Review Detail

MEET CUTE is a fun, romantic anthology featuring stories about people first meeting. Ranging from cute to funny to dark to weird (in the best way), these stories demonstrate how people can meet and maybe fall in like in the strangest of circumstances. While every story had something special, these three blew me away:

1.) "Siege Etiquette" by Kate Cotugno- Having read Cotungo's works before, I was excited to see that they put a story from her first. Her couples are rarely full of sunshine, and the couple in "Siege Etiquette" is not an exception. It immediately lets the reader know that this anthology will likely have a wide range of emotion, and that while something may be a meet cute, it might not be a meet *cute.* This story has more of a meet sarcastic and shows that you can meet someone (or start to get to know them) in surprising and and unexpected ways.

2.) "The Way We Love Here" by Dhonielle Clayton- While most of the stories in MEET CUTE are contemporary, a few have speculative elements to them. In Dhonielle Clayton's "The Way We Love Here," everyone has a string around their finger. When the string reaches it's last loop, it's said they will find their soul mate. This piece asks about the meaning and influence of destiny and how many different futures we can have for each decision we make or don't make.

3.) "The Department of Dead Love" by Nicola Yoon- What a story to end the anthology on! When you have a broken heart, it feels like you may never have another 'meet cute.' You may never understand why your previous meet cute didn't work out. "The Department of Dead Love" weaves a journey of a boy who had his heart broken unexpectedly and is trying to find answers. It's about learning to let go, learning to accept that somethings don't have a neat and tidy explanation, and that even when things seem dark, you just might find another person who wants to know you as much as you want to know them.