Scattered Showers

“You can trust yourself to fall in love.” He pulled her closer. “You can trust me to catch you.”
Synopsis:
A collection of nine romance-themed short stories, as follows:

1. Midnights YA friends-to-lovers set across a series of New Year's Eve parties
2. Kindred Spirits YA grumpy/sunshine, teens camping out for a Star Wars premiere
3. Winter Songs for Summer grieving the end of a college relationship and eventually moving on, with mix CDs
4. The Snow Ball YA friends-to-lovers, getting ready for a school dance
5. If the Fates Allow Adult, guy-next-door during pandemic quarantine, with Reagan from Fangirl
6. The Prince & the Troll mortal from a hinted at dystopia falls in love with a bridge troll
7. Mixed Messages mostly text-message based, adult, concerning changing phases of life/relationships, with Beth and Jennifer from Attachments
8. Snow for Christmas Simon and Baz from Carry On etc spend Christmas day with Baz's family.
9. In Waiting speculative and conceptual romance between unfinished characters.

“Don't tell me we shouldn't. Tell me you don't want to or that you're not ready, but don't tell me we shouldn't.”

Thoughts

• A pleasant and easy read that had me smiling.
• My faves were Winter Songs for Summer and the Prince and the Troll, which was much sweeter than I expected, although I'd love to have known more about the road and wider world setting.
• My least fave was Mixed Messages, possibly because I am not familiar with the characters having not read Attachments? Also, the discussion of conception and infertility is a bit close to home for me at the moment. It wasn't bad, I just didn't enjoy it as much as the others.
• In Waiting was odd but intriguing. I liked that the ending was left ambiguous.

He knew she was still swimming in a sea of misery - he'd written the soundtrack.