Bye Bye, Piper Berry (The Fake Relationship) by Julie Murphy - 3.75/5

Anyone Else But You (Stranded Together) by Leah Johnson - 4.5/5

The Idiom Algorithm (Class Warfare) by Abigail Hing Wen - 4/5

Auld Acquaintance (The Best Friend Love Epiphany) by Caleb Roehrig - 5/5

Shooting Stars (One Bed) by Marissa Meyer - 4/5

Keagan’s Heaven On Earth (The Secret Admirer) by Sarah Winifred Searle - 4.5/5

Zora In The Spotlight (The Grand Romantic Gesture) by Elise Bryant - 5/5

In A Blink Of The Eye (Trapped in a Confined Space) by Elizabeth Eulberg - 5/5

Liberty (The Makeover) by Anna-Marie McLemore - 5/5

The Surprise Match (The Matchmaker) by Sandhya Menon - 5/5

Total Average Rating: 4.75/5 

I think this collection really demonstrated to me that writers of young adult books are better suited to writing engaging stories when they have time to flesh out the characters and all the fun dialogue and side plots, and that really helps make the story what it is, unlike here where it all seemed a little rushed and there just wasn’t enough build up for me. However, for what it is, I think they did a pretty good job, and there’s really no good way to fit all those elements I mentioned into a short story.

Also, maybe this is silly, but I wish it was a less romance-focused romance short story collection, and more about the casual kinds of love that pop up in unexpected, yet mundane, places instead of crazy situations or years-long feuds or grand gestures. There were a few of those but I guess the other style just isn’t for me, especially for a short story format like I said. If it’s going to be dramatic, I need it to drag on for a whole book, or else what’s the fun in that. I do appreciate that each author seems to have been given the opportunity to have a prompt and fly with it.