Thank you to NetGalley and Macmillan Children's for the e-ARC to review. This anthology is a great collection of authors I have read and loved in the past, along with some new-to-me writers who I'm happy to be introduced to. It's hard to star-review this work as a whole because there were ten totally different stories with different levels of my personal enjoyment, which is exactly what an anthology is supposed to be, in my opinion. As a whole though, I did enjoy reading the entire work together: no totally terrible stories that take down the entire book for me, but also no superstar standouts in any of the individual short stories. It all works together, and regardless of your favorite trope, I think YA romance readers will find something to love. I did enjoy the diversity of the work, from the characters, authors, story types, and styles - and there was even a graphic novel-type story included, which I personally haven't encountered in a compilation like this before.

I think one notable big success of this anthology is that I will definitely be on the lookout for/picking up other works by some of the new-to-me authors, which means it's a great introduction to their titles.

I am usually kind of iffy about books like this with multiple short stories by different authors. Typically there are ones I don’t enjoy or even skip. This collection did not follow that usual pattern of mine. I honestly loved every single story in the book. They were all super cute and I loved how inclusive they were (with sexuality, gender, and race!) I feel like this is the perfect Valentines read. Especially for people who love love stories and the best tropes (one bed! Fake dating! Makeovers!!!)

What an incredibly fun, feel-good collection of short stories with all your favorite romantic tropes and diverse representation. This collection helped me rediscover my love for the short story. So nice to start and finish something in one sitting. YA romance fans will not want to miss out on this one.

This review will be different from my other reviews as this was a collection of short stories written by different authors combined in one. I loved the idea of a collection of short stories featuring different romantic tropes like fake relationships to one bed trope. I'm a huge fan of romantic stories so seeing stories featuring different tropes made me know that this book was for me. This book is filled with diversity with not only characters but also the authors. I enjoyed seeing some of my favorite authors in this book like Sandy Menon and learning about new ones. I do have to say that there was two short stories that weren't my favorite due to the story not being well written as I hoped for the trope. Though my favorite was Sandhya Menon's matchmaker trope story and Marissa Meyer's one bed trope story. The romances were very well done in most of the stories and I think there were four stories that involved LGBTQ+ couples. I would rate each and every one of the short stories but then my review will be VERY long and not be able to fit on any other platforms. I totally recommend reading this book if you want to read certain romance tropes and get a taste of different ones.

I realized after I started this that it was the second YA, trope-based, romance anthology that I had read in a month, but if I'm being honest, I liked this one a lot better.

While there was only one five-star story for me in this collection, the quality of the stories, in general, was absolutely wonderful, and I found myself smiling as I read them. As I usually do with anthologies, I'll be reviewing each story individually for a better scope of my opinions. After the author names, the trope the story is based on will be put in parentheses.

Bye Bye, Piper Berry by Julie Murphy (the fake relationship) - 4 ⭐
Maybe it's just my love for this trope, but I thought this was the perfect way to start the anthology! It was such a cute story that utilized the trope well, and it made me excited to start the Julie Murphy books I own.

Anyone Else But You by Leah Johnson (stranded together) - 4 ⭐
Ahh, yet another adorable one! The ending for this one was absolutely lovely, and I think I can definitely start to call myself a fan of Johnson's writing.

The Idiom Algorithm by Abigail Hing Wen (class warfare) - 3 ⭐
This was probably my second least favorite story of the collection. Maybe it was the fact that I wasn't familiar with the trope going in, but something about it just didn't click for me. I also found the main character (Tam maybe?) to be kind of unlikeable.

Auld Acquaintance by Caleb Roehrig (the best friend love epiphany) - 3.5 ⭐
Have I ever mentioned how much I love angsty love confessions? They're simply amazing, and let me just say that that was definitely the best part of this story.

Shooting Stars by Marissa Meyer (one bed) - 4.25 ⭐
This is it, this is one of the best tropes. Somehow Meyer managed to make a short story feel like a slow burn filled with pining that made my heart ache. It was just so good! It makes me really excited to start reading more of her work.

Keagan's Heaven On Earth by Sarah Winifred (the secret admirer) -4.5 ⭐
I wasn't anticipating a comic in this collection, so that was a pleasant surprise! Both the artwork and the story were absolutely adorable, and I found Keagan to be a very relatable character.

Zora in the Spotlight by Elise Bryant (the grand romantic gesture) - 5 ⭐
Maybe I'm a bit biased since Bryant has quickly become one of my favorite authors, but this was, in my opinion, the highlight of the anthology. Something about it just had me smiling the whole way through, and I loved it so much. If anyone is a Taylor Swift fan, it sort of reminded me of How You Get the Girl.

In a Blink of the Eye by Elizabeth Eulberg (trapped in a confined space) - 2.5 ⭐
This...was probably my least favorite story in the book, if I'm being honest. The main character, Morgan, annoyed me, and it sort of reminded me of the late 2000s to early 2010s YA romances, of which I am not the biggest fan.

Liberty by Anna-Marie McLemore (the makeover) - 4.5 ⭐
I've read maybe two stories in the past few months about cheerleading, which isn't a lot, but it's two more than I'd read prior to that. McLemore is another author I think I'm growing to love, and this was such a fun story! I'm very excited to read more of her work.

The Surprise Match by Sandhya Menon (the matchmaker) - 3.5 ⭐
I really don't remember too much about this one, but in my notes, I said I added a half star for the cute ending and the Six of Crows reference, so that's something.

Overall, this was such a cute anthology, and I absolutely loved it! I'm excited to read more from quite a few of the authors, and I highly recommend it to anyone searching for cozy contemporaries to read this upcoming winter.

Serendipity is a book full of short stories by many YA authors that I have read before (including the incomparable Marissa Meyer!). All of the stories are centered around a popular trope (such as one bed, enemies to lovers, friends to lovers, etc). As with many books that include a collection of short stories there were ones that I liked and ones that I ended up skimming due to just not being my preference. I would recommend this book to lovers of YA tropes and fans of any of these authors. It was a quick, but overall fun read.

I absolutely loved the book! It was amazing, and the perfect read for being off during the holiday! I am recommending it to everyone I know! ♥

Serendipity, edited by Marissa Meyer, is a collection of contemporary YA short stories, each featuring a different romance trope. I had very high hopes going in, because I love a lot of the authors who contributed, and I was not disappointed. There are a wide variety of tropes and characters, and there's definitely something for everybody.

"Bye Bye, Piper Berry," by Julie Murphy, features the "fake relationship" trope. It follows Piper, whose boyfriend of three years just cheated on her, as she convinces their best friend, Gabe, to fake date her to make him jealous and hurt him, little knowing that Gabe has long been in love with her. I just didn't love Piper's motives; I feel like fake-dating to make somebody jealous is more excusable than fake-dating to try and hurt them back. I also just wish there'd been a little more character depth 3.5/5

"Anyone Else But You," by Leah Johnson, features the "stranded together" trope. A pair of senior co-presidents, Jada and Perry, when they're trapped together in a Party Palace when Jada is late to them buying supplies for the Senior Send-Off. It's a cute wlw story, and I loved the characters and their dynamic. 4.5/5

"The Idiom Algorithm," by Abigail Hing Wen, features a trope called "class warfare" that I didn't realize was a romance trope. It follows a guy whose girlfriend, an exchange student from China, is removed suddenly from the country when her parents find out that they're dating, completely erasing her identity as he had known her from the Internet; he then builds an algorithm to try and find her. It's highkey very creepy, even though that isn't the main romance. 2/5.

"Auld Acquaintance," by Caleb Roehrig, features the "best friend love epiphany" trope. It follows two gay best friends who have promised each other that, if they don't get a boyfriend by the end of the school shut in (taking place on New Year's Eve), then they'll kiss each other at midnight. This of course leads to one realizing that he's in love with the other. It was an okay story; I just felt like neither of the protagonists had any personality. 3.5/5

"Shooting Stars," by Marissa Meyer, features the "One Bed" trope. I absolutely adored it (as was expected, considering that Marissa Meyer's books own approximately my entire heart and soul). It follows a girl on her senior trip who keeps ending up in situations with only one bed with her crush every night until they finally end up getting together on the last night and it's adorable and definitely my favorite story in the book. 5/5

"Keagan's Heaven on Earth," by Sarah Winifred Searle, features the "secret admirer" trope, and is a graphic novel short story, which I really enjoyed, since I've never seen one of those in a mostly-prose short story anthology before. It follows Mickey, who is forced onto the dance committee as a punishment for skipping classes. They fall for Keagan, their lab partner who offers to help out, and it's really cute; I just wish that there was a little more plot- and character-development. 4.5/5

"Zora in the Spotlight," by Elise Bryant, features the "grand romantic gesture" trope. It follows Zora, who accidentally receives somebody else's promposal at the school dance, to her mortification. It was intended for an influencer who goes to her school who was wearing a similar outfit to her, and the guy attempting to ask the influencer out has never even met her, so there were definitely some uncomfortable stalker-vibes, particularly when the two end up falling for each other. 2.5/5

"In a Blink of the Eye," by Elizabeth Eulberg, features the "trapped in a confined space" trope. This isn't much of a romance story, but I really enjoyed the way it turned the trope around. Basically, the protagonist, Morgan, is on a show choir trip to London, during which her best friend, Dani, tricks her and Dani's boyfriend, Tyler, into going on the London Eye together so they can sort out their differences (namely Morgan's dislike of Tyler). I really enjoyed the friendship development. 4.5/5

"Liberty," by Anna-Marie McLemore, features the "the makeover" trope. It follows Ximena, a Latina girl who forces herself to try and fit Eurocentric beauty standards as much as possible to fit in on the cheerleading team until her former idol, Camilla, a Latina beauty YouTuber, joins the team and encourages Ximena to be true to who she actually is. The two help each other and eventually fall for each other and it's beautiful and wonderful. 5/5.

"The Surprise Match," by Sandhya Menon, features the "matchmaker" trope. It follows a girl who has made a program that analyzes the social media accounts of people at her school to identify who people's ideal matches are. When her best friend asks her to run it for him, she gets jealous and realizes her feelings, but doesn't give him his true result (her) for fear of ruining their friendship. It's really cute, as with all of Menon's work. 4.5/5

Overall, I really enjoyed this short story collection. There were quite a few stories that I absolutely adored, even if there were a couple that I disliked. I very much appreciated all of the queer representation; I'm glad to see that it's becoming more common in these sorts of YA collections, particularly wlw rep, which has lagged behind mlm rep in the YA world for a while. I'm giving the book 4/5 stars, and definitely recommend it to anybody who loves YA romance; even if you dislike one or two of the stories, the rest make it far worth it.

Loved the diversity of authors and of love stories! I'm not totally certain that everyone understood the assignment, for some of these I didn't feel like the trope was transformed or flipped on its head,. It seemed 50-50 on either doing a direct translation of a trope or doing something newer with it.

An anthology featuring YA authors writing about ten common romantic tropes.

I was initially excited about this because I love Marissa Meyer and will read anything with her name attached to it. I went into this thinking it was supposed to be common romantic tropes with a twist... and I'm not sure why I thought that... but this definitely was not that. It is an extremely fast read, and I finished it in one sitting, but I didn't find it to be anything particularly special. It did include some of my favourite tropes, so I was glad to see that and I did enjoy some of the stories more than others, but overall I wasn't blown away and it was just... meh.

this was a pretty cute anthology! the idea of turning classic romance tropes on their heads was definitely a good one, but i think the results were pretty mixed. some of the stories were excellent for being so short, but some also felt very flat and dated. overall, though, i think this was still a solid anthology (and i did read it all in a day!)

thank you NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with an ARC of this book for this honest review!

It's hard to give a rating for this anthology. I read the first two stories (by Julie Murphy and Leah Johnson) and LOVED them; I started recommending Serendipity to a lot of people. Then I read the rest of the book, and they all sort of blended in together. Basically last 8 were just average. I would definitely recommend this book to a teen or to a teen classroom as I think a lot of teens will like it.

Serendipity was one of my most anticipated anthologies of 2022, and I'm so grateful I got to read it early because of Macmillan Children's Publishing Group and Netgalley. The stories of this Young Adult anthology based around romantic tropes filled me with joy and calm.

What I love most is that a lot of the stories focused on friends to lovers stories OR the start of a relationship. The authors effectively wrote short stories that left me satisfied with the promise of new and changed relationships. I also like the fact that some of my expectations for the main characters in the stories turned out to be different. Each main character felt real to me: I enjoyed the diversity of their hobbies and goals: one character thought she wanted to get back at her ex, another character realizes that she may not know her "enemy" as well as she thought she did, and another character realized that love may take risks. A new relationship may start from running into someone else in a new country, or with a friend you've known for over 7 years.

Serendipity left me feeling hopeful. It's heartwarming to read stories about people my age experiencing love for the first time, and to feel like you're a part of a great love story. Serendipity takes joy in the simple moments, in the simplicity of noticing all of the details of a person, and being open to knowing the entirety of a person, beyond how they may appear to look to the rest of the world.

This collection of short stories is everything that I want in an ode to our favorite tropes. There is angst, yearning, growth, and each story made me want more. Seriously, Marissa, can we please get a full length camping story featuring one sleeping bag soon??? I already really love short story collections because I am able to read other authors’ work that I wouldn’t necessarily have been exposed to otherwise. Thank you for the arc in exchange for an honest review

Ouch. I was so excited for this and it was so disappointing. I will say I think the paperback copy of this is much better marketed, as nearly half of the stories feature LGBTQ characters and romances, and the paperback with the yellow back, rainbow colored flowers, and tagline about "all sorts of falling in love" is more indicative of that. Of the stories that I read completely through, they weren't very memorable and most of them didn't even use their designated "trope" hardly at all. Or if they did, it wasn't used to the best advantage of said trope.

Also, how could they not include nursing back to health or strictly enemies to lovers?

Working on writing up more in-depth notes to come after publication!

I was beyond delighted to read this book early. Getting an anthology collection consisting of romcoms is the best way to spend your day lost between pages. My only complaint is I want more!

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ (4 stars)
This book releases January 4, 2022

With multiple stories by multiple authors this review is going to look a little different than my usual. Up top under the cover is my overall ⭐️ review for the entire book, below I’ll be separating each story and giving them their own mini reviews and ⭐️ reviews.

Bye Bye, Piper Berry by Julie Murphy

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ (4 stars)

Reader’s Notes:

– there are 13 curse words

– this is told from both Piper and Gabe’s points of view

Review:

I took off a star for the amount of curse words (with the reason based on how many there were compared to the length of the story).

It was a quick and cute look at a fake relationship trope. I liked how the author chose to make the fake relationship happen, and how the story went. We got a bit of background on the main character’s feelings/how they acted toward each other which made the end result more rooted for by the reader. Overall a nice story!

Anyone Else But You by Leah Johnson

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ (4 stars)

Reader’s Notes:

– the romantic interests are girls

– only one curse word

Review:

I’m personally not a fan of girl/girl or guy/guy relationship stories.

Though this story is still good regardless! Our main characters get stuck in a store together overnight and (at least our narrator) felt the other girl was the enemy/her rival. But by the end of the story, both girls have realized things about the other that they didn’t know before. They also broke past the barrier that they believed kept them separated socially and opened up to one another.

The Idiom Algorithm by Abigail Hing Wen

⭐️⭐️⭐️ (3 stars)

Reader’s Notes:

– the main character’s friend suggests strip teasing his girlfriend over the video call and shows him how he could do it (using a sweater and lifting her shirt -to the stomach- before stopping)

Review:

I wasn’t really sure what to think about this story. To me it seemed a little out there, but I also haven’t read many books with people coming from other countries to go to school in America. So what occurred in the story may be normal for those kinds of stories but I wouldn’t know that. I could see the end coming too, but when it finally came it felt a little forced. (But I did like the end pairing even better than the original pairing)

The trope used for this story was called “class warfare”. It’s not one I think I’ve heard of and the more I think back on the story the more I think I now know what the trope is, but I’m not 100% sure.

Auld Acquaintance by Caleb Roehrig

⭐️⭐️⭐️💫 (3.5 stars)

Reader’s Notes:

– the romantic interests are guys

– it’s a bit more sensual than the past stories (not much -no sex or anything like that- , but I personally was uncomfortable with some of the details)

Review:

I’m personally not a fan of girl/girl or guy/guy relationship stories and as I said above some of the details I was uncomfortable with.

Overall, this was a cool story of two guys who are best friends but everyone thought they should be together. And then one guy (our narrator) realizes that he likes his friend as more than a friend and wonders how to let him know without hurting their friendship or possibly being hurt if his friend rejected him.

Shooting Stars by Marissa Meyer

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ (5 stars)

Review:

This was a very cute ‘one bed’ trope story! Misty and Roman were adorable and though it was told by Misty, readers can see the push and pull for both of the characters on deciding if the other liked them or not. And if they wanted to try and let the other know that they were interested.

Keagan’s Heaven on Earth by Sarah Winifred Searle

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ (4 stars)

Reader’s Notes:

– this is a graphic novel format

– I believe that both romantic interests are girls

Review:

This was a secret admirer trope, which was fairly easy to see who it was with this being a graphic novel format. I liked how the admirer didn’t force/make the other feel forced to make a choice on if they were to start a romantic relationship or not. She just let her know how she felt and they went from there to build their friendship further (at least so I assume from the last couple blocks of the story).

Zora in the Spotlight by Elise Bryant

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ (4 stars)

Reader’s Notes:

– 11 curse words

– this occurs at a school dance so there is the typical funky/not ok dance moves seen by Zora

Review:

This was an interesting grand gesture trope story! I kept thinking that the grand gesture would be made for Zora, but was shocked when it was a case of mistaken identity. And Zora was very relatable which I liked (us being introverts and similar mannerisms due to that). The star was just taken off for both things mentioned above.

In a Blink of the Eye by Elizabeth Eulberg

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ (5 stars)

Review:

This was a quick little story about letting go of an unrequited love and ending with walking away from the reader with the guy of her dreams. I really liked how the author went into the character’s past to explain what was going on between characters right then. And I liked how she described the guy’s expressions as he interacted with different people when they first met. It helped hit harder when her hope took a dive as she realized that he was more interested in her best friend than her.

Liberty by Anna-Marie McLemore

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ (4 stars)

Reader’s Notes:

– there are 16 curse words (mainly the ‘a’ word referring to a butt)

– both romantic interests are girls

Review:

This story mainly occurs during cheerleading practices and focuses on feeling the need to change yourself to fit in in order to be accepted (due to bias of those in charge of allowing someone into the group). I liked learning what different cheerleading position terms meant (in the voice of our narrator). I also liked that she grew into herself again and chose not to accept that she needed to change herself due to someone else’s bias.

The Surprise Match by Sandhya Menon

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ (4 stars)

Reader’s Notes:

– there are 12 curse words

Review:

Besides the curse words, I really enjoyed this cute story about a matchmaker and her best friend. Neither of them wanted to get rejected by the other and went in roundabout ways to find out if the other might be interested. But that didn’t work with the one pretending to be interested in someone else. 🙈

Real Rating: 3.5/5 Stars

Marissa Meyer starts off this anthology by dedicating it to all us incorrigible romantics. And that’s the type of people who will want to read this book. I venture to guess that’s even the target audience for it. Unsurprisingly, I’m an incorrigible romantic marshmallow underneath my seriously jaded and cynical exterior. That’s why I was so interested in this anthology in the first place.

The largest issue I have with this anthology is the proclamation the book makes, stating they intend to take some of our most popular romantic literary tropes and to embrace them and then turn them on their heads. Thing is, most of these stories do indeed embrace their designated tropes with unabashed glee… but most (in my opinion) fail to turn the trope on its head.

I should point out none of the short stories in this collection are bad. Nothing could be further from the truth. For a collection of YA romantic short stories, they are all pretty cute and sweet. This is a book that could be read by the whole range of YA readers, from your tweens to your older teens, and not worry about truly offending anyone’s sensibilities (well, anyone worth their salt, anyway).

The stand out stories to me were: “In the Blink of the Eye” (trope: trapped in a confined space) - A story more about fixing a friendship and saving another’s relationship than the protagonist falling in love and “Liberty” (trope: the makeover) - A story where the makeover takes place before the story even starts and then another one is done by the protagonist herself, for herself, near the end.

If you read this on Kindle Paperwhite (as I did), you might have issues reading the graphic novel-style short story, “Keagan’s Heaven on Earth”. I could not increase the size of it on my version, and I have horrible eyesight, but even with my bifocals on I couldn’t read the small text and I couldn’t increase the size of the image (and therefore text).

The rest of the stories in the collection don’t turn their assigned tropes on their heads as much as they probably think they did, but it doesn’t mean they’re bad stories. “Bye Bye, Piper Berry” is a cute take on the trope of fake relationships, “Shooting Stars” (Meyer’s contribution) is a touching and sweet entry when it comes to the “one bed” trope, and “Zora in the Spotlight” manages to be both weirdly funny and somehow vulnerable.

It’s a solid collection. If they had actually managed to turn all the tropes on their heads successfully, I would’ve fallen in love with it.

I received an eARC from Fierce Reads through a contest on Marissa Meyer's Instagram.

I was super excited to read this anthology because I love Marissa's work and a lot of the tropes addressed in this book. It was also super interesting to be exposed to all of the author's work I had heard of but hadn't read before! However, some of my issues with this anthology is that it is marketed as "Ten Romantic Trips Transformed". Some of the stories took a fresh spin on the tropes that I really enjoyed, but some lacked this or were unclear on how it was changed.

"Bye Bye, Piper Berry" by Julie Murphy - The Fake Relationship
I usually enjoy fake relationship arcs, but I think due to the length of the story, there wasn't enough time to develop the feelings between the characters towards its potential.

"Anyone Else But You" by Leah Johnson - Stranded Together
A party supply store was a great place to set this story in! It was the perfect length and I really enjoyed the writing and the conversations between the characters that, from Perry's perspective, had been competing for so long. I also really enjoyed the epilogue at the end.

"The Idiom Algorithm" by Abigail Hing Wen - Class Warfare
This story seemed a little unclear as to where it was going. The pacing was a little difficult to follow and I think would've been more compelling if Winter and Rebecca were developed more. I also wish there were higher stakes in this rather than Rebecca immediately becoming radio silent and disinterested.

"Auld Acquaintance" by Caleb Roehrig - The Best Friend Love Epiphany
I loved this story a lot. It worked really well with pacing and the writing style was a lot of fun. There was also a lot going on despite the length.

"Shooting Star" by Marissa Meyer - One Bed
This one was definitely my favorite! Despite being a short story, it did have a slow burn aspect to it that was super compelling. I also really enjoyed the idea of one bed being altered to a tent.

"Keagan's Heaven On Earth" by Sarah Winifred Searle - The Secret Admirer
I was pleasantly surprised to see this one as a graphic novel! However, I couldn't really get a sense of the chemistry between the characters and it felt very rushed.

"Zora in the Spotlight" by Elise Bryant - The Grand Romantic Gesture
This one was great! I liked the idea of two grand romantic gestures that both didn't go as planned and the dialogue between the characters.

"In the Blink of an Eye" by Elizabeth Eulberg - Trapped in a Confined Space
I loved this one! It had a great hook and I really liked that it centered around more of a platonic love with a little hint of what's to come at the end.

"Liberty" by Anna-Marie McLemore - The Makeover
The writing in this one was extremely strong! A lot of important conversations and it definitely took a good turn on the makeover trope.

"The Surprise Match" by Sandhya Menon - The Matchmaker
This one was probably the hardest to read for me. For a YA story, it didn't really feel like a teenage perspective but more of a millennial adult writing for one.

Thank you NetGalley for allowing me early access to this book. It was such a fun read! Each story so cute! Can’t wait to add this to my collection.