Book Review: Love Hurts by Malorie Blackman

Goodreads:

Malorie Blackman brings together the best teen writers of today in a stunningly romantic collection about love against the odds. Featuring short stories and extracts about modern star-crossed lovers from stars such as Gayle Forman, Markus Zusak and Patrick Ness, and with a brand-new story from Malorie Blackman herself, Love Hurts looks at every kind of relationship, from first kiss to final heartbreak. 

2.75 Stars 

I received this eARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. 

I requested this book in hopes of it being a light contemporary that is a collection of short stories tied in together to form something beautiful in the end, and to my disappointment, it wasn't like that AT ALL.

This book is a collection of excerpts of previously published books like If I Stay, We Were Liars, More Than This et cetera..  I skipped most of the stories to avoid spoilers and the stories that I have read, I also skipped. 

To be honest, this book did have its perks. It added a ton of books to my TBR (Not sure whether this is a pro or a con, because my TBR pile is overflowing.), it was also so very refreshing to read a book by so many authors. The writing style of some of these authors captivated me and it pushed me into putting their books higher on my TBR list, it was beautiful how a 30 page excerpt totally lured me into the story and I needed more of it, especially that I didn't know the characters and I didn't connect to them on any level.

In theory, I disliked the fact that I was thrown into a part of the novel and having to be oblivious to who the characters are, but I'm guessing that is was a method of pushing the reader into buying and reading the whole book.

Some of my favorite "excerpts" that I remember I liked were: 

• The Infinite Moment of Us by Lauren Myracle
• Naughts and Crosses by Malorie Blackman
• You Against Me by Jenny Downham
• More Than This by Patrick Ness 
• If I Stay by Gayle Forman (I MUST read this book)

One of the things that I highly recommend is NOT reading anthologies back to back, it should be read over a long period of time. I also learned that anthologies is not my thing, but that's besides the point. 

I have to mention that I ADMIRED the diversity in this one, there are LGBT, characters of color and different ethnicities. 

I usually NEVER give books 2 stars, but this one really wasn't for me. That doesn't necessarily mean that it's not a good one, it just means that this isn't for me and maybe it is for YOU. I was simply just disappointed by it.

Have you read Love Hurts? I'm curious to know your thoughts, leave them in the comments down below! :) 

Have a great day everybody!