Chaotic Cupids: When Love Goes Awry

by Kevin J. Anderson (Editor), Allyson Longueira (Editor), Meagan Friedman (Editor)

Love is in the air…or is it? When it comes to love, anything can go awry.
What if Cupid’s aim isn’t so perfect after all? What if the arrow finds the wrong target, or the right target at the wrong time?
Romance can blossom in an ancient castle, at a local café, or on an interstellar generation ship. But what happens when magic, technology, planetary alignments, or sheer bad luck turn romance into a disaster?
What if the meet-cute is not so cute?
What if the mystical globe crystals tell you that you have more than one soul mate?
Or what if you’re a robot who has downloaded feelings?
Here is your chance to free fall into a world where love, magic, and wonder can devolve into chaos and confusion. Upgrade your situationship with soul mates, arranged marriages, death personified, terraformers, and deals with the devil you know. These 23 original stories and poems take aim at your favorite romance tropes across galaxies, through portals, even into the afterlife…
Brought to life by New York Times bestselling author Kevin J. Anderson and award-winning editor Allyson Longueira—and their graduate students at Western Colorado University—Chaotic When Love Goes Awry showcases the beautiful chaos of love in all its many and wondrous forms, with unexpected results, hilarious mistakes, and terrifying consequences. (Winged cherub optional.)
Once Upon A Time … Love got in the way. This wasn’t the plan, but the story might be better that way.

304 pages, Paperback

Published July 22, 2025

About the author

Yes, I have a lot of books, and if this is your first visit to my amazon author page, it can be a little overwhelming. If you are new to my work, let me recommend a few titles as good places to start. I love my Dan Shamble, Zombie P.I. series, humorous horror/mysteries, which begin with DEATH WARMED OVER. My steampunk fantasy adventures, CLOCKWORK ANGELS and CLOCKWORK LIVES, written with Neil Peart, legendary drummer from Rush, are two of my very favorite novels ever. And my magnum opus, the science fiction epic The Saga of Seven Suns, begins with HIDDEN EMPIRE. After you've tried those, I hope you'll check out some of my other series.

I have written spin-off novels for Star Wars, StarCraft, Titan A.E., and The X-Files, and I'm the co-author of the Dune prequels. My original works include the Saga of Seven Suns series and the Nebula Award-nominated Assemblers of Infinity. I have also written several comic books including the Dark Horse Star Wars collection Tales of the Jedi written in collaboration with Tom Veitch, Predator titles (also for Dark Horse), and X-Files titles for Topps.

I serve as a judge in the Writers of the Future contest.

My wife is author Rebecca Moesta. We currently reside near Monument, Colorado.

Reviews

[Ursula Fricke · Rating 3 out of 5]

As always with anthologies for me it was a bit hit and miss. Luckily more hit than miss this time. There was one story (Hit Points?) that I give 5 stars, most get 3 to 4, and I wasn't in the mood for the poems. Might revisit them later.

[Lindsay · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a wonderful set of stories and poems truly great each one has its own thing to say. Hit points was heartfelt and sweet too that one stuck with me