The title says it all - this is an anthology of nerdy rom-com goodness. There are stories by 12 authors: Avery Flynn, Erin Mallon, Helena Hunting, Jana Aston, Jiffy Kate, Karen Grey, Kayley Loring, Krystyna Allyn, Penny Reid, Sara Ney, Sonali Dev, and Susannah Nix.
Overall, I really enjoyed this anthology. I normally prefer longer reads (300-400 pages is my go-to), but I've really enjoyed shorter romance reads in the past and have started to expand my reading in that area. Nerdy rom-coms are right up my alley and I've loved full length works from a number of the authors in this anthology. I did enjoy the wide variety of 'nerd' topics included - from comic movies, mathletes, library science grad students, D&D, Comic Con, and more. There's also a wide variety of romance tropes that were really fun and many of our leading men wear 'Clark Kent' glasses which the women absolutely love.
This is 750 pages long and there are 12 stories, so each is about 62 pages on average. Due to this, we're in solid insta-love territory for a lot of these stories and we don't have a lot of time to get through a typical romance book plot arc. Of course, I was expecting that going in, and I was pleasantly surprised at how each author structured their stories in different ways. We do have some that fit in a lot of the major plot beats you'd find in a full-length romance, but others that basically show the beginning of a relationship and then give a quick fast-forward view at the end.
I don't often give my actual rating in these written reviews, but for anthologies I do like to rate each story and then the anthology as a whole. For this, the average rating of the individual stories works out to 3.9 which I'll round up to a 4. I gave 5 of these stories 5 stars and I overally really enjoyed this reading experience.
Thanks to the authors and SocialButterfly PR for the ARC. Publication date for this anthology was August 16, 2022
Attracting Aubrey - Avery Flynn
This vacation romance follows Aubrey and Carter on a singles cruise. Aubrey is there to spend time with her friends and never expected the handsome stranger next door to be her favorite movie star - undercover. When she inadvertently reveals his secret, they team up to keep his identity under wraps and soon find themselves wrapped up together. I'll admit that famous person + regular person romances are a hard sell for me, but I really enjoyed this one. I thought Flynn did a great job of really fleshing out both characters and making their connection believable. I did wish we spent more time with Aubrey and her friends together, maybe to get some outside perspective on her budding romance but I understand we just didn't have the pages available for that type of detour. I loved that we get a full romance arc complete with a meet-cute, dates, steamy scenes, third act breakup, and a big declaration at the end.
5/5
Snowmancing the Bone - Erin Mallon
This thespian romance follows Wendy and Duncan. Wendy is a life-long theater nerd with the super organized binder to prove it. What initially starts as a normal weekend picking up some new plays to read at the library snowballs into Wendy being hired as the new stage manager for the local community theater's soup-centric production. The big upside to her new job - the lead actor is her crush from a few years prior. And it turns out, the feelings are mutual. This one went a little too far to the 'adorkable' side for my personal tastes, but if you love quirky small town residents then maybe this will be more your jam. I really liked Wendy and Duncan as characters, but I think their relationship was maybe more suited for a longer-form story. They both have details of their lives that seem to really get dropped into the story and then forgotten (like Wendy's daughter, for instance). We're watching their connection grow over the six week long rehearsal and performance time for this community theater play and that's a lot of time to squeeze into the amount of pages. There are a good number of time jumps but I think rushing through like that made me feel like I was missing out on some off-page character development. I did think our main characters have fantastic chemistry and I loved that this was a sort of second-chance for them. And as much as I initially thought it was strange, by the end I was really wishing there was a soup-only restaurant near me.
TW/CW: death of spouse from cancer
3/5
Not Just a Crush - Helena Hunting
This snowy romance follows Dahlia and Conrad. After her planned girls weekend gets derailed by a snowstorm, Dahlia finds herself trapped alone in the small cabin she rented. When she calls for assistance, the last person she expects to show up is her high school crush. Now they're both snowed in together and have nothing to do but explore their mutual attraction. Snowed-in with an old crush? Yes please! Even better when that old crush is a big burly mountain man who knows his way around starting a fire. I thought this was a cute take on a high school crush story where there wasn't some big explosion in their past. Sure, she was the nerd who got teased, but it wasn't a big event and didn't seem like it really impacted their current day relationship. I did find Dahlia a bit over-the-top with some of her reactions and I just wanted her to take a deep breath. There were a number of times when it felt like she was a chicken running around with her head cut off. I loved how Conrad was able to calm her down in a real opposites attract situation. I wish we spent some more time with these two just talking and catching up instead of them jumping pretty much immediately into flirting and then into bed together. This is one of the stories where we see their steamy beginning and then it basically gives us a "they lived happily ever after" note at the end.
4/5
Central Park - Jana Aston
This office-ish romance follows grad student Liberty and businessman Mason. Liberty signs up with a nanny agency in hopes of making enough money to afford to live in New York as she finishes school. When she gets assigned an emergency case, she shows up to Mason's office only to find out that he doesn't have any kids for her to nanny. But with expenses piling up and no other jobs lined up, Liberty is focused on making the best out of this situation. This is another one where I felt like it would have worked better if it was longer. I absolutely loved the set up and how LIberty and Mason meet and I thought the beginning of their relationship was really well paced. I loved their chemistry and they had some great banter. However, their feelings for one another ramped up really quickly over nothing more than basically some flirty texts and I really needed to see more of them actually interacting together for the level of emotional attachment to really hit for me. We also only get Liberty's perspective, and maybe if we had Masons POV as well it wouldn't have felt quite so fast.
3/5
The Doctor and the Dungeon Master - Jiffy Kate
This slow-burn romance follows Griff and Jenna when they meet in Jenna's dermatology practice. Griff is there to remove the tattoo of his ex-fiance's name off his chest. Their connection is electric, but they both know they can't do anything while they're patient and doctor. But when the removal is complete in a couple months - all bets are off. I absolutely loved this story! I thought the chemistry between Griff and Jenna was fantastic and sizzling right off the page. I loved how easily their backstories were integrated into the main story as well as their relationships with the secondary characters. I really enjoyed the slow-burn elements and it felt like we got enough scenes with them interacting that we could see the relationship develop realistically. I also loved how we get 2 epilogues - 1 year later and then 10 years later to give us a flash forward into their HEA.
TW/CW: infidelity (in past, not MCs)
5/5
What Happens in Carolina - Karen Grey
This story follows Tina and George who are the newly hired junior writers on a new TV series in 1998. The two share a broom-closet of an office and initially seem like complete opposites. But when they fly from LA to North Carolina to check out the locations of the show, the two end up getting closer. And when a hurricane forces them to take the last hotel room together, the two finally find they have more in common than they originally thought. This was cute, but the writing style wasn't really working for me. It felt like the narration style was trying a little too hard to be snappy and witty and it had me rolling my eyes a few times. I did like Tina and George as characters with their own little quirks. I did like them together but wanted more scenes of them actually interacting. We get a lot of scenes where they're together with a third person and they only seem to interact with that other person. I loved the scene where they finally do get together and George shares his secret with her and how well that reveal played out. Overall, this was just a smidge too over-the-top for me but it was still a cute read.
3/5
There is Also a Dog - Kayley Loring
This story follows Jillian and Mitchell. Jillian needs a place to spend Christmas and for someone who strongly dislikes the holiday and has a bunch of work to get done, Mitchell's remote cabin (complete with WiFi) seems like the perfect spot. Even more perfect when it seems like Mitchell is flirting with her via text but when he comes to fix the router, he seems so aloof, Jillian starts to wonder if she was mis-reading all the winky faces. I liked this read, but there was something about the characterization of both MCs that was a little off putting. Looking back, I think this was an issue of trying to fit in too much in a short timespan. For example, a mutual friend tells Jillian that Mitchell can be aloof and might even seem like he doesn't like you but he's really a nice guy once he warms up. If that warm up was done over the course of maybe a week in a full length novel, then I could 100% see that working. However, in this case it felt like Loring tried to insert a full character arc into just a few hours and it ended up coming across less like character growth and more like inconsistent writing. That being said, once both characters actually got over themselves and got together, this book heated up pretty fast. Plus, Mitchell has a cute pet french bulldog so that's always a plus.
3/5
Comic-Complications - Krystyna Allyn
This story follows Brooke and Ben. After an on-air microphone disaster, local reporter Brooke is forced to cover NYC Comic Con. On her first morning there, Ben ends up stealing her coffee order out from under her and from then on, the enemies seem to keep running into each other and their attraction grows. I liked a lot of the elements in this story but unfortuneately, the main couple wasn't one of them. I didn't buy for a second that their connection was anything other than physical and it gave me the feeling they probably would burn out in a few weeks. I didn't believe they would get their HEA and this dragged the whole story down for me (they do get an on-page HEA, in case anyone was worried about that). I absolutely loved Ben and thought he seemed like such a sweet guy. I also loved how much the Comic Con setting was used and how much nerdy information was packed into this story. But liking the setting can only do so much for a romance and the fact that I wanted Ben to end up with anyone other than Brooke really was the nail in the coffin for this story for me.
2/5
Pash No Rash - Penny Reid
This office romance follows Audrey and Elias. While they're on a work retreat, Audrey heads to a local bar to let off some steam. Elias finds her there and as the two get to know each other better, Audrey finds he might not be the scary Darth Vader CFO she initially thought he was. I really liked this story and wished it was longer. This really read like the first chapter of a full length novel. We see them meet, grow a connection, and kiss all in the span of an evening, but then that's about it. There's an implication that they'll continue to cultivate this relationship going forward, but we don't actually see any of that on page. Because of the short timeframe (only a couple of hours) there wasn't much time for us to explore these two as characters on their own. Again, this made it feel like the opening chapter to a novel, not a romance story on its own. That being said, if this did get turned into a full-length novel, I'd love it. I was immediately pulled into the story and I thought our two characters had some really good chemistry that was simmering under the surface
4/5
Things Liars Fake - Sara Ney
This story follows Daphne and Dexter. They meet one night through mutual friends and both are intrigued by the other. Then, when they run into each other during their solo Saturday sci-fi movie time, they find out they might have more in common than they originally thought. And when they run into Dexter's aunt who runs and tells the rest of the family about Dexter's new girlfriend, Daphne ends up as his fake date. Because there's no way she'd actually be into him, right? I absolutely adored this. I loved Daphne, Dexter, the side characters, the chemistry, everything. I really love the level of communication these two (eventually) get to where they both just say flat out what they're feeling and what they want. Their connection really pops off the page. I always love a solid fake dating plot and I thought this had the perfect pacing of that fake relationship turning real.
5/5
The Runaway Bride - Sonali Dev
This marriage in trouble romance follows Nish and Neel on the day before their wedding. When Nish finds out that Neel has talked to his ex (the woman he chose over Nish 8 years prior) and kept the meeting a secret, Nish does the only thing she can think of - run away. In the early hours of the morning, there aren't many places she can go and there's only one man who can help her make the decision of going or staying. This was fantastic! I haven't read many marriage in trouble romances, but this is making me feel like I need to get some added to my TBR ASAP. I loved the emotional depth we get with both characters in this story and how we can see them growing together as the story progresses. I thought the pacing and length was perfect and Dev does a fantastic job of giving the reader all the necessary information about their past without it feeling too info-dumpy.
5/5
Close Encounters of the Nerd Kind - Susannah Nix
This billionaire romance follows Sarah and Henry. He's the CEO of a tech company who frequently comes into the diner where Sarah works and always sits at the same table. Only instead of sitting, working, and drinking endless black coffee one night he has a proposition for Sarah. He needs a date to a family function and he wants to bring her as his fake date. She accepts and as the two of them start getting their story straight for Henry's relatives, it seems like there might be more truth to this fake dating than either of them initially planned. This was so good! I absolutely loved Sarah and Henry together and following how their relationship developed. They were so sweet to each other and really felt like they had a genuine connection. I really enjoyed how up front they both were and neither of them was really trying to be anything other than their true selves. I really enjoyed the scenes with Henry's family and thought that dynamic was interesting. This was long enough that we pretty much got a whole romance arc included - complete with a big gesture at the end.
5/5
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