NOTE: When I average out the ratings for all of the stories I actually completed, it comes to a 3.16, so I almost gave this book three stars. However, that would've been completely ignoring the 5 stories I didn't read because they didn't stand on their own outside their series. I feel like that should reflect on this anthology.

Short story collections should not require the reader to read a bunch of other books just to understand what is going on, unless they are written by the same person and specifically marketed as stories taking place in one world i.e. Stars Above, by Marissa Meyer, which is a collection of short stories taking place in the Lunar Chronicles Universe.

I purchased this anthology because there was something about the cover that was intriguing to me. I also liked the title. I assumed that this would be a collection of romance stories, mostly in the fantasy genre. I was also excited when I saw some of the names contributing to this anthology: Marissa Meyer, Leigh Bardugo, Ann Agguire, etc.

Unfortunately, I was very disappointed by this collection. First of all, almost none of the stories are original at all. They're all connected to the author's previous works. This works in a couple of cases (I liked Leigh's story about the too-clever fox, which I'm assuming made its way into Language of Thorns) and the stories by Jennifer Mathieu and Lish McBride worked as stand-alone stories, even though they were loosely connected to other series that I hadn't yet read.

It honestly ends up feeling like a money grab by the publishing company, as most if not all of these stories already existed before the anthology was compiled.

I'm going to give a rating for each story, beginning with my favorite of the bunch and working my way down to my least favorite.

First of all, there were 5 stories that I skipped over. I haven't read the series that these stories came from, and many of them took place in the middle of the series and followed important characters in the series. A couple of the series were familiar to me, but I'd never had the desire to read them, so why would I want to read a short story that jumps into the middle of the series?
Anyway...

1. Fixer by Courtney Alameda - I haven't heard of this series before. Apparently this author leans toward the horror genre, which is not something I tend to reach for, so I doubt this will ever be something I will come back around to.

2. Unstolen by Jessica Brody - Now, this one actually sounds intriguing to me. A girl is on a plane when it crashes and she is the only one who survives. Apparently it ends up being a mystery/suspense type series, so I'm interested in maybe checking out the series, but this snippet takes place during the other books and I want a little more foundation before jumping in.

3. Deleted Scenes by Katie Finn - I don't know if the series this comes from is for me. It seems like it's geared toward very young teens, which I am most definitely not. Also, as the title suggests, this story is literally a deleted scene from a book that I haven't read. I don't know how well it will hold up on it's own, and I don't feel the need to read it for that reason. Perhaps if I go back and check the series out. We'll see.

4. Tortured by Caragh O'Brien - I actually own the Birthmarked trilogy, which this story is connected to, but I haven't been able to get through it. I tried listening to it on audiobook once but it couldn't hold my interest. I am going to try one more time and make a decision about it once and for all. If I do read it and enjoy it, I'll come back and read this story. If not, I won't.

5.The Cypress Project by Gennifer Albin - This takes place in the world of the Crewel trilogy. It appears to be a prequel to that series that shows the point where our world diverged and went toward the world in that series. I know that this is a prequel, but I haven't heard great things about the foundational series, so I don't think I will be reading this.

Okay, now on to the stories I actually read. Again, from my fave to least fave:

5/5 The Too-Clever Fox by Leigh Bardugo - I love her writing and I love this story. I haven't read Language of Thorns yet, but I would assume that this story makes it in there and I kind of want to buy Language of Thorns just so I can read it with illustrations. This had the perfect blend of whimsy and moral that you get from traditional fairy tales.

4/5 Glitches by Marissa Meyer - This is a prequel to Cinder, the first book in the Lunar Chronicles. I really enjoy this series and this little glimpse into Cinder's first weeks with the Lihn's was great. I feel like even someone who hasn't read the Lunar Chronicles would enjoy this. It stands on its own, which cannot be said of all of these stories.

4/5 Death and Waffles by Lish McBride - I haven't read the books that this story comes from, but this story stands on its own as well. I never felt like I'd just been dropped into the middle of a story with no context. Even though you don't know exactly what is going on at first, it becomes clear very quickly and there is some backstory given. I liked the whimsical, yet serious nature of the story, and I thought the author did a wonderful job balancing something that could be on the macabre side. I want to read more by this author.

3.75/5 Dynamite Junior by Jennifer Mathieu - I haven't read the book this story is inspired by. It does take place in the middle of the novel The Truth About Alice. I've heard of this book before but I was wary of picking it up because of what I perceived as slut-shaming. However, after I read the author's note, I realized that her book is absolutely not promoting that kind of behavior at all and now I kind of want to pick it up. The one thing I will say is that the writing seems a bit on the simplistic side. But I would read a book about Carmen and her struggles. I would read it right now.

3.75/5 Bridge of Snow by Marie Rutkowski - I have read the Winner's Curse trilogy and wasn't really a fan. And I have to say, I feel like maybe I might want to give the series one more shot. This was actually pretty good. I liked the folklore that is woven into this. It was similar to the Leigh Bardugo story in that way even though it wasn't a straight-up fairy tale. And the last couple of paragraphs actually hurt my heart. It was the only time throughout this anthology that I got emotional at all.

3.5/5 Krisis by Lindsay Smith - I have seen the book Sekret here and there but never picked it up. This short story takes place a year before the book and follows different characters, which I appreciated. I actually thought this was pretty interesting. I haven't read many books taking place during the cold war, and even though this particular series contains paranormal elements, I'm still interested in checking it out after reading this short story.

2.5/5 Blue Moon by Nikki Kelly - I honestly don't remember what happened in this story and I just read it a couple hours ago. It just did not stick with me at all.

2/5 Secret Heart by Ann Agguire - I've read Agguire's Razorland trilogy. Twice. I know there is a fourth book, but I was not interested in the slightest by the synopsis. This short story isn't even a story. It's retelling a scene from the perspective of Fade, the male protagonist. It's boring and it's unnecessary.

0/5 Monster Crush by Anna Banks and Emmy Laybourne - WTF. The most shocking thing about this awful story isn't the fact that it was actually published by a legit publishing company. It isn't even the fact that it is a sasquatch romance (Yes, you read that correctly. No, I'm not kidding. Yes, I wish I was.). To me, the most shocking part of this utter drivel of a story is that it took TWO authors to spew it out. I'm just floored that anyone thought this was a good idea. First of all, Sasquatch. Romance. Now, I would've been fine if they wanted to do some sort of Beauty and the Beast thing with a Bigfoot as the Beast. That could actually make sense, especially if they were going to set the story in the Pacific Northwest. I could get that. But this was a take on Sasquatches that was just a big mess. Um...spoilers ahead...

In this dumpster fire, sasquatches supposedly used to be human, and they turn other humans by kissing them on the mouth. Just the mouth. Apparently they can kiss them anywhere else on their bodies and everything is hunky-dory, but one peck on the lips immediately turns the other person into a sasquatch--but only during the day. At night they get to be in their human form--but only for a little while. Over time they lose 'human hours' until they are fully sasquatch.

It's so freaking stupid. I just...can't.

Aside from that, there is also the fact that this is insta-love at it's most cringey. There is a reference to Disney Princesses and how she understands how the could fall in love in one night. At one point, they even reference the term 'insta-love' saying how much they hate it but oh well!

The final nail in the coffin for me is the structure. It is literally just the two authors, texting lines of the story back and forth to each other. I don't know if this is legitimately how they wrote this story, but the gimmick didn't work at all. It made the entire thing seem very lazy to me. Actually, that is the perfect word for this. Lazy. And like I stated previously, I was astounded that this was a selection for publication in ANY book, newspaper, magazine, ezine...whatever. It's bad. I do not feel any urge to pick up anything from either of these authors.

Honestly, this anthology annoys me more and more as I think about it. It isn't marketed as 'short stories set in the world of your favorite series!' If it was, I probably wouldn't have purchased it in the first place, but I definitely would've paid more attention to the authors included to see whether or not I'd read a majority of their books.

Anyway, rant over. I don't recommend this anthology unless you've read a majority of the books by these authors.