Meet Cute

Some People Are Destined to Meet

By: Jennifer L. Armentrout, Sara Shepard, Nicola Yoon, Ibi Zoboi, Katie Cotugno, Nina LaCour, Katharine McGee, Emery Lord, Various

Narrated by: full cast

Length: 9 hrs and 42 mins

Publisher's Summary

Whether or not you believe in fate, or luck, or love at first sight, every romance has to start somewhere. Meet Cute is an anthology of original short stories featuring tales of "how they first met" from some of today's most popular YA authors. 

Listeners will experience Nina LaCour's beautifully written piece about two Bay Area girls meeting via a cranky customer service tweet, Sara Shepard's glossy tale about a magazine intern and a young rock star, Nicola Yoon's imaginative take on break-ups and make-ups, Katie Cotugno's story of two teens hiding out from the police at a house party, and Huntley Fitzpatrick's charming love story that begins over iced teas at a diner. There's futuristic flirting from Kass Morgan and Katharine McGee, a riveting transgender heroine from Meredith Russo, a subway missed connection moment from Jocelyn Davies, and a girl determined to get out of her small town from Ibi Zoboi. Jennifer Armentrout writes a sweet story about finding love from a missing library book, Emery Lord has a heartwarming and funny tale of two girls stuck in an airport, Dhonielle Clayton takes a thoughtful, speculative approach to pre-destined love, and Julie Murphy dreams up a fun twist on reality dating show contestants. 

This incredibly talented group of authors brings us a collection of stories that are at turns romantic and witty, epic and everyday, heartbreaking and real. 

Audiobook Table of Contents: 

"Siege Etiquette" by Katie Cotugno, read by Caitlin Davies 

"Print Shop" by Nina LaCour, read by Dara Rosenberg 

"Hourglass" by Ibi Zoboi, read by Bahni Turpin 

"Click" by Katharine McGee, read by Betsy Struxness 

"The Intern" by Sara Shepard, read by Kyla Garcia 

"Somewhere That's Green" by Meredith Russo, read by Dara Rosenberg 

"The Way We Love Here" by Dhonielle Clayton, read by Bahni Turpin 

"Oomph" by Emery Lord, read by Betsy Struxness 

"The Dictionary of You and Me" by Jennifer L. Armentrout, read by Caitlin Davies 

"The Unlikely Likelihood of Falling in Love" by Jocelyn Davies, read by Bahni Turpin 

"259 Million Miles" by Kass Morgan, read by Sullivan Jones 

"Something Real" by Julie Murphy, read by Kyla Garcia 

"Say Everything" by Huntley Fitzpatrick, read by Caitlin Davies 

"The Department of Dead Love" by Nicola Yoon, read by Sullivan Jones 

©2018 Jennifer L. Armentrout, Dhonielle Clayton, Katie Cotugno, Jocelyn Davies, Huntley Fitzpatrick, Nina LaCour, Emery Lord, Katharine McGee, Kass Morgan, Julie Murphy, Meredith Russo, Sara Shepard, Nicola Yoon, Ibi Zoboi (P)2018 Penguin Audio

A nice variety

As always, there were some stories I enjoyed more than others, but overall I like the theme of these. I enjoyed listening to all of the narrator's in this one, too. Have to say my favorite was by Nicola Yoon!

So cute!

These stories are so cute! I love how it includes all kinds of love and background of characters. I highly reccommend it.

A very cute and quick read

This was my first anthology. It was exactly what I was looking for; something quick and fluffy. But, I don’t think I’ll ever read another anthology. I am the type of reader who needs a lot more in a story, especially when I love the characters or plots. Despite that, this book was good. There were only two things I didn’t like. Firstly, many of the stories needed like in the middle of a thought! Wanted to know what happens next! Secondly, there were about 5 stories I didn’t like. Some I hated because of the ending. While others I thought were boring. Yet, I do recommend this to anyone who is looking for a fast, sweet book. It is also helpful in finding new authors to start reading.

Disappointing: Better Recs in First Paragraph

There are a few emerald gems in this collection (sorry, but diamonds = meh), but there are also some major bombs that are barely readable. Overall, that makes this collection disappointing. If you want YA short Stories, grab Let it Snow, My True Love Gave to Me, or Geektastic, which are all superior to this collection.

There are a few stories that I really love in here, but the fact that some of the stories are written in 2nd, not because they need to be but for the whole gimmick effect, is infuriating. The stories in 2nd are all pretty poorly written, and it’s very jolting and disruptive to the reader. It’s hard to pull off 2nd in the first place, so when someone writes in 2nd for the purpose of variety or a gimmick, instead of that being what the story truly demands, it’s really unpleasant. After a while, I could barely stomach it anymore, and it almost made me quit the whole anthology. This is the point where I should say that I have read things in 2nd before that I have enjoyed, in case you think I’m just an outright 2nd person hater. I confess, I don’t tend to love it, but I think that’s because people who choose to write in it rarely do so for the correct reasons and/or don’t do it well.

It’s also a bit frustrating, because each story is predicated on the concept of how potential new couple meets, which sounds adorable and fantastic. I was so excited, because I love meet cutes, but you don't get that in every story. Some of the stories aren't even remotely "meet cute" worthy, in my opinion. So sometimes this is sweet/ charming/ funny/ fun. Other times, the story ends right where you kind of wish it would begin, and you feel like you wasted all that time waiting to get to the interesting stuff and then were cut short. I guess it’s a concept that is a challenge for writers, because there’s an excellent list of authors tied to this project, authors I typically love, yet I’m still frustrated and disappointed by this one, overall. When meet cutes aren’t handled well, then the reader is left with a constant feeling of dissatisfaction, and what was supposed to be charming or adorable or quirky starts to become irritating.

However, if you are really intrigued by gimmicks, enough to overlook the need for strong storytelling, you might find something of interest here. There’s definitely a ton of diversity, which I appreciate. And I confess I loved a few of the stories so much that I desperately wished the author would go back and write a full story for those characters. Unfortunately, the imbalance was too great between the number of stories I loved vs. the number I just tolerated, which means I don't recommend this one...or I recommend it with the suggestion that you just skip the stories that aren't cutting it. You'll be able to tell right away, with most of them. When you get that terrible pit in your stomach, right at the start, and nothing seems to be going well with the storytelling, just skip ahead. You won't be missing anything, because the duds were obvious from the start and never got better.

Also, the cover is hideous, which should have probably been a warning sign, but I was hoping it was going to blow me away anyway.