy endings it would have been refreshing to have at least 1 or 2 different endings (but still my own personal opinion I know plenty of readers will still enjoy it this way!)

Overall a very good and cute anthology that I will definitely recommend!

Title : Fools In Love
Rating : ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Review :

I LOVE THIS BOOK! This book is full with short story romances but swoon-worthy stories and I adore this book with all my heart😍 I also love that a few of the love stories in this book is about LGBTQ+ romances and as a supporter of the LGBTQ+ community, I appreciate that and I realize that this representation is important to our community, to make them realize that it's completely fine to be queer🏳️‍🌈. This book is written beautifully and the cover is so gorgeous and romantic❤ Thank you for the free ARC😄

Reviews will be short and sweet, and I'll review each story separately.

Silver & Gold - Natasha Ngan I felt this was a very strong start, I really enjoyed the story and after reading Girls of Paper and Fire by the author last year, I was excited to see something else from them. This had a trope I do enjoy Snowed In Together and the author did a good job at executing a well rounded story. Once again, very strong start to this anthology. 4/5

Five Stars - Amy Spalding This one was soooo awkward but hilarious, I honestly don't know how I would react in the same situation other than be a little terrified. I like the end too! Strong second story in this lots. This has the trope Mistaken Identity which isn't one I tend to enjoy, but was still a good story. 4/5

Unfortunately, Blobs Do Not Eat Snacks - Rebecca Kim Wells This has the trope Kissing Under the Influence I didn’t really love this one, it started off interesting but I didn’t feel captivated. 2.5/5

Edges - Ashley Herring Blake This has the trope The Grumpy One and the Soft One Same as the above, it didn’t grip me as I moved onto the next story and I wasn’t really a fan of the context within this. 2/5

What Makes Us Heroes - Julian Winters This has the trope Hero Vs. Villain I found this one super boring personally, I felt like it wasn’t well set up past the first few sentences and that's why I am rating it low. 2/5

And - Hannah Moskowitz This has the trope Love Triangle I was pleasantly surprised by the 2nd person POV, they are always a hit or miss and this was a hit for me - a proper love triangle! I do think it was a little odd only because of the POV, but outside of that the characters and story were interesting and I liked the diverse relationship in it 4/5

My best Friend's Girl - Sara Farizan This has the trope Best Friend's Girlfriend I also enjoyed this one, although I wanted a little bit more. Overall a solid story about plunked right in the middle of this anthology that has helped to peek my interests again. 3.5/5

(Fairy) Like Attracts Like - Claire Kann This has the trope Mutual Pining This just wasn't for me unfortunately. 2/5

These Strings - Lilliam Rivera This has the trope Siblings Hot Best Friend I really liked this, it was pretty cute and I liked the whole set up and everything. It also dealt with more than just the love trope which was really nice. 4/5

The Passover Date - Laura Silverman This has the trope Fake Dating Legit my favourite so far, I just really love Fake Dating ok! 5/5

Bloom - Rebecca Barrow This has the trope Love Transcends Space Time I didn't like the way this was written, it's not a writing style I'm personally a fan of - and the trope is also something I don't tend to enjoy. 2/5

Teed Up - Gloria Chao This has the trope Oblivious Lovers The thing I disliked the most about this was the golf. I loved the writing style however and because of that, this is a 3.5/5

Boys Noise - Mason Deaver This has the trope Only One Bed at the Inn Ok this was adorable, and gave me major I Was Born for This vibes. I also like this trope even though it's pretty overused, so overall I enjoyed this. 5/5

Girls Just Want to Have Fun - Malinda Lo This has the trope Hidden Royalty This isn't a trope I really enjoy, but the setting for this story was on point and I would read more set in this world! I love sci-fi set in space on a station, it's always super diverse and interesting. 4/5

Disaster - Rebecca Podos This has the trope Second Chance Romance I think this was just alright, it was a good ending to the collection but I think that maybe Boys Noise would have been a better ending. I also don't know if the formatting meant some was missing, or that it really ended how it did. 3.5/5 for this story.

FINAL RATING: 3.4 - rounded up to 4*

This is a collection that I would definitely buy a physical copy of.

I'm rating this better than my average rating according to separate stories is.

It was a nice little collection but with a lot of flaws.

First, it bugged me that every story had a hapoy ending. I really wanted some heartache and some unsuccessful loves.

And then secondly, the doatribution of LGBT+ and heterosexual stories was REALLY uneven. I respect the inclusion and all, bit I would have liked for heterosexual couples to be included as well.

Finally, I found the stories with sci-fi and fantasy elements to be very boring. There was no importance of the fantastic element for the plot in all but one , which made it pointless. And the stories were way too short to give enough answers about the worlds and the supernatural.

Silver and Gold - 1
The story was completely unremarkable and boring. The execution was poor, and I had no real feelings while reading it. He writing style was very sloppy and I had a feeling of reading a story wrotten by a hobbyist and not a writer, not even amateur one. I had no feelings or liking towards the characters and I was told what I should feel more than I actually felt anything.

Five Stars - 4
This was the kind of cute that makes your heart melt. I loved it. The awkward new beginnings, the unlikely but completely possible accident, the tingling feeling when your crush is near you and likes you back. This story had it all!

Unfortunatrly, Blibs do not Eat Snacks - 2
I was more interested in the fantasy part of the story, and the romance was unnatural and just showed there somewhere yowards the end without any actual development. And, the fantasy part just fell apart amd wasn't finished, leaving me with more questions than answers.

Edges - 4
Apart from the hideous name of this story, it was pretty good. The first one in this book that actually had me feel the feelings. Pretty good.

What Makes Us Heroes - 1
Everything was pretty vague and artificial, and the superhero part was vay too shallow to give any importance to the story.

And - 2
The wriying style really bugged me a lot. I didn't like the main character who was just ready to play with everyone to get what she wanted. And I don't thing the whole threesome thing sits wiyh me well.

My Best Friend's Girl - 1
Not a fan of superheroes, especially when it has no importance to the story. Also, how can you not discuss whom you love with a person and call them a beat friend??? Or how can you call yourself someone's best friend and not see whom they love????

Fairy Like Attracts Like - 1
Placing a fat lesbian person in a story just for the sale of mentioning a fat lesbian is just shitty. If she was black or asian, you would have the whole deal! Well, it ahouldn't be done like that!

These Strings - 3
More of a friendship story than a live story. Unlikeable characters

The Passover Date - 3
Okay. Old friends find love.

Bloom - 3
Fantasy about traveling through time to find love. Both child-parent love and romantic love. Refreshing.

Teed Up - 2
I'm just not a fan of insta-love or manipulative parents.

Boys Noise - 3
Trans gay celebrity teenager falls in love with a band member who loves him back. It is cute, but nothing special. I didn't feel that the intetnal battle of falling in love with someone you shouldn't was ptesented in its full potential.

Girls Just Want to Have Fun - 1
As I said, I HATE insta-love stories. I'm also not the biggest fan of sci-fi.

Disaster - 3
I would probably have liked it more if it wasn't so obvious that there will be no disaster.

Fools in Love was an utterly refreshing anthology that I absolutely loved. I started reading it at 8PM and I finished it by 11PM. Every story was so beautiful and so well written, that I just did not want to stop reading. And so, I finished this all in one setting. Every author has created such interesting characters and even in the span of a few short pages, you can't help but fall in love with them all. I'm a sucker for romance so I don't think I could pick one favorite story. But seriously though, everyone should read this. I think you'll find yourself connecting to one character, at least.

These stories were hit and miss for me. I loved some, and others weren’t my favorite. None of them were bad, but some weren’t for me.

The stories I enjoyed the most were “the grumpy one and the soft one”, “Hero vs Villain”, “mutual pining”, “oblivious to lovers”, and “only one bed at the inn.” Those stories had all of my favorite tropes.

I really liked the characters in each story, it’s just the tropes that made me like some more than others.

This has something for everybody. I can’t think of any very popular tropes that aren’t in this. It has everything.

Overall I really enjoyed this book. It was very entertaining, and I at least liked all of the stories.

3.5⭐️/5⭐️

I would start by saying how unique this book is. I have never read a book that was written by multiple authors but I honestly loved it. It is a collection of romance stories and each one is written from a different author and they also include different types of genre. It has an amazing representation as there’s diversity of race, sexuality and more. I am so glad that authors are finally stepping up and including more diversity in their books. For those who are worried that this will be just a romance book, it really isn’t. Fantasy, sci-fi and even more are included through these different stories. For the readers like me that love the fake dating trope or the one bed trope, you will definitely enjoy this book as these tropes are present throughout some of the stories. I personally would recommend this book to all the people that enjoy reading different genres with romance always in it. One suggestion would be to make the stories a little bit longer but overall it was very well written.

I chose this book because of its popularity but that was a complete miss for me. I don't think I realized the genre until after I got the book.

Thank you Netgalley for a free copy.

There is something for everyone to enjoy in this collection of LGBTQIA+ inclusive Young Adult short stories, which re-imagine popular tropes in Contemporary, Sci-fi, and Fantasy books.

My Favorites:
What Makes Us Heroes by Julian Winters
And by Hannah Moskowitz
My Best Friend's Girl by Sara Farizan
The Passover Date by Laura Silverman
Boys Noise by Mason Deaver

These stories were wonderful! I was looking for a lighthearted romance type of book and this was the perfect one for me. All of the stories were very solidly written and kept me engaged, I loved it!

This is a cute anthology filled with love stories across a variety of tropes and genres. The writing itself didn’t blow me away and that, combined with the short-story style, made it hard to keep my attention. I think this would be a great section for someone who’s trying to find what tropes they like best or who wants to fly through a lot of different stories, very quickly. I think I need more context to engage with romance stories, especially YA.

Before I actually read this, I saw another review that said that this book was perfect if you're in a reading slump and seriously that is so true! I ABSOLUTELY loved it! It had great diversity and representation and was such a great book that gives you all of those light and fluffy feelings when reading! I will definitely be picking up a physical copy of this when it comes out! Perfect for so many different people, and i loved that there were so many different stories. This is the first book that I have read that had multiple authors and stories, and I loved how refreshing it was going through each story. It didn't feel redundant at all, and it kept me wanting more and more as each story passed! One of my favourite reads this year so far!

A book full of cute stories, which I enjoyed reading for the most part. Like most of these sort of books there where one or two I didn't enjoy just out of personal taste. But all in all its a great read.

I liked this anthology of short stories. I found the romances fun and different. I think this is a good anthology of romance for anyone who finds themselves in-between serious reads and/or in a book slump.

Thanks NetGalley for this ARC!

I don't know which of these stories I loved the most! I love so many of these authors including Deaver, Chao, Winters and Barrow. The others are all fantastic new discoveries I'm excited to look into the backlist of!

This book was very cute! I thought each of the short stories were very fun to read and I loved that it was all short stories. Each of the short stories were so sweet and I definitely cant pick a favorite. I have always been romance trope fan so it was fun to read these reimaginings.

My favorite thing about anthologies is that they’re such great reads if you find yourself in a reading slump, or if you’re unsure of what kind of story you’re in the mood for. Fools In Love: Fresh Twists on Romantic Tales is a very entertaining collection of stories focused on bringing new light to some beloved romance tropes, such as: fake dating, there’s only one bed, love triangles and second chance romance. This anthology also has something for everyone in that not all of the stories are of the contemporary genre. There’s fantasy, sci-fi, and time travel among the contemporary stories and I really loved that there were variations in the story genres.

I won’t lie, before I started reading I was a bit worried that the majority of the stories would center around cis-gendered, straight, white couples. While there is nothing wrong with those stories, these tropes have been told time and time again from that lens and the genre could use a revamp. I was so pleased to find out, upon finishing the anthology, that only two of the fifteen stories were about cis-gender, straight couples – and only one of those couples had two white protagonists. The stories in this collection really focused on characters of color, as well as LGBTQ characters and couples, and which I found very refreshing.

I thought all of the stories were well written, and there were lots of interesting and creative ideas! There were many that I enjoyed, but my favorites were: Five Stars (Mistaken Identity) by Amy Spalding, What Makes us Heroes (Hero vs. Villain) by Julian Winters, (Fairy)Like Attracts Like (Mutual Pining) by Claire Kann, The Passover Date (Fake Dating) by Laura Silverman, Teed Up (Oblivious to Lovers) by Gloria Chao and Boys Noise (Only One Bed at the Inn) by Mason Deaver. Each story had well developed characters, a compelling storyline, and left me curious to know what happened next in the story. I also thought that Bloom (Love Transcends Space & Time) by Rebecca Barrow was one of the most interesting stories.

Fools In Love: Fresh Twists on Romantic Tales really did live up to its title by bringing new takes to tropes that we all know and love. If you’re a fan of romance stories, I would definitely recommend it!

This was a cute little selection of romantic short stories. Each story follows a different popular romance trope like one bed, enemies to lovers, fake dating, etc. The diversity of these stories was so amazing. The LGBTQ+ and racial rep was perfection. There were many different genres so it's not solely contemporary and there is a little bit of everything here so that every reader can find something to enjoy.
The authors all did an amazing job with allowing the reader to connect with the characters so early on. I loved reading everyones stories.