A bit of a forewarning: this review is fully biased and, to tell the truth, I mostly skimmed the stories that weren't gay (of which there was more than one, in case that's a turn-off for anyone). Also, of the m/f stories I did enjoy, I automatically deducted points for lack of lgbt, something I tend to do on sort of a subconscious level. No hate to the authors, I'm sure their stories were good, I just physically can't enjoy a piece of media where the love interest is a cishet man, knowing that they are truly abominable creatures.

Anyway, all that being said, Fools in Love is a lovely collection of romantic stories which, on the whole, I found myself quite enjoying. Each one follows a specific trope which, if you're a fan of romance (or fanfiction), you'll already see that as a massive plus. Reading this anthology gave me the opportunity to dip my toe into genres I might not have otherwise encountered, or ones that I wouldn't usually be pressed to pick up a full novel of. Being able to taste a sweet snapshot of how these authors write made me want to read more of their work, and I loved some of the stories so much that I wish they had been fleshed out into full-length novels, although I understand why they weren't.

I'll have a list of my ratings of each individual story at the end of this review, but my 3 favourites that I am still thinking about a couple weeks after reading them are: story number 5, "What Makes Us Heroes" by Julian Winters, which is a gay superhero/villain romance that made me realise I need way more lgbtq superhero novels in YA; story 14, "Girls Just Want to Have Fun" by Malindo Lo, a sapphic sci-fi princess/mechanic(?) romance that made me realise I actually like sci-fi sometimes; and story 15, "Disaster" by Rebecca Podos, a sapphic last-day-on-Earth second chance romance that did what Don't Look Up tried to do but 1000 times better (bc sapphic).

I don't usually read anthologies, but I'm so glad I read this one because it introduced me to so many new authors at once, and honest to God, some of these short stories are better than the full-length novels I've read recently. Perfect for a Valentine's Day read!

My ratings for each story:

1. "Silver and Gold" by Natasha Ngan - 3.75/5
2. "Five Stars" by Amy Spalding - 4.5/5
3. "Unfortunately, Blobs Do Not Eat Snacks" by Rebecca Kim Wells - 5/5
4. "Edges" by Ashley Herring-Blake - 4/5
5. "What Makes Us Heroes" by Julian Winters - 5/5
6. "And" by Hannah Moskowitz - 4/5
7. "My Best Friend's Girl" by Sara Farizan - 4.5/5
8. "(Fairy)Like Attracts Like" by Claire Kann - 4/5
9. "These Strings" by Lilliam Rivera - 2/5
10. "The Passover Date" by Laura Silverman - 4/5
11. "Bloom" by Rebecca Barrow - 5/5
12. "Teed Up" by Gloria Chao - 3/5
13. "Boys Noise" by Mason Deaver - 4.5/5
14. "Girls Just Want to Have Fun" - 5/5
15. "Disaster" by Rebecca Podos - 5/5

Fake relationship. Enemies to lovers. Snowed in. If you love romance tropes, then don't miss Fools in Love, an anthology of short stories by a wide variety of YA authors, featuring tales in genres ranging from fantasy to realistic to science fiction.

It should be said right off the bat that Fools in Love is a LGBTQIA-majority YA anthology with only three of the fifteen short stories featuring traditional male-female relationships. Not only does this collection primarily feature queer main characters, but it also has a wide range of racial diversity and types of LGBTQIA relationships as well, including polyamorous, bi-, and trans- characters. With that said, this collection will appeal greatly to readers in the LGBTQIA community and to those who enjoy a wide variety of love stories. For those who prefer traditional romances, pass on this collection because it is not for you - the "fresh twist" on romantic tropes that this anthology boasts is that these aren't your average relationships.

Each entry in this collection takes a romance trope and spins a story around it. For featuring 15 different tropes written by 15 different authors, I found the stories in this collection to be surprisingly formulaic. Very few stories featured relationships where the characters were already in love. Rather most of these tales feature the start of a relationship, so we basically see the same story over and over again, just written into a different genre and setting ... and of course with a different trope. Unfortunately, this rush to develop a relationship over the course of a few pages (these are short stories, after all) leaves most of these characters and their romances falling flat on their faces, undeveloped and uninspired.

However, there were a few standouts, including Laura Silverman's The Passover Date. This story is vibrant, diverse, and entertaining, while also being cute and comical. It was practically the only time in this anthology that I settled into the story and actually enjoyed it instead of checking to see how many pages I had left until it was over.

In all, I think that this is an important anthology for those looking for representation in YA literature, however, the execution and storytelling leaves something to be desired.

Queer anthologies are awesome and we definitely need more of those!

I really liked reading about so many different characters and how they went about their life in just a few span of pages. There was such a diverse collection of characters, with Asian rep and sapphic rep at the forefront and I can just do this <3<3

This anthology includes fifteen short stories by fifteen authors and is a mix of different genres - contemporary, fantasy, superheroes and villains, adventure, sci-fi etc.

My favorite stories included Edges - The Grumpy and the Soft One, What Makes Us Heroes - Hero vs. Villain, My Best Friend's Girl - Best Friend's Girlfriend, (Fairy)Like Attracts Like - Mutual Pining, Bloom - Love Transcends Space Time, Boys Noise - Only One Bed at the Inn (pls lemme fangirl: one of the MCs is named Felix and that too idol *crying brb... will do it more if you get it*), Girls Just Want to Have Fun - Secret Royalty.

I was provided with an arc of this book in exchange for an honest review

This was a very sweet read! I adored the diversity and loved all the representation. I also really liked most of the stories. Despite this I also felt as though others fell flat and I didn't care about them much.

This anthology caters to practically everyone. It showcases a variety of queer relationships across genres ranging from contemporary to fantasy to sci-fi while bringing new approaches to the romance tropes we all know and adore.

There were a few stories I liked less than others, mostly because of an author's particular writing style or the trope they used, but none of the stories made me lose the will to live. The stand-outs for me were Malinda Lo, Claire Kann and Ashley Herring Blake. I can imagine ways for their stories to be fleshed out and turned into full-length novels, because although they did a good job telling the story in only a few pages, I was never really ready to leave the characters behind and jump into a new story.

Some stories felt very experimental, with authors writing in ways I hadn't really encountered before. Most notably, Hannah Moskowitz's story about a girl falling for two boys. It was the shortest story in the collection, and a lot of story was left off of the page, but despite those two limitations, it still ended up in a satisfying place.

Anthologies are dangerous books for those among us with book-buying addictions. All I'm saying is: be prepared to add some authors's entire backlists to your shopping cart after reading this one.

Thank you to the publisher for giving me an ARC of this book via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

This anthology of diverse love stories was really interesting. Each story has a prompt, like enemies to lovers and fake dating, and they could be contemporary, fantasy and even scifi! As it happens with any anthology, I absolutely enjoyed some than others, and my favorites includes the ones written by Amy Spalding, Ashely Herring Blake, Julian Winters, Laura Silverman (my absolute favorite one!), Mason Deaver and Malinda Lo (this one was incredible!). Honorable mention to Rebecca Barrow, who wrote a love story that has time travel, and the writing in this one was so beautiful, flowery and poetic. This book was my first time reading from all of these writers, and I can't hardly wait to check it out their other works.

This is what short stories should be about with inclusive authors writing different types of people with different backgrounds! I really enjoyed majority of the stories and there is something special for all readers. I like how some of the stories included LGBTQ themes and it mostly the stories are young adult.

How fun. Even though the tropes are so common to the romance genre, the stories are so unique and unexpected. Short and sweet.

An adorable, diverse collection of teen love stories that was a joy to read during the holidays! I recommend for anyone who loves a fresh take on the romance tropes we know and love.

Fools in Love is an adorable collection of short stories centered around different romance tropes and I ended up quite enjoying it! I really loved the diversity and how there were so many LGBTQIAP+, BIPOC and even Jewish main characters. Some stories were incredible and I couldn't get enough of them and others unfortunately fell a little flat or just weren't very memorable. I ended up giving Fools in Love 3.5 stars as I overall enjoyed this short story collection but there were just too many stories that I wasn't the biggest fan of. I also would've liked to see more elements that tied all of the stories together. There are so many different genres, writing styles, settings and themes that the selection sometimes almost felt random. I loved the idea of every story having a different trope but they weren't always the focus of the stories so I would've liked for them to be a bit more interwoven.

I did enjoy the diversity of this book. It had a variety types of relationships, ages, and backstory. Each story felt authentic in its approach, and I enjoyed the variety of authors. However, I will say that some stories felt a bit more dry than others especially for such short stories. Some of the short stories easily engaged me, and I was said that it ended while others felt entirely too slow.

I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

More and more I find myself gravitating towards these anthologies full of unique stories, a variety of tropes, and featuring both favorite + new to me authors. I could not wait to read this one, and one of the things I enjoy most about anthologies is that the short stories allow me to treasure them, reading one story at a time to break up other reads, or all at once in a compilation of a common theme.

So many cute, flirty and fun stories that were perfect for the moment, and just what I needed to read, thank you to all of the incredible authors for the words, and to Running Press Kids for the eARC

Favorites for me were Mistaken Identity + What Makes Us Heroes but there was such a fantastic variety in this book that kept me wanting more.

I don't normally read anthologies, but ohmygod this book was so gay. There were so many sapphic stories. I was fed. Nurtured. I need all my anthologies to be like this.

Absolutely loved this book! Got it for Mason Deaver's story, but was surprisingly pleased with the other stories as well. I love YA tropes and this was the perfect length for each one.

I absolutely adore reading short story collections. So, when I saw that there was going to be one all about fresh takes on romantic tales and traits we all know and love, I had to give it a go. I loved it. Some stories stood out more than others but I still really enjoyed it all. I wanted to give a quick story by story review breakdown as I feel that is the best way to share my thoughts on this one. I will definitely be coming back to some of the stories in the future.

Silver and Gold by Natasha Ngan / ‘Snowed in Together’ / 4 Stars

This was my first time reading anything by Natasha Ngan and I thoroughly enjoyed her writing. She really showed that you can care about characters, their relationship and their world in less than 20 pages. I thoroughly enjoyed this one and I feel it is something I would love to see potentially in full story form in the future.

Five Stars by Amy Spalding / ‘ Mistaken Identity’ / 4 Stars

I loved this one. I’ve had mixed reactions to Amy Spadling’s work so wasn’t expecting to love this one as much as I did. It was cute, I found myself caring about the characters and it really did make me laugh at points. This was just a fun concept and I loved the way that it all played out.

Unfortunately, Blobs Do No Eat Snacks by Rebecca Kim Wells / ‘Kissing Under the Influence’ / 2 Stars

I did not enjoy this one all that much. I felt like I could not get a grasp of the world it was meant to be set in. I did not manage to connect with the characters which is always a massive need for me. I can see a lot of people enjoying this one though but it just was not for me.

Edge by Ashley Herring Blake / ‘Grumpy and Sunshine’ / 3 Stars

This story has the grumpy/sunshine trope which I tend to always be a fan of. I enjoyed the characters in this one but did feel that it actually needed a full-length story to get to know them and to get behind their relationship. I did enjoy it as a short story but think it would have suited longer. Still the trope plays out nicely and it has cute moments.

What Makes Us Heroes by Julian Winters / ‘Hero Vs. Villain’ / 3 Stars

I absolutely adore Julian Winters and always seem to enjoy his stories. Although this wasn’t my favourite of his, it was a lot of fun. We have fake dating superheroes who are doing so not to be humiliated in front of each other’s exes. The concept was fun and although I feel it wasn’t played out to its full potential, I still enjoyed the characters and how the story panned out.

And by Hannah Moskowitz / ‘Love Triangle’ / 3 Stars

I wish this story had been longer. It explores polyamory which I would have loved to see more than 20 pages on. I’ve never seen polyamory representation in YA before so I really would have loved to see more of this and have the story expanded. This is the shortest story in the collection overall but should have been the longest. I loved the characters and I wanted to see a lot more on how their relationship came to be.

My Best Friend’s Girl by Sara Farizan / ‘Best Friend’s Girlfriend’ / 4 Stars

What an adorable short story! I immediately want to read more by this author. It is a story about a girl how has to cover for her best friend with his girlfriend, who she happens to be in love with herself. It was cute, the relationships in it were incredibly sweet and I loved how the story ended up!

(Fairy) Like Attracts Like by Claire Kann / ‘Mutal Pining’ / 2 Stars

I can’t really say much about this one other than I really did not mix well with the writing. I couldn’t tell you much of what it was about but I know I just did not enjoy reading this one. It was a mix between contemporary and fantasy but didn’t really know itself what it was. I think others may enjoy this one, just not me.

These Strings by Lilliam Rivera / ‘Sibling’s Best Friend’ / 2 Star

This one was its own play the sibling’s best friend trope which although I’m not a fan of I usually don’t mind. In this case I was not a fan at all. It was not a fun story to read and I would have passed on it normally.

The Passover Date by Laura Silverman / ‘Fake Dating’ / 4 stars

I loved this one. It is just an incredible sweet tale with fake dating at its centre. I fell in love with these two characters, their personalities and how they acted together is such a small amount of time. I would have loved to see these two characters in a full story because I want more of them!

Bloom by Rebecca Barrow / ‘Love Transcends Space Time’ / 5 Stars

Personally, I think this is the best short story in the entire book. It is packed full of beautiful writing, pining, themes of love, revenge and grief. It has the most beautiful romance between a girl and the daughter of the man who murdered her mother. It is a difficult one to describe but I would highly recommend this collection purely for this story alone. It is one of those stories that stays with you and I’m sure I will think about it a lot.

Teed Up by Gloria Chao / ‘Oblivious to Lovers’ / 4 Stars

Don’t ask me why but I have a thing for golfing stories and this is one of those I loved. I may not completely understand the terms used in golfing but it still has be intrigued. Also, Gloria Chao had me caring a whole bunch for Liam and Sunny and honestly I’d read a full story about their and their golf escapades.

Boys Noise by Mason Deaver / ‘Only One Bed at the Inn’ / 3 Stars

This was is a cute bandmates / friends to lovers story which I enjoyed. It has trans rep and is the only story in the anthology to have that so I’m glad the representation was there but there should have been more. I would have loved more about these characters and to see their story expanded. Coincidently, I happened to be reading If This Gets Out at the same time as this and that has a very similar storyline and satisfied the urge to have this short story in long form.

Girls Just Want to Have Fun by Malinda Lo / ‘Secret Royalty’ / 3 Stars

I enjoy a good secret royalty story and this one was a lot of fun to read. Although in essence not much happens it is fun to see how someone who is secretly royalty may go about their lives. It definitely intrigued me into wanting to read more books by Malindo Lo!

Disaster by Rebecca Podos / ‘Second Chance Romance’ / 4 Stars

I’m so glad that this story was the end of the anthology as it finishes the book of perfectly. It is a second chance romance at the end of the world! You immediately root for the characters and see their panic, desperation and so much more in such a short space of time. I’d love more stories like this please!

Overall, this was a fun anthology with so many interesting stories that have fresh takes on tropes we know and love. It is packed full of representation and is just a whole bunch of fun to read. I would highly recommend this to anyone and hopefully it will help you find a new author or two!

This collection is just pure warm fuzzy feelings. There wasn’t a story I didn’t love, only ones that I loved even more. Lots of very different stories in the best way possible.

Average rating - 3.9 stars

I think this is my most highly rated anthology to date which is shocking because I am not a huge romance reader. However there was some overarching themes throughout all the stories that I really loved. They were:
- The discussion about consent and characters asking for consent before anything happened.
- How queer this anthology ended up being
- All the diversity and representation present, I mean you always hope for it but this one delivered.

On to the individual stories, I will give my rating and some quick thoughts I had after reading them.

Silver & Gold (Snowed in Together) - 3/5 stars
- interesting use of the trope but it really felt like an after thought to the main part of the story.

Five Stars (Mistaken Identity) - 4/5 stars
- Cute, funny, and delightfully queer. Perfect fit for the trope done in an interesting new way.

Unfortunately, Blobs do not eat snacks (Kissing Under the Influence) - 4/5 stars
- No actually kissing under the influence took place during this story, only after. Otherwise it was good.

Edges (The grumpy one and the soft one) - 5/5 stars
- I want more of Clover & Mac's story, it was so freaking cute!

What makes Us Heroes (Hero vs. Villains) - 4.5/5 stars
- This was so close to perfect, I just wanted a bit more snark.

And (Love triangle) - 2/5 stars
- Normally I love me a good trouple but this one did not sit well with me. Maybe because it seemed rushed due to it being a short story.

My Best Friend's Girl (Best friend's girlfriend) - 3/5 stars
- Meh, this is not my favourite trope to begin with so I wasn't destined to love it but it was just underwhelming.

(Fairy)like Attracts Like (Mutual pining) - 3/5 stars
- This had a ton of potential but it needed more pages

These Strings (Sibling's hot best friend) - 4.5/5 stars
- This was fantastic! A perfect slice of life type of story.

The Passover Date (Fake dating) - 5/5 stars
- This felt like the end of a book and I want to read the beginning!

Bloom (Love transcends space time) - 4.5/5 stars
- This is not a trope that I have ever read before but I really enjoyed it.

Teed Up (Oblivious to lovers) - 4.5/5 stars
- I'm not normally into sports stories but I loved this.

Boys Noise (Only one bed at the Inn) - 5/5 stars
- Full book now please! That is all...

Girls Just Want to Have Fun (Secret royalty) - 3.5/5 stars
- This gave me total Cinder vibes but it was lacking that spark that leaves you wanting more.

Disaster (Second chance romance) - 3/5 stars
- I am underwhelmed by this. It was just fine and I am bummed that this is the story that they chose to go last because It left the book off on a mediocre note.

I'm always up to read a great love story, and FOOLS IN LOVE contained a plethora of whimsical, magical, heart-thumping romances (some of which broke my heart, but all of which put it back together)!

There's something for everyone in this anthology: your classic mistaken-identity contemporaries and holiday meet-cutes, yes, but also stories in a wide variety of genres.

One stand-out, to me, was WHAT MAKES US HEROES: a the superhero/nemesis enemies-to-lovers story, encompassing a premise I've been wishing existed for years. It was pulled off with such grace, angst, and joy, and the banter, atmosphere, and superpower descriptions were spot-on!

Honestly, every story was brilliant -- and I loved them all, in each of their special ways. I'll definitely be keeping an eye out for these authors' upcoming works throughout the near future!

Thank you to the publisher and to NetGalley for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This was a cute and creative anthology! I found it quick to get through and fun to read.

I loved this collection of young adult stories about teenagers falling in love, in all of its forms. Short stories can sometimes be hit or miss for me, but I've found that YA is my sweet spot. Some of my favorite YA authors were included (Mason Deaver, Laura Silverman) and the diversity and representation is amazing. This book would be perfect to gift to the teen in your life, or to read when you need a little bit of a pick me up. For fans of Up All Night or Blackout.