I was looking forward to reading this as I love Malorie Blackman especially the Noughts and Crosses series but unfortunately, I was disappointed.
The idea of an anthology of love stories did interest me as I do read a lot of Young Adult romances but I just don't think it worked. Having read most of the books the extracts were taken from, and not liking all of them, I found it boring. Also, the extracts from the books I hadn't read left me feeling like I had no idea what was going on but not really caring that I was confused rather than wanting to read the whole book.
Overall, I found the whole thing disjointed and awkward, I could never really get into it and read it over a while in small sections rather than being gripped from the start and not putting it down until I'm finished.
However, I did enjoy Malorie Blackman's opening short as it was unique and after reading it I wished it could have been a novel rather than a short story. If the book had been just short stories and not extracts, like 'My True Love Gave To Me', I think I would have enjoyed it more.
• Buy this book at the Guardian Bookshop.
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