My True Love Gave to Me Mini Review: What the Hell Have You Done, Sophie Roth?

Book Title: My True Love Gave to Me

Editor: Stephanie Perkins

Story Title: "What the Hell Have You Done, Sophie Roth?"

Story Author: Gayle Forman

Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin

Publication Date: October 14, 2014
Source: St. Martin's Griffin for Review

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If you love holiday stories, holiday movies, made-for-TV-holiday specials, holiday episodes of your favorite sitcoms and, especially, if you love holiday anthologies, you’re going to fall in love with My True Love Gave To Me: Twelve Holiday Stories by twelve bestselling young adult writers, edited by international bestselling author Stephanie Perkins. Whether you enjoy celebrating Christmas or Hanukkah, Winter Solstice or New Year's there's something here for everyone. So curl up by the fireplace and get cozy. You have twelve reasons this season to stay indoors and fall in love.

Mini Review: "What the Hell Have You Done, Sophie Roth?"

Seeing Gayle Forman as one of the included authors in My True Love Gave to Me made me even more excited to read all of these short stories. I've only read her books If I Stay and Where She Went, but I was truly impressed with Forman's storytelling abilities. That's why I was so excited to see what she could do with just a few short pages, and boy, was I impressed!

"What the Hell Have You Done, Sophie Roth?" is one of the funnier stories in the anthology. It's also a story that will appeal to readers who might be feeling a little blue during the holiday season. Heck, it might even help your inner Scrooge be a little merrier this year. 

"What the Hell Have You Done, Sophie Roth?" includes many references to pop-culture, including the one and only Ned Flanders as a way for Forman's characters, Sophie and Russell, to connect when they are stuck in a pastoral college town after mostly everyone has gone home for the holiday break. I loved how they were able to come together and create new holiday traditions while waiting for their own ways out of town.

If you're looking for a holiday story with diverse characters, pick up a copy of My True Love Gave to Me, and read Forman's short story. You'll laugh, and your heart will be warmed by this charming little tale.

Gayle Forman is an award-winning, internationally bestselling author and journalist. She is the author of Just One Day and Just One Year, and the companion e-novella, Just One Night, as well as the New York Times bestsellers If I Stay and Where She Went. She lives in Brooklyn, New York with her husband and daughters.