Matched by the Unicorn: An Unusual Romance Charity Anthology

by Unfortunate Reads, Clover Holloway, Sylvia Morrow

Miriam knows all about love. She also knows dating in the current landscape can be hell. That’s why she creates her own dating app. Modern dating with just a touch of magic, Miriam’s Date-a-Base brings people together. But beware, your match may be a little more than human. Let Miriam match you up with nine magical love stories.

Your purchase of this anthology supports ProLiteracy, a 501(c)3 whose mission is leading the advancement of adult literacy in the US and throughout the world.

Inside you'll find stories

Unfortunate Reads writing as Clover Holloway
Mia C. Bella
Lara Reagan
Ames B. Winterbourne
Sylvia Morrow
S.R. Griffith
Latrexa Nova
Sabrina Cross
Brittany Lawrence

Genres: Anthologies

547 pages, Paperback

Published August 27, 2024

Reviews

[Michaela Taylor · Rating 5 out of 5]

Y’all!! This is absolutely one of my favorite books I’ve read all year! It was cozy, comforting and super spicy! There are nine stories in this charity anthology, absolutely full of unusual romances. Whether you love monsters, sentient objects, shifters or just strange people there is a story in this for everyone! While I truly loved each story and its’ characters, some of my favorites were; Matches in the Making, A Perfect Gentooman, Gryphon’s Choice, and Kissing A Curse! There is also super cute art for these stories. A few of these stories will become published on their own and possible have more stories within the communities! Make sure to follow all of these authors for more strange romances!

[Biblio · Rating 5 out of 5]

Monstera's Match Review:
Kenzie goes on a date with Alex who is not quite human. After a slightly awkward first date and a disgusting lavender matcha latte incident Kenzie is ready to jump into bed with Alex. She’s get the surprise of her life when she catches a glimpse of his vines. Kenzie has me HOLLERING. She is so bold and isn’t afraid to ask for what she wants. Alex was so HOT. Those vines though. *eyebrows eyebrows* All the spice wrapped up in a sweet HFN short story. Plant lovers, you don’t want to miss this one!

REVIEWS FOR THE OTHER STORIES COMING SOON

[Michelle Lebron · Rating 5 out of 5]

You can find everything in this anthology: a Plant Daddy, a Marshmallow Girl, a Penguin, a Griffin, a Capybara, and monsters you’d never imagine, all in one place, trying to find the love of their lives. This is where a unicorn named Miriam comes in as the perfect matchmaker. All my favorite writers have come together in one place, and let me tell you, this is the anthology of the year. You will enjoy each of these little stories. I loved how Miriam intertwines all the stories and different authors; she has a unique touch. I read this book super fast because I couldn’t stop reading one story after another. Many of them were super spicy and cute at the same time, all with the same goal of bringing together perfect couples. Many of the monsters have special features, so I recommend discovering them for yourself in this incredible anthology. You'll be supporting a wonderful cause if you buy a copy, plus you'll get to read all your favorite authors in one book.

[Danni]

DNF at 75%- the stories in here were cute, so I don’t want to take anything with a low rating, but I can’t with ‘happy for now’ books. I need find out what happed after the for now.

[Robyn G · Rating 5 out of 5]

Monstera's Match - ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Alex and Kenzie was so cute!
Kenzie got set up by her friend to go on a date with Alex but didn't realise he wasn't completely human. They hit it off straight away and the feelings were flowing until Kenzie see's his vines.
Alex was the cutest, so Sweet and a little shy but boy was a he not so sweet in the sheets.
I can't wait to read more from these two!

[Mackenzie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Come one, come all, Miriam is finding matches for them all!

I love how our love guru / unicorn Cupid intertwined all of these stories in the anthology! It was such a perfect touch to connect all of the stories (something I hope other anthologies will be inspired to adopt!).

This was overall very cute! I loved the spice level and all the *unique features,ahem* and following along for all the HFN love stories.

As a bonus, I’m obsessed with Kenzie and Alex, largely because Kenzie is the most wonderful name (biased? Who, me?) but also because Alex is a monsters and that really gets the plant girlies going. The capybara also made me giggle. I loved how different each story was yet I was left laughing throughout the entire anthology!

[Ellie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Such good stories! For a great cause!

I really enjoyed these stories! I might have a favorite but it's so hard to choose! You can tell that these authors did their best to write these for this anthology! For sure a great cause too! I haven't read a few of these authors before but now I need to go find their works and finish those too!!

[Louise · Rating 5 out of 5]

Review for Gryphon’s Choice

I want to visit Calamity Creek! Love the whole town vibes.

Apollo and Laurel were so sweet. I immediately wanted them to get their HEA.

I loved Miriam and looking forward to more of these stories and getting to know the characters more.

[Betsy · Rating 5 out of 5]

A super fun anthology built around the premise that a Unicorn named Miriam is such a good matchmaker that she creates an app to allow her to match monsters and humans. The stories are all super fun and I loved seeing romance for monsters we don't usually see like a sentient ooze, a marshmallow person, a capybara shifter, a plant person, a yeti, or a chupacabra. These stories brought the steam while still being pretty adorable meet cutes. I would trust Miriam to find me my match anyday.

[Karen Nastasio · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a great collection of wonderful authors and was pleasantly surprised at the new authors that I have encountered along the way.
Gryphons Choice
Apollo has been traveling after his breakup with his very much Ex girlfriend Daphne who wont take no for an answer and wants him back but he tells he isn’t interested all but now that he is back home his mother is thrilled and invites Daphne over so they can work everything out because she has changed and his mother thinks he should give her a chance but he refuses.
Laurel has just moved to Calamity Creek after she broke up with her Ex Gary who turns out is already married to someone else and so now she lives with Nevach who is her college friend. While at the dinner she asks about the very hot guy thats there and she is told his name is Apollo and that he is single but when a female comes in and try’s to touch him he tells her to go away and that his not interested. With his medaling Aunty Miriam who is a matchmaker they go out on a date and it’s perfect but Laurel feels he is hiding something but he makes her feel safe with him. Loved this book and all the short stories that will have you glued to the pages great book.

[Henne · Rating 3 out of 5]

Up front, if you can, buy or lown this over Kindle Unlimited, do it and read it. It's for a good cause and as long as you swipe slowly enough through the pages KU will pay them. 👌

_____

Since this is from many authors, I feel the need to specify for each story.

Prolouge ⭐3 🌶️0

A perfect gentooman ⭐4 🌶️1.5

Marshmallow girl ⭐3 🌶️1

Change of shift ⭐2.5 🌶️1

Gryphon's choice ⭐1.5 🌶️0.5

Dummy for love ⭐3 🌶️0

Kissing a curse ⭐4.5 🌶️1
(my favorite story out of them all)

Monstera's match ⭐4.5 🌶️3.5

Abdominal meet-cute ⭐2 🌶️4


Lastly, I really, really don't like if the heroine is a chubby lady and more than once the ex of the protagonist is thin, beautiful and horrible. This is not body positivity. It's toxic and as a chubby woman myself, I am so not here for degrading other women over their bodies, no matter their shape and size.

And since I'm queer as well from an older generation, I don't like the word sissy being used. Maybe it was on purpose but it left a really bad taste in my mouth.

[Melli · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was so fun! I loved Miriams meddling and the overall idea. Naturally, I liked some stories more than others, but I think that's also the advantage of short story collections: there's something for everyone in there! All the stories were cosy and cute. Some had me laughing out loud (I'm looking at you, pebble maniac), and some were a little more emotional - at least quite emotional for a short story.

When I received the ARC, I thought I'd never finish it before the release day, but whenever I continued reading in my free time, I couldn't put my kindle down. So here I am, ready to review.

Great anthology, great charity - there's nothing stopping you from reading this gem of a book if you're into reading unusual romance!

[Rach at Monstrous.LoveBites · Rating 5 out of 5]

🦄📱 ARC review 📱🦄

Matched by the Unicorn: An Unusual Romance Charity Anthology

Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Spice: 🌶🌶-🌶🌶🌶🌶

Obsessed. This anthology is like a bowl of your favorite potato chips. You simply can not just stop at one, then next thing you know, they are all gone! Every story is about a new couple told by a different amazing author, so you get a variety of spice levels, k*nks, some have fancy parts, and some flavored 💦 but all are so sweet and just leave you kicking your feet & giggling in the best ways! You absolutely will not regret picking this up, and it benefits such a good cause!

[Amanda · Rating 4 out of 5]

Matched by the Unicorn is a fun collection of short stories. There are marshmallow women, plant-men, capybara shifters and Chupacabra.

Matches in the Making by Mia C Bella
Mirriam is a color changing unicorn shifter with a desire to matchmake.

A Perfect Gentooman by Sylvia Morrow
David is a Gentoo penguin shifter who's yearning for a mate.

Dummy for Love by Sabrina Cross
Benji has been cursed into the body of a ventriloquism dummy. Can Maggie embrace this new world she finds herself in?

[Darktwistybookworm · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a fantastic collection of monster/sentient object short stories, which have varying degrees of spice.
Each story features a couple who find their "one" through an app created by a sassy and vivacious unicorn, and they can be read in any order.
A lot of the stories were sweet with HFN endings, and some had me roaring with laughter.
This is a great collection to dip in and out of when you're short on time or if you're looking to try out new authors. I highly recommend grabbing a copy, and as a bonus, it supports a great cause!

[Miss S · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great collection of short and sometimes spicy stories. Love how Miriam links all the different authors together. Some stories I felt could have been a little longer, like Change of Shift and Dummy Love, but they all are great, and Im looking forward to a longer version of Monstera's Match and hopefully a hea for Miriam 🦄

[Tony · Rating 4 out of 5]

Some of these stories are outside my taste, but were written well enough that I enjoyed the character's journeys. Two of the stories needed more work to be on the same level as the others as far as writing, character, and plot development. Overall this was a good anthology.

[Michelle · Rating 4 out of 5]

I received this book as a free ARC in exchange for a review.


I'm really enjoying this book. I'm loving the unicorn match maker and the stories so far. They're really sweet and fun. I'm up to the gentoo penguin story.

[Ellen Moore · Rating 5 out of 5]

I thought this was an excellent compendium of brilliant short stories. It was great to read from authors I'd not read from before, and I adored some of the stories. Definitely found a few new authors to follow from this.
I really need more of the stories from S.R. Griffith & Clover Holloway, those were my absolute favourite ones, along with Sylvia Morrow's story.