Book Review: My True Love Gave To Me: Twelve Holiday Strories edited by Stephanie Perkins

Title: My True Love Gave To Me: Twelve Holiday Strories
Author: Stephanie Perkins
Publisher: St. Martin's Press
Publishing Date: October 14th 2014
Length: 320 pages
Keywords: YA, holiday, short stories, contemporary, romance, friendship
Source: Netgalley

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.

Summary by Goodreads

Midnights by Rainbow Rowell
The Lady and the Fox by Kelly Link
Angels in the Snow by Matt de La Pena
Polaris is Where You'll Find Me by Jenny Han
It's A Yuletide Miracle, Charlie Brown by Stephanie Perkins
Your Temporary Santa by David Levithan
Krampuslauf by Holly Black
What the Hell Have You Done, Sophie Roth? by Gayle Forman
Beer Buckets and Baby Jesus by Myra McEntire
Welcome to Christmas, CA by Kiersten White
Star of Bethlehem by Ally Carter
The Girl Who Woke the Dreamer by Laini Taylor 

Above is a listing of the collected stories in MY TRUE LOVE GAVE TO ME. I'll tell you a bit more about the featured short stories I really enjoyed. I'm sure there's a favourite story for everyone!

MIDNIGHTS by Rainbow Rowell was a super cute romance and a great way to kick off the holiday short story marathon. Rainbow's story tells how Mags and Noel, two friends, fall in love over the course of various New Year's Eve days over the years. MIDNIGHTS was a brilliant short story!

ANGELS IN THE SNOW is the story about Shy who's apartment sitting over the holidays. He and his neighbour Haley slowly get to know each other and are lucky to enjoy each other's company when they would be alone over Christmas.

In Stephanie Perkins' IT'S A YULETIDE MIRACLE, CHARLIE BROWN Marigold goes Christmas tree hunting. That's where she meets the empathetic and absolutely charming North who not only helps her deliver her Christmas tree but to find a lovely happy ending to her unexpected Christmas romance.

WHAT THE HELL HAVE YOU DONE, SOPHIE ROTH? is a Hannukah story that demands a minor miracle for Russell and Sophie, the possibly only two people staying on campus over the holidays. 

  

BEER BUCKETS AND BABY JESUS by Myra McEntire focuses on a pageant's twentieth anniversary that is endangered to turn into an epic Christmas disaster, until Vaughn and Grace team up in order to save the performance and earn their sweet holiday romance.

WELCOME TO CHRISTMAS, CA by Kiersten White is  a magical, culinary Christmas tale. It is set in a diner in the town of Christmas, California, where Maria works. When the new cook Ben is hired the town-people start to rediscover the diner as a place to be with friends, joking, stuffed and happy. It's the story of how Maria and Ben slowly fall in love, about family, new friends and helping others. 

In STAR OF BETHLEHEM star Liddy swaps roles with an Icelandic girl named Hulda. Instead of taking her flight to New York she travels to a small town named Bethlehem in the middle of snowy nothingness. There she meets Ethan, Hulda's supposed boyfriend and they start an undercover mission of love.

MY TRUE LOVE GAVE TO ME also had some stories that I wasn't really impressed by and couldn't take pleasure in as much as the others named above. They were THE LADY AND THE FOX by Kelly Link, POLARIS IS WHERE YOU'LL FIND ME by Jenny Han, YOUR TEMPORARY SANTA by David Levithan, KRAMPUSLAUF by Holly Black, THE GIRL WHO WOKE THE DREAMER by Laini Taylor. I was surprised to find myself loving stories by authors I hadn't encountered before and finding stories by favourite authors taking some getting used to.

I got really excited when I first heard about MY TRUE LOVE GAVE TO ME. How couldn't I? Some of my favourite authors teamed up to put together a collection of holiday stories. While I might not be into short stories in the first place, they are probably my favourite kind of holiday story now. There need to be more YA holiday novels in general! 

The short stories slightly vary in length and holiday theme. Some are focused on Christmas or Hannukah, others are set around New Year's Eve. Some of the short stories are further divided by subchapters. There are stories that are purely written as a contemporary romance, others leave room for miracles, magic and paranormal beings. 

Stephanie Perkins gathered stories that represent a great diversity. We've got female and male narrators. It doesn't matter if you are Mexican, Chinese or Spanish, Jewish or Christian, gay or straight. There's a cute holiday romance coming your way!

4/5 **** MY TRUE LOVE GAVE TO ME: TWELVE HOLIDAY STORIES - A heart-warming and diverse collection of beautiful holiday short stories.

Stephanie Perkins did a fabulous job with this book. Kissing, warm embraces, smiles, kind gestures, heart-felt words. This novel supplies you with stories that should make your holiday spirit sky-rocket. This book is everything you could wish for as a present! I'm suggesting Stephanie puts together a holiday story collection every year! 

"As Christmas stories go, this one isn't as sad as it could be. I'm not Tiny Tim. There were no Ghosts of Christmas Past, Present or Future. All told, it is a tale completely free of angels and elves, wise men and shepherds. Even Santa didn't make an appearance. Nope. As it turns out, I was visited by Hulda." ― Star of Bethlehem by Ally Carter

MY TRUE LOVE GAVE TO ME by Stephanie Perkins you might enjoy LET IT SNOW by John Green, Maureen Johnson and Lauren Myracle. 

An ill-timed storm on Christmas Eve buries the residents of Gracetown under multiple feet of snow and causes quite a bit of chaos. One brave soul ventures out into the storm from her stranded train and sets off a chain of events that will change quite a few lives. Over the next three days one girl takes a risky shortcut with an adorable stranger, three friends set out to win a race to the Waffle House (and the hash brown spoils), and the fate of a teacup pig falls into the hands of a lovesick barista.

A trio of today's bestselling authors - John Green, Maureen Johnson, and Lauren Myracle - bring all the magic of the holidays to life in three hilarious and charming interconnected tales of love, romance, and kisses that will steal your breath away. (Summary by Goodreads)

* Check out the UK cover for MY TRUE LOVE GAVE TO ME.

* Click here to read an excerpt.

* For more information about Stephanie Perkins and her books visit www.naturalartificial.blogspot.com.

* Thanks to Netgalley and St. Martin's Press for the chance to review MY TRUE LOVE GAVE TO ME!

Book Review: Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell

Title: Fangirl
Author: Rainbow Rowell
Publisher: St. Martin's Press
Publishing Date: Steptember 10th 2013
Length: 433 pages
Keywords: YA, contemporary, romance, college, friendship, fan fiction
Source: Netgalley

A coming-of-age tale of fan fiction, family and first love.

Cath is a Simon Snow fan.

Okay, the whole world is a Simon Snow fan . . .

But for Cath, being a fan is her life — and she’s really good at it. She and her twin sister, Wren, ensconced themselves in the Simon Snow series when they were just kids; it’s what got them through their mother leaving.

Reading. Rereading. Hanging out in Simon Snow forums, writing Simon Snow fan fiction, dressing up like the characters for every movie premiere.

Cath’s sister has mostly grown away from fandom, but Cath can’t let go. She doesn’t want to.

Now that they’re going to college, Wren has told Cath she doesn’t want to be roommates. Cath is on her own, completely outside of her comfort zone. She’s got a surly roommate with a charming, always-around boyfriend, a fiction-writing professor who thinks fan fiction is the end of the civilized world, a handsome classmate who only wants to talk about words . . . And she can’t stop worrying about her dad, who’s loving and fragile and has never really been alone.

For Cath, the question is: Can she do this?

Can she make it without Wren holding her hand? Is she ready to start living her own life? Writing her own stories?

And does she even want to move on if it means leaving Simon Snow behind?

Summary by Goodreads 

Who is that fangirl everyone is talking about? She is inconspicuous, modest, dedicated and spends most of her days in front of her laptop writing new fan fiction. Cath and her twin sister Wren are about to start college, a more grown-up part of their lives. But Cath can't let go of the books that have kept her company for so many years.

Fandom and fan fiction are the overall theme of FANGIRL. Rainbow's third book teaches us that fan fiction can be a very important part of a teenager's life. Through their writing teens get a chance to stay with their beloved characters, expand their imagination, express their creativity and get in contact with other fans.

A fan can be found in every reader, too. How often have we read a book and couldn't stop talking and thinking about it? There are countless book worlds I would've loved to spent more time in. I don't read fan fiction nor have I ever written anything like it, but I could very well relate to Cath's obsession with her beloved Simon Snow books. I'm a fan of Cath and her passionate love for reading and writing Simon Snow fan fic. But I was no fan of Simon Snow himself (I haven't even read the last Harry Potter book). 

Every new chapter is accompanied by a Simon Snow quote or snippet of Cath's fan fiction to support the overall feel of Rainbow Rowell's FANGIRL and acquaint the reader with his magical world.

These short snippets were fitting the stories' character and I liked to find out what Cath saw in Simon Snow's stories, what she loved about them. 

Towards the ending of FANGIRL the fan fiction portions of Cath's story grow in relation to one big event she's looking forward to. The publication of the last book in the Simon Snow series. So, long pages of FANGIRL are filled with Cath's fan fiction about Simon and his (as Cath writes it) potential love interest Baz. Even though Cath's characters seem to grow in correlation with the actual FANGIRL story, her Simon Snow fan fic filled too many pages to keep my interest.  At some point I was tempted to skip the Simon Snow parts altogether and continue with the actual love story between Cath and Levi.

Cath starting college is the perfect condition and setting for her to meet new people and maybe even fall in love. It's her chance to evolve and be independent but what if she is extremely shy and just wants to shut out the rest of the world except her sister Wren and her father?

Cath is drawn back into herself and unaware of the college life going on around her. Luckily there are her new roomate Reagan and her friend, possible boyfriend Levi who help Cath to enjoy a small portion of life outside her bubble. Cath certainly doesn't become a social butterfly overnight, her transformation is a slow one, but she learns how to work on her issues and finally accepts new people into her life.

Cath writes fan fiction, but always has a realistic and analysing gift when it comes to assess the people around her. The boys in FANGIRL don't come along born Gods, they don't have the shiniest teeth or most perfect features as Cath observes, who sees and likes them for the persons they really are.

See for yourselves how Cath and Levi first met (their first encounters are probably unprecedented in YA awkwardness) and what their relationship is all about. Theirs is a very unconventional love story. It takes Cath a lot of time to open up to Levi and they become friends first before they can even give in to any romantic notions. To tease you, you can look forward to the Outsiders scene which is one of my favourites in YA! 

FANGIRL is not only about Cath's fan fiction and her love life. Rainbow Rowell found a bunch of other family and college-related aspects to weave together to a thick story mesh and well-written YA contemporary. It's about the many possibilities the new college world has to offer. About the difficulty to ever detach yourself from the ones you always had in your life as Cath's twin sister and their father mean the world to her. Is Wren doing okay on her own and what about her farther? Can he take to be all on his own after sending his two girls to college?

And ultimately FANGIRL is about finding out who you really are as an independent person and how to make certain things exclusively your own.

4,5/5 ****/* FANGIRL – An authentic and wholehearted bibliophile college experience. Rainbow Rowell is the new YA phenomenon!

FANGIRL is a brilliant book for readers looking for a YA contemporary read with the certain touch of magic. Sure I could've done without a good portion of the Simon Snow fan fiction we were given, but never would've wanted to miss out on FANGIRL. It's a very special read, with Cath and Levi's one-of-a-kind love story and Rainbow Rowell's great understanding for her characters.

"What about him?" she'd say, finding an attractive guy to point out while they were standing in the lunch line."Do you want to kiss him?"

"I don't want to kiss a stranger," Cath would answer. "I'm not interested in lips out of context." ― p. 82

FANGIRL you might also enjoy PSYCH MAJOR SYNDROME by Alicia Thompson and LOVE STORY by Jennifer Echols, both set in college, too. FAMOUS LAST WORDS by Jennifer Salvato Doktorski is also a read for teens interested in writing and journalism, but for a younger audience as it's set in high school.

* Can't get enough of Rainbow Rowell's books? Her second novel ELEANOR & PARK was released earlier in 2013.

* Click here to read an excerpt of FANGIRL.

* Want to meet Rainbow Rowell? Have a look at her event schedule here.

* For further information about Rainbow and her books visit www.rainbowrowell.com

* Thanks to St. Martin's Press and Netgalley for the chance to review FANGIRL!