My True Love Gave to Me by Ally Carter, David Levithan, Gayle Forman, Holly Black, Jenny Han, Kelly Link, Kiersten White, Laini Taylor, Matt de La Peña, Myra McEntire, Rainbow Rowell, Stephanie Perkins Published by St. Martin's Griffin on 2014-10-14
Pages: 320
Amazon-Indiebound
Goodreads
A collection of joyful festive stories that will keep you warm during the cold winter months.
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 (Holly Black, Ally Carter, Matt de La Peña, Gayle Forman, Jenny Han, David Levithan, Kelly Link, Myra McEntire, Rainbow Rowell, Stephanie Perkins, Laini Tayler and Kiersten White), edited by the international bestselling Stephanie Perkins. Whether you celebrate Christmas or Hanukkah, Winter Solstice or Kwanzaa, there's something here for everyone. So curl up by the fireplace and get cozy. You have twelve reasons this season to stay indoors and fall in love.
My thoughts:
Okay, confession time. I often like the idea of a story collection more than I actually like reading a story collection. Like, I’ll be all excited about one and buy it and then read a few stories and I’m done. Not because the stories aren’t good. I just lose steam. I couldn’t tell you the last time I actually read every story in a story collection. Then My True Love Gave to Me came along. One look at that author list and I was starstruck! I knew I had to have it (I mean, look at that gorgeous cover!!)
Since I have such a bad track record with story collections I decided I’d just read one story a night and make my way through in order. I read Rainbow Rowell’s story the night I got the book and loved it so, so much. A couple of nights later I read the next story, The Lady and the Fox by Kelly Link. Two great stories in a row! I couldn’t wait to read more…. but, NO! One story a night!!! I put the book down. Only ten more stories to go. Must. Savor. Them. Who am I kidding? I have no restraint. The next time I sat down with the book I couldn’t stop after the Matt de la Pena story. Or the one by Jenny Han. Or Steph Perkins. Or David Levithan. But then I read Krampuslauf by Holly Black and realized that I only had five stories left and it was way passed my bedtime! That’s the problem with My True Love Gave to Me….. every story is by an author I love so I never wanted to put it down! I finished the last five stories (by Gayle Forman, Myra McEntire, Kiersten White, Ally Carter, and Laini Taylor) in one fell swoop. You guys! There is not a bad story in the bunch!
I loved how varied the different stories were. They’re tied together by the theme of a winter holiday and a bit of romance, but that’s it. (Well, that and amazing storytelling!) There really is something for everyone. I was so impressed by how invested I was in each story. Kiersten White’s even made me cry! Basically, I wanted the characters in each story to have their own book.
There is no way I could pick favorites. I honestly adored them all. From Gayle Forman’s contemporary story of a Brooklyn girl finding her place in at a rural college to Holly Black’s supernatural tale of love and lies, they’re all spectacular. Stephanie Perkins did a wonderful job editing this delightful collection of holiday stories (and writing one too!) I cannot recommend it enough.
Gwen
I have the same experience with anthologies — I love the sound of them but never end up reading all the stories! But this one sounds fantastic! Thank you for the recommendation–certainly an impressive list of amazing authors! Will add to my to-read list–but maybe when it’s more in season 🙂 ~Gwen