My True Love Gave to Me
Author: Various, edited by Stephanie Perkins
Published by: Pan MacMillan
Pages: 322
Format: Paperback
My Rating ★★★
Published by: Pan MacMillan
Pages: 322
Format: Paperback
My Rating ★★★
It’s the most wonderful time of the year.
If you love holiday stories, holiday movies, made-for-TV holiday specials, holiday episodes of your favourite sitcoms, and, especially, if you love holiday anthologies, you’re going to fall in love with My True Love Gave to Me: Twelves holiday stories by twelve bestselling young adult writers, edited by the internationally bestselling author Stephanie Perkins.
Whether you enjoy celebrating Christmas or Hanukkah, Winter Solstice or New Year’s, there’s something here for everyone. So, curl up by the fireplace and get cosy. You have twelve reasons this season to stay indoors and fall in love.
My thoughts:
Thank you to Pan MacMillan for sending me out a copy of the paperback. This collection of contemporary and fantasy stories included enough well-known names in Young Adult literature to be worth a try, so I went in with high hopes.
Several of the characters are actually in college, but the conflicts certainly seem to belong more to YA; the stress caused by missing and/or emotionally unavailable parents is the biggest recurring theme. I enjoyed the diversity across these twelve stories, the sharing of different customs – pagan, Jewish and Christian, to name a few. This was one of the main strengths of this collection.
I enjoyed this collection overall, although it really started to drag towards the end. Twelve stories to go with the twelve days of Christmas is a lovely concept, but it starts to seem too much when so many of the same themes appear over and over again.
With any anthology, it’s normal that you inevitably end up clicking with some stories more than others. The whole collection was pretty festive and fun, but I personally wish the stories had been a little longer to allow for a greater sense of character growth. The short page count meant that each story offered just a quick snapshot of each person’s life. Whilst this was an interesting format, as a result I found it hard to really connect with the lead characters.
I did enjoy how these tales were all set around Christmas. If you want some holiday reading that’s romantic, fun, and enjoyable, My True Love Gave to Me will make a good gift – ideally for younger teens.
Overall reaction:
Thank you to Pan MacMillan for sending me out a copy of the paperback. This collection of contemporary and fantasy stories included enough well-known names in Young Adult literature to be worth a try, so I went in with high hopes.
Several of the characters are actually in college, but the conflicts certainly seem to belong more to YA; the stress caused by missing and/or emotionally unavailable parents is the biggest recurring theme. I enjoyed the diversity across these twelve stories, the sharing of different customs – pagan, Jewish and Christian, to name a few. This was one of the main strengths of this collection.
I enjoyed this collection overall, although it really started to drag towards the end. Twelve stories to go with the twelve days of Christmas is a lovely concept, but it starts to seem too much when so many of the same themes appear over and over again.
With any anthology, it’s normal that you inevitably end up clicking with some stories more than others. The whole collection was pretty festive and fun, but I personally wish the stories had been a little longer to allow for a greater sense of character growth. The short page count meant that each story offered just a quick snapshot of each person’s life. Whilst this was an interesting format, as a result I found it hard to really connect with the lead characters.
I did enjoy how these tales were all set around Christmas. If you want some holiday reading that’s romantic, fun, and enjoyable, My True Love Gave to Me will make a good gift – ideally for younger teens.
Overall reaction:
