Alexandra Elend Wolf's Reviews > If the Fates Allow

3.5 stars.

“The pandemic had changed her. She’d gotten a lot pickier about who she let get this close. She’d gotten kind of fixated on repercussions.”

As per-usual with Rowell's short stories, this was a super cute, super fun, super-fast read that managed to tackle super heavy topics without losing any of its fluff.

Holyday stories is one of those things I look forward every year from Rowell because she always delivers the cutest things and the fact that this year's is a sort of spin-off from Fangirl - a complete Rainbow Rowell classic - made the whole concept for this book all the more enticing and dear to my heart.

Several years have passed since the ending of that iconic novel and now we can have a small glimpse as to how the characters are doing. All focused on our sassy queen Reagan, who is dealing with the dreadful reality of a global pandemic.

“Grandpa had just gotten his booster shot, and he was feeling invincible. Reagan couldn’t imagine that feeling. She’d spent too much of the last two years feeling paranoid and vulnerable.”

In a way, reading about a situation that has affected all of us invariably felt cathartic and refreshing and healing, something that I was definitely not expecting. The thing is, Rowell did an amazing job of including its realities when interacting with people, and all the anxiety it can produce, at the same time that she made it all feel safe and, somehow, cute.

Overall, it was just a cutesy tale about opening up to people and the uncertainties of life and taking chances, all things that have always been difficulties and will forever be complicated.

All the Christmasy magic sprinkled generously the whole time made the story exactly what you would expect from a holiday short story.

“I’m tired of waiting for it to get better, honey. It feels like we should all get together before it gets worse.”

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That was just as cute as I was expecting from Rowell.

I had a great time.

RTC.
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It's been a long time since I read Fangirl, and though I am reading the manga I cannot say that I remember all that much the dinner details of each character.

That being said, Reagan is such an interesting character that knowing that this is her short story makes it immediately interesting.

All of Rowell's short stories that I have read so far have been really cute so I'm expecting the same from this new addition. And, well, it's so short that I'm just gonna breeze through it.

I am excited.