Fools in Love: Fresh Twists on Romantic Tales

Fifteen authors offer up tales inspired and informed by classic romance tropes in this pleasing anthology, which delivers an enjoyable selection of kisses, confessions, and happy-for-nows. Alongside a variety of character backgrounds, gender identities, and pairings, editors and contributors Blake (Hazel Bly and the Deep Blue Sea) and Podos (The Wise and the Wicked) curate a range of moods, genres, and themes. In Malinda Lo’s Chinese-inspired speculative “Girls Just Want to Have Fun,” fix-it genius Fei Cheng encounters a runaway princess aboard a space station. Julian Winters’s “What Makes Us Heroes” sees Black superhero-in-training Shai finding common ground with golden-complexioned, former friend-turned-villain Kyan at a coffee shop. Realistic contemporaries include Amy Spalding’s “Five Stars,” which involves a white teen being mistaken for a rideshare driver, and Mason Deaver’s “Boys Noise,” in which two white members of a popular boy band—one cis, one trans—escape their handlers for an unsupervised birthday excursion to New York City. Fun and frothy, this is a candy box of romantic stories boasting joyful, satisfying conclusions. Ages 13–up. Agent: Rebecca Podos, Rees Literary. (Dec.)