Together, Apart

That cover is super cute and, honestly, who could say no to a bunch of pandemic meet-cutes? I hadn’t read most of these authors before, so I was pleasantly surprised how much I liked this anthology – and now I have a whole bunch of new authors’ backlists to check out!“Love, Delivered” – Erin A. Craig – ★★★★Millie and her parents have just moved to a new house in Michigan, one that’s so out in the boonies that it has no cell reception or any food delivery options beyond pizza. With her parents gone all day working at the local hospital, no way to get into town for groceries and nothing to do but unpack, Millie strikes up a friendship – and a mild flirtation – with the pizza delivery kid over basketball and books. It’s cute and I thought it showed Millie’s frustrations – moving during a pandemic, missing her friends, being home alone without her parents in a new place – well.“The Socially Distant Dog-Walking Brigade” – Bill Konigsberg – ★★★★Kaz already has a hard time talking to people, so when his dog Griffin pees all over another another dog walker he just met… well, apparently he can just never go to that dog park again. But he keeps running into Daxton and his dog Squirrel on their daily walks, and suddenly they’re walking together every day. This was cute and absolutely hilarious at points, but also a lot heavier between Kaz’s social anxiety and their discussions of their parents’ casual homophobia/transphobia.“One Day” – Sajni Patel – ★★★★★All Bobby’s trying to do when she goes out on the balcony is escape her family and their claustrophobic apartment so her headache will go away. That’s her only explanation for why, when the boy in the building next to her won’t stop playing his guitar, she throws her sneaker at him. Now the boy’s serenading her sneaker and refusing to give it back… unless she gives him her number. This was just over-the-top rom-com hijinks adorable and uplifting.“The Rules of Comedy” – Auriane Desombre – ★★★Finding out her chem partner, who she’s been crushing over all year, is gay is the best thing that happened to Harper since the pandemic started. But how can her boring old self ever attract bubbly, hilarious Alyssa’s attention? Obviously the only solution is to convince her comedy major older sister to help her make a viral TikTok. This was cute, but for whatever reason (maybe because I’m old?) the whole viral TikTok/”I’m not funny enough!” thing didn’t work for me.“The New Boy Next Door” – Natasha Preston – ★★★Two weeks into the lockdown, and Quinn is officially obsessed with the new boy next door, Archer. Problem is, she can’t seem to actually get him to talk to her – all he seems capable of doing is scowling. While I enjoy a good grumpy hero, something about this story just didn’t work for me. The neighborhood’s a little too perfect and I couldn’t buy how quickly Quinn and Archer connected.“Love with a Side of Fortune” – Jennifer Yen – ★★★★Michelle’s pandemic “break” has been spent working at her family’s restaurant. Between that and her mom’s fortune teller’s prediction that her next year will be not great, the last thing she expects is to see her crush, high school swim team star, Evan, picking up some broccoli beef. Before she knows it, Evan’s picking up food every night and they’re chatting like friends. But will the fortune teller’s prediction mean that any relationship between them is doomed before it starts? This one was so funny, and I loved how awkward Michelle was with Evan initially.“The Green Thumb War” – Brittney Morris – ★★★★★Billie’s therapist has suggested she start growing plants on their balcony to help her deal with the stress of living in an apartment during the pandemic. What doesn’t help her stress is when her cat leaps across the balcony to the next apartment over and injures the cute boy who lives there. While the meet-cute was the absolute most ridiculous of all of the stories, I loved how this one had both Billie and Sebastian’s POVs. Billie is so ice-cold while Sebastian is just absolutely adorable while trying to get her number, and I couldn’t even.“Stuck with Her” – Rachael Lippincott – ★★★Allie is regretting not getting on-campus housing for her sophomore year even more now that she’s stuck with her roommate Mia. She’s messy and loud, but at least now she can’t have her equally annoying friends over for parties every Saturday. Though she seems to be doing her best to make up for that by playing music at 3am every morning. I wanted to like this one – especially since it was the only one involving college students – but Mia was just too annoying for me.“Masked” – Erin Hahn – ★★★★Gray has developed quite the crush on Jude while chatting online with him about making masks for his uncle’s employees. After she finally meets him, the crush gets even worse, especially since he looks like her favorite contestant on a reality show. Maybe… too much like that contestant? OK, this one seriously strained my suspension of disbelief, but it was so adorable and well-written (and dual POV again!) that I honestly couldn’t care. I’ve read the author before and absolutely loved her writing style, so honestly, liking this one was no surprise for me. I loved the focus on music.Overall, for the most part, the stories in this anthology really worked for me. I’m certainly far (far!) outside of the target age range, but the characters’ pandemic frustrations and hopes still spoke to me. Even better, I’ve found several new authors to look up!I received an advance review copy of this book from NetGalley. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

~~~Review posted on The Heart of a Book Blogger~~~All of the stories in Together, Apart are so cute and show a glimmer of hope and joy during such a difficult and devastating time. My favorites in the collection were “Love with a Side of Fortune” by Jennifer Yen and “Masked” by Erin Hahn, but they were all so good!“Love, Delivered” by Erin A. Craig - 4 starsA strong start to the collection, “Love, Delivered” was a fun meet-cute and explored what it might feel like to have moved right as the lockdown began. When it ended, I wanted more of Millie and Luka's story so that's good sign!“The Socially Distant Dog-Walking Brigade” by Bill Konigsberg - 4 starsI love dogs, so I loved the idea of two people meeting while walking their dogs! Kaz and Daxton instantly connect and begin meeting up daily to walk their dogs together (while six feet apart, of course).“One Day” by Sajni Patel - 3.5 starsBeing in a cramped apartment with your family during lockdown would be hard, and Sajni Patel captures this feeling in Bobby. Her annoyance comes to a bursting point when she goes to her balcony for peace and quiet only to hear a bit playing guitar. So of course she throws her shoe at him, and then they start communicating through a whiteboard and later text. Very cute!“The Rules of Comedy” by Auriane Desombre - 3 starsWhile the “The Rules of Comedy” was cute, it was my least favorite in the collection. I did like that there was a focus on a sister relationship (especially the gap on high school/college age) and how part of the love story unfolds through TikTok.“The New Boy Next Door” by Natasha Preston - 3.5 starsThe boy next door trope is a classic, and “The New Boy Next Door” was a fun lockdown take on it. Quinn was super friendly and it was neat to see how her neighborhood came together to try to support each other during the difficult time.“Love With a Side of Fortune” by Jennifer Yen - 5 starsI've been looking forward to reading Jennifer Yen's debut A Taste for Love, so I'm super glad that I loved “Love With a Side of Fortune” as much as I did! Michelle is working at her family's Chinese restaurant during lockdown, so when her crush Evan picks up an order, it's a pleasant surprise. But then Evan keeps returning as his parents both work at the hospital, and sparks fly between him and Michelle!“The Green Thumb War” by Brittney Morris - 4 starsAnother apartment story, I love how Billie and Bastian windows were right across from each other. The dual POVs was a fun change-up for the collection, and their competition was cute!“Stuck With Her” by Rachael Lippincott - 4 starsAs someone who had a terrible roommate my freshman year of college, I cannot imagine being in quarantine with her. I would have gone out of my mind. So I could sadly relate to Mia's annoyance and anger a little too closely. But this one has a happy ending!“Masked” by Erin Hahn - 5 starsI’ve read and loved both of Erin Hahn’s novels, so it’s no surprise that “Masked” was one of my favorites in the collection! It was absolutely adorable! I loved how Gray destroyed her dream dress in order to sew masks for her community, the dual POVs of her and Jude, how they met, and the secret musician/celebrity identity reveal.

Together, Apart is a cute and diverse collection of YA romance short stories set during the Covid-19 pandemic. Admittedly, when I began reading, I realized I was not ready to read pandemic stories, but I pushed through my discomfort. And I'm glad I did.There were hits and misses, as is to be expected. A couple of them felt rushed and underdeveloped, and a couple felt contrived. But I appreciate that the collection features diversity on multiple levels, and most of the stories tackle the complex feelings that teens (and frankly all of us) are trying to manage during this pandemic.Having this collection is interesting historically too. Even now while we're still in the throes of the pandemic, these stories were clearly written near the beginning of the experience. We see characters taking strong precautions, which serve as good examples to follow, and spending time in strict lockdowns. A few of the stories end with jarring expressions of hope that the pandemic will be over soon. It's an optimism that might have instilled hope at the time the stories were written but now seem naive, even tragic.Each individual will have to assess for themselves whether they're ready to read a collection like this. There is certainly value here in connecting with the characters and the way they process their situations and feelings. There's solid writing, fun characters, and sweet moments. But for some, the reading experience might be too close to home. I will be interested to see how this collection ages!

I don’t think that I’ve ever had my emotions flown so all over the place than when I was reading Together, Apart. Despite the stories being swoon-worthy and oh-so-magnetic, I just wanted each one to last forever. And there wasn’t a single story that I didn’t love. I do have a few favourites (of course) but I would ten-times over purchase a full-length book of each story that was woven in the novel. Each time that one of the stories would reach peak-cuteness, it ended and I was like OH NO, PLEASE CONTINUE! So, that was my first and most prominent clue that I pretty much would be rating this book very highly.Erin’s story had me FLOORED. I adored Millie and Luka the most. Auriane had me flipping pages fast for the sweetest romance. Bill’s story involved dogs, and as an animal lover, I was sold, including on the romance that clutched at my heartstrings. Erin Hahn’s story just so happened to be one of my favourites, I was glued to the pages in those last moments for Gray and Jude. Sajni’s story had me enthralled from the get-go with the lost-shoe and guitar boy. Brittney’s story with a touch of plant-lover vibes was one of my favourites (of course, there was a cat and a dog in the novel, so it’s no surprise.) Jennifer’s part was one of my top-three for sure, I was hanging by a thread and partially feeling hungry with the mentions of food. Natasha’s story was golden – like, come on, they hang out in a tree, have that spark. I was in love. Rachael’s part was equally as sweet, filled with heart-clutching moments, leaving me not wanting it to end.Overall, Together, Apart is easily one of the strongest, beautifully-written, honest and painfully-sweet YA novels I’ve read in such a long time. Even though most of the stories in the book involved a very distanced approach to love, centering around the COVID pandemic, there was still such a connection between the love interests, and THAT takes skill and sheer talent. I would highly recommend this book to literally anyone. This book, these characters, these authors, have my heart. Five stars for each and every one!

Some things to look forward too give you hope