Book Review: My True Love Gave To Me edited by Stephanie Perkins

Title: My True Love Gave To Me

Authors: Stephanie Perkins, Holly Black, Ally Carter, Matt de la Pena, Gayle Forman, Jenny Han, David Levithan, Kelly Link, Myra McEntire, Rainbow Rowell, Laini Taylor, Kiersten White
Series:  Standalone anthology
Pages: 355
Publisher: Macmillan Children's Books
Date of Publication: 9th October, 2014
Source: Publisher from event*
Synopsis from Goodreads: On the first day of Christmas, my true love gave to me ...This beautiful collection features twelve gorgeously romantic stories set during the festive period, by some of the most talented and exciting YA authors writing today. The stories are filled with the magic of first love and the magic of the holidays.

My Thoughts:
My True Love Gave To Me contains twelve stories by twelve different authors, including Stephanie Perkins, Ally Carter and Rainbow Rowell. Of the twelve authors, I've read and enjoyed books by nine of them, and so while anthologies are not really my thing, I couldn't ignore the facts that:
a) here were new stories from some of my favourite authors
b) here were twelve new winter/Christmas romances (aka the best kind of romances)
c) the cover is super pretty with it's pale blue cover and shiny gold and bright pink fairy lights and page edges (which look WAY better in person than in that picture above!)
so, obviously, I had to give it a read.

Out of the twelve stories, there were only two I didn't really enjoy. Mostly they were really adorable stories that I could take half an hour to read quietly by myself, and during the hustle and bustle of the Christmas week, they were absolutely perfect.

My favourite story was 'Angels In The Snow' by Matt de la Peña. I'd not read anything by him in the past or even heard of him but I'd like to check out his other work now! The story is about a boy and a girl, the only two people snowed in in a huge apartment block. One's rich, the other a cat sitter. I don't want to say anymore as the stories are only short and I don't want to spoil them but it was just so adorable and cute and the predictability actually, in a rare case, just made it all the better.

To highlight just a few more, I also really enjoyed the stories from Rainbow Rowell, 'Midnights' and Stephanie Perkins, 'It's a Yuletide Miracle, Charlie Brown' (obvs - these authors are my favourites). Holly Black's, 'Krampuslauf' was a lot of fun, and Kiersten White's 'Welcome to Christmas, CA' was super cute. I could go on though - they're all so shiny and cute and lovely.

I wasn't expecting wonders from My True Love Gave To Me, only twelve adorable winter romances that I could read and enjoy while all cosy and warm and relaxed at Christmas, and that is exactly what I got. I cannot recommend it enough for a really great read over the Christmas period, or any time you're feeling down or in need of a warm hug, because that is what it is. It's a big warm hug in the form of a book. Brilliant.


*Huge thanks to Macmillan for hosting the Christmas party where I acquired a copy of this book. In no way has this affected my opinion of it.