Summer Days and Summer Nights: Twelve Love Stories

Audio was great. Loved having the full cast, it really brought the stories to life!

Stories by authors I've already tried and like? yes
Stories by authors I haven't yet tried but now want to? yes
Follow-up story to story in Perkins' last anthology? yes
Illustration of Cthulhu dressed as Strawberry Shortcake old style? YES
A variety of characters and loves? indeed

Let me just say that in addition to writing, Perkins sure can pick 'em.

After you've read this, and I hope nearly everyone does, do please share what you liked best.

Library copy

A collection of twelve short stories set during the summer with a romantic plot in them somewhere.I have to admit that this collection had more misses than hits for me when compared with Perkins previous edited collection of Holiday romances. There were still stories I enjoyed but the ratio was lower than I expected. Perkins's story was a favourite, of course, because I love everything she does but I also enjoyed Jon Skovron's Shakespearian/Wildeian tale and Jennifer E. Smith also got a win from me. Worth picking up if you like YA stories but I'd set the bar a little lower if you read and loved [My True Love Gave to Me].

Not many anthologies get 4 stars from me, but this one was so good and I really enjoyed all of the stories in it. I would definitely recommend this to anyone looking for some cute YA romance.

I read the first collection, "My True Love Gave to Me" and I LOVED IT! I was a little scared that I had set the bar too high on this follow up, but no worries. I loved this one just as much. There is an amazing slew of teen authors who contributed to this: Francesca Lia Block (although her contribution was my least favorite, it's a darker depressing one - so basically her style), Libba Bray, Veronica Roth, Cassandra Clare, Leigh Bardugo, and more. Each story is a summer romance, but other than that they are all unique. There is a sci-fi one, a gay one, a fantasy one, a futuristic one, and more. My favorite one may have been "Last Stand at the Cinegore" because everything about that short story was hilarious and memorable. Overall, a wonderful collection that you will want to come back to time and again. I certainly plan on buying it for my personal collection!

All things considered, I didn’t enjoy this quite as much as the previous anthology, My True Love Gave to Me. But I did like that Perkins’ story, “In Ninety Minutes, Turn North” was a sequel to her story from the previous anthology. That was unexpected and delightful - and the story itself was one of my favourites.My other favourites were “Inertia” by Veronica Roth, in which SF technology gives Claire a chance to revisit shared memories with her former ex-friend before he undergoes surgery, and “A Thousand Ways This Could All Go Wrong” by Jennifer E. Smith, about Annie, who is working at a summer day camp for young kids. I haven’t often come across autism included in stories the way it is in the latter, as a factor, a part of life, but not as the central focus. Casually yet thoughtfully handled. There should be more stories like that.And I liked how “The End of Love” by Nina LaCour unfolded, and the way time repeated in “The Map of Tiny Perfect Things” by Lev Grossman.

These twelve stories of summer love are (almost) as delightful as the first twelve collected in My True Love Gave to Me (almost, because there is no Rainbow Rowell story in this collection). As with any collection, there are high points and low points: I enjoyed Perkins' follow-up to her winter story, could have done without Francesca Lia Block's tale, I don't think Jon Skovron actually knows any women based on how he writes them, but I loved Lev Grossman's story and found that it ended the collection on just the right note. Fans of YA, of romance, and of short stories will enjoy these seasonal offerings.