Thursday, October 23, 2014

Review: My True Love Gave to Me

Title: My True Love Gave to Me
Author: Rainbow Rowell, Kelly Link, Matt de la Pena, Jenny Han, Stephanie Perkins, David Leviathan, Holly Black, Gayle Forman, Myra McEntire, Kiersten White, Ally Carter, Laini Taylor
Genre: Young Adult, Anthology, Contemporary, Romance, Fantasy, Magical Realism
Source: St Martin's via NetGalley
Goodreads










If you love holiday stories, holiday movies, made-for-TV-holiday specials, holiday episodes of your favorite sitcoms and, especially, if you love holiday anthologies, you’re going to fall in love with MY TRUE LOVE GAVE TO ME: TWELVE HOLIDAY STORIES by twelve bestselling young adult writers, edited by international bestselling author Stephanie Perkins.
Review by Nara

Really, with such a list of high profile authors, you can't go wrong. I'd say the only bad thing about this anthology is that I wanted MOARRRR. So many of these characters were simply fantastic. Honestly, I'd be happy to see any of them in a full length novel. On another note, I wonder if authors are catching onto the diversity trend, because there was a wide selection of characters presented.

Anyway, keeping in the tradition of not really knowing how to properly review an anthology, I'll just leave some comments here and there, and a score out of five for each of the stories.

Midnights by Rainbow Rowell 5/5
Omg so adorable. A great story to set the tone of the entire anthology.

The Lady and the Fox by Kelly Link 4/5
Slightly confused about exactly what happened at the end there...but with a heavy emphasis of magical realism, I'm not surprised about that. A quirky little tale.

Angels in the Snow by Matt de la Pena 3/5
The dialogue and characters in this one were quite well done, but this one gets a slightly lower score as it borders dangerously close to instalove territory.

Polaris is Where You'll Find Me by Jenny Han 5/5
A beautifully written story- the only "flaw" would be that it was so frustratingly open ended. JENNY WHY MUST YOU DO THIS.

It's a Yuletide Miracle, Charlie Brown by Stephanie Perkins 5/5
Stephanie Perkins has done it again. She has created yet another fantastic love interest and yet another relatable and quirky protagonist. Brilliant.

Your Temporary Santa by David Leviathan 4/5
Very realistic and heartwarming. This one is probably the one I'd most want to extend, because there were all these hints of the characters being deeper than what's given to you in the story, and making it a little bit longer might have fleshed out the characters a bit more.

Krampuslauf by Holly Black 4/5
Another set of quirky characters, also moving into magical realism. A fun read, but not quite at the same level as many of the other stories.

What the Hell Have You Done, Sophie Roth? by Gayle Forman 5/5
In all honestly, this was also a novella dipping into instalove territory, but seriously, this is how you freaking do instalove/attraction right. You show that the characters truly share a connection. Not going to lie, I think I liked this novella a lot better than any of Forman's full length novels.

Beer Buckets and Baby Jesus by Myra McIntyre 4/5
Not too sure what to say about this one. It was a fun and light read, although there were some more serious underlying themes.

Welcome to Christmas, CA by Kiersten White 5/5
Oh man, I loved this novella so much. With a chef as a love interest, you can't go wrong. Big emphasis on family in this one.

Star of Bethlehem by Ally Carter 5/5
Okay, so the twist was quite predictable...honestly that didn't matter, because the romance was adorable. Ditto the relationship with the family. On another note, a lot of these stories seem to have this running theme of "home" and what exactly that means.

The Girl Who Woke the Dreamer by Laini Taylor 5/5
I predicted before I started reading this anthology that Laini Taylor's story would be the best, and I can definitely say that I was not wrong. Her writing is seriously just stunning, the beautiful prose giving the story a fairytale feel. Seriously, if for nothing else, I would buy this anthology just for this story. It's fabulous.

Incredible

Ratings
Overall: 9/10
Plot: 4/5
Romance: 4/5
Writing: 4/5
Characters: 5/5
Cover: 4/5