Waiting on Wednesday: Meet Cute

After a three year hiatus, I'm bringing back my WoW posts! Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly feature hosted Breaking the Spine that spotlights upcoming releases.

Meet Cute

by a butt-ton of authors

Coming January 2, 2018

HMH Books for Young Readers

Summary:

Whether or not you believe in fate, or luck, or love at first sight, every romance has to start somewhere. Meet Cute is an anthology of original short stories featuring tales of "how they first met" from some of today’s most popular YA authors. 

Readers will experience Nina LaCour's beautifully written piece about two Bay Area girls meeting via a cranky customer service Tweet, Sara Shepard's glossy tale about a magazine intern and a young rock star, Nicola Yoon's imaginative take on break-ups and make-ups, Katie Cotugno's story of two teens hiding out from the police at a house party, and Huntley Fitzpatrick's charming love story that begins over iced teas at a diner. There’s futuristic flirting from Kass Morgan and Katharine McGee, a riveting transgender heroine from Meredith Russo, a subway missed connection moment from Jocelyn Davies, and a girl determined to get out of her small town from Ibi Zoboi. Jennifer Armentrout writes a sweet story about finding love from a missing library book, Emery Lord has a heartwarming and funny tale of two girls stuck in an airport, Dhonielle Clayton takes a thoughtful, speculate approach to pre-destined love, and Julie Murphy dreams up a fun twist on reality dating show contestants. 

This incredibly talented group of authors brings us a collection of stories that are at turns romantic and witty, epic and everyday, heartbreaking and real.

Why I Want It:

In a word: the lineup. This is a SPECTACULARLY assembled group of enormously talented writers. I have a post coming out tomorrow about fluffy books and how I want more of them and I want more diverse fluff. Including authors of color, particular black women, and queer authors, especially trans, lesbian, and bisexual authors, is a huge deal in anthologies, and I'm REALLY excited about this step forward. I've always loved anthologies because it means I get more stories from authors I love, but I am really excited about all the upcoming anthologies that are branching out from the typical. A few other anthologies I can't wait to read include Three Sides of a Heart, Hope Nation, The Radical Element, (Don't) Call Me Crazy, and Toil and Trouble.

Why I think you should want it:

Okay, but do you SEE that lineup?? Also, those teasers! Rock stars! Diners! Missed connections! Library books! Airports! Reality tv! If you need a pick-me-up kind of read, Meet Cute seems like it will hit that mark for sure. 

Listmania Monday: Anthologies

As you may have noticed, I really like using Listmania Mondays to discuss the changing trends in ya lit as the publishing industry evolves. One of these "new" trends is actually pretty old: anthologies. Classic novelists used to submit short stories to literary magazines to generate a larger readership and now publishers are recycling the trick. There are many reasons for this, I suppose. It's a good way to encourage a particular fandom to buy another book by publishing a series' extra novella (what self-respecting VA fan didn't salivate for months before nabbing Foretold for our long-awaited Rose and Dimitri story?!) OR allowing a truly established author to try something new (Richelle also put out another vampire short story titled "Blue Moon" in the anthology Immortal: Love Stories with Bite, which is FANTASTIC). It's also a good writing exercise for authors interested in a particular subject to band together to spread the word (Holly Black is REALLY good at this). These are a lot of fun, like with Zombies vs. Unicorns but can also be serious and really important like Dear Bully.

I know a lot of readers consider anthologies the publishers' way of sticking it to us and forcing us to buy MORE BOOKS. To those readers I say: 1. Really? You're upset about buying more books? I call that a holiday! Also, usually I call it Tuesday. 2. You don't have to buy the book, you know. This isn't just for anthologies. There are these things called libraries where they give you a card (usually for free) and then give you books to take home (also for free....as long as you bring it back within an agreed-upon time frame). :) Personally, I like anthologies. I love discovering new authors and new stories from my favorite authors. I asked Richelle Mead last year during her Golden Lily tour if she would ever consider turning "Blue Moon" into a full-length novel and she said she'd considered it but had other things on her plate. And you know what? I'm okay with that. It was a great story, and I was satisfied with the ending. I also like having a physical copy of some of the novellas that are part of series like Mead's "Sunshine" (VA prequel story) or Claudia Gray's "Free" (Evernight prequel) etc.

So, friends, are you pro or con anthologies? Got a favorite (mine is Prom Nights from Hell because Meg Cabot and Stephenie Meyer KILLED it with their stories!!)? Did I forget one? Leave me a comment and let me know!

ETA: Yes, I know there are several people who refuse to read any anthology edited by Trisha Telep after the cluster that became of Wicked Pretty Things. This post is not condemning or agreeing with any side; this is simply a list of ya anthologies, and yes, that includes Telep-edited books.