Serendipity: Ten Romantic Tropes Transformed edited by Marissa Meyer features different stories by a variety of young adult authors taking on tropes. The stories are all contemporary which I appreciated. For an anthology, this book felt like a quick read. I liked most of the stories, but none made a super lasting impression and that’s okay.
Bye Bye, Piper Berry by Julie Murphy
Bye Bye, Piper Berry by Julie Murphy opens up Serendipity. This story’s trope is fake dating, but also friends to lovers, but officially it is listed as the fake dating trope. Piper lives next door to Gabe who is one of her best friends. Gabe is also best friends with Trevor who had been dating Piper for years, but cheats on her. And so, to get back at Trevor, Piper asks Gabe to fake date her. However, turns out there’s a spark and feelings there. Also, Gabe is fat. This story was sweet and cute and a great way to start off Serendipity.
Anyone Else But You by Leah Johnson
Leah Johnson’s Anyone Else But You features the forced proximity trope. Two girls are co-presidents of their senior class. They are at Party City basically — one shows up late and what happens is they accidentally get locked in overnight. During the night, they learn different things about each other and develop feelings. This story was fun and sweet although I did end up forgetting the characters names (but also idk if it is the story’s fault as I’ve been running on no sleep lately).
The Idiom Algorithm by Abigail Hing Wen
I am a sucker for Abigail Hing Wen’s writing. The Idiom Algorithm was not an exception. This story is about a boy who is dating a much richer girl from Shanghai named Rebecca. He is insistent on meeting her parents. When he happens to do so, it ends in disaster and they whisk her away to another country, England I think. So, he tries to find her via the internet and an algorithm — plus help from the girl who rents a room with her mom from his parents. The story turned out different from how I expected and I really appreciated that.
Auld Acquaintance by Caleb Roehrig
Auld Acquaintance by Caleb Roehrig was a sweet addition to Serendipity. This story is about two best friends who go to a lock in on New Year’s Eve and agree to be each other’s midnight kiss if neither can find another boy to kiss them. Of course, Ollie realizes that he’s in love with his best friend, Garrett. This was an adorable story.
Shooting Stars by Marissa Meyer
Meyer’s contribution to Serendipity is Shooting Stars. This story is centered around the one bed trope. Misty has had a crush on Roman for a very long time, but she always looks like a fool around him. When their class goes on a trip to Yellowstone, she ends up somehow sharing a room with Roman that just so happens to have one bed. Y’all, this is PG13. Anyways, turns out Roman just might like her too. This was cute!
Keagan’s Heaven On Earth by Sarah Winifred Searle
Keagan’s Heaven On Earth by Sarah Winifred Searle is about when a character has to sell Valentine day flowers and work the door of the school dance as a punishment. But then the character has help from a girl who is on the track team. This is told via comic strip. It was fun!
Zora In The Spotlight by Elise Bryant
Elise Bryant’s Zora In The Spotlight is all about the grand gesture. In this story, Zora goes to a school dance with her best friends Astrid and Jorge. Astrid is there to confront an ex. Zora is someone who is always sort of an afterthought or the supporting character to Astrid’s main character energy. However, at the dance there’s a flash mob and it is seemingly directed toward Zora. In reality — it wasn’t meant for her. I liked this short story as well.
In A Blink Of The Eye by Elizabeth Eulberg
Forced proximity is explored in In A Blink Of The Eye by Elizabeth Eulberg. This short story follows a girl who goes to London with her show choir. She takes a ride on the eye with her best friend’s boyfriend whom she does not get along with. The reason? She had a crush on him before he started dating her best friend. Turns out there’s no chemistry there. I did like how this ended up and explored it in a different way.
Liberty by Anna-Marie McLemore
Liberty by Anna-Marie McLemore is the makeover story in Serendipity. This story follows a girl who is Latina. At first she takes pride in this but then she stops doing her makeup in a way that accentuate her features and instead tries to look white in order to make the cheerleading squad. Then her idol, Camila joins the squad and Camila does not hide the fact that she’s Latina. She leans into it completely. This story was okay. I remember parts of it, but not the main character’s name at this point and it’s only been two days since I read it.
The Surprise Match by Sandhya Menon
The final story in Serendipity is The Surprise Match by Sandhya Menon. This takes on the matchmaker trope. It is about Rosie who has this best friend who asks her to find his match. So, she runs the algorithm and it turns out to be her. She lies to him and says it is someone else but then is consumed by jealousy because she really does like him. This story was a nice conclusion and well paced.
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