I read three different Amazon short story collections in 2024 but haven’t really kept up with the more recent ones beyond those. When I saw there was a follow-up to the Improbable Meet Cute books, I knew I’d be blazing through them right away.
This group is called THE IMPROBABLE MEET-CUTE: SECOND CHANCES. It features only one repeat author, Christina Lauren, along with five new ones: Hannah Bonham-Young Julie Soto, Trilina Pucci, Catherine Cowles, and Navessa Allen. I’ve heard all of them except one and quite a few are on my “their books are probably not for me” list, so I was cautious going into this lol. I was expecting to either validate my feelings on potentially not reading from these authors in the future OR realizing that perhaps I’m missing out!
I thought I’d rank order the stories and share my ratings for them along with a mini review, then compare the collection as a whole to the first go-around in 2024.
Story Ranking and Mini Reviews/Ratings
Time Will Tell by Hannah Bonam-Young // 
// Sooo cute. I think I need to read a full-length book from this author. I was very smitten and smiling like a dummy reading their emails but wish that part was a little longer. The rest felt a little rushed but still so good! I have a feeling this will be the best of this bunch for me.
Accidentally Yours by Christina Lauren // 
// Very cute, as expected! I love this pen pal/You’ve Got Mail premise. Sometimes I want to rate novellas lower if I think the story would’ve been better suited as a full-length novel (gotta do your job in a short time so I’m satisfied), but other times I want to go higher because wanting more is a sign of a good book (this one falls under).
Valentine’s Slay by Navessa Allen // // Completely absurd premise but honestly really fun haha. I wouldn’t have guessed this would land high up on my list from this collection. It was just the right length and nice that it works best as a novella – overall a success!
Death to Valentine’s Day by Catherine Cowles // 
// Another one with a slightly cheesy writing style but I actually enjoyed it for the most part. I think the ending felt a little unrealistic but I liked the romantic suspense vibes. Something different from the other novellas in this collection.
A Play For Love by Trilina Pucci // 
// This definitely had its moments in the second half but I felt like it was trying too hard in the first part. The writing was very scattered and honestly kind of annoying. Cute moments but didn’t feel as much chemistry as a couple other novellas in this collection so far.
Second Chance Romance by Julie Soto // 
// Way too much and not enough going on at the same time. We learned of like fifteen side characters and their illness but spent a few pages with the male love interest. It just didn’t give any chemistry behind the second chance romance at all. Some novellas in this collection are ~90 pages and this was 60; I’d recommend increasing the page count to give a lot more of the romance.
Collection Comparison
Average rating: 3.91 stars
I loved this collection and the rating shows it. This just had a lot of cute stories from authors I already enjoyed, so I knew it was going to be pretty good.
Average rating: 3.58 stars
It was fun to experience some new authors that I’d heard of but never read (Bonam-Young, Soto, Cowels, Allen). I was pleasantly surprised by some of the stories in this collection and the concepts were super unique, but some worked better than others.
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