Even if the Sky is Falling by Taj McCoy, Farah Heron, Lane Clarke, Charish Reid, Sarah Smith & Denise Williams, narrated by Adenrele Ojo, Soneela Nankani, Karen Murray, Marissa Hampton, Donnabella Mortel, Joy Beharie & Teddy Hamilton. Loved the premise and there were some real gems in the anthology.
Even if the Sky is Falling is an anthology of stories by BIPOC authors which all have the same basic premise: an alarm blares alerting everyone that some space junk (or worse) is imminently going to crash into the earth and everyone should take shelter. Only the people in the first story know that it’s a false alarm and there’s no risk. Each story takes the forced proximity trope and the setup and takes it somewhere different. I love this idea; it’s illustrative of how romance itself is so diverse – just because the ending is the same doesn’t mean the stories are. Here the premise is the same but the stories are all very different.
Some of the stories are Black romance, others feature at least one character of colour, most are MF, one is FF. It’s difficult to talk about each story in detail here but I’ll at least mention each one briefly.
Taj McCoy’s All the Stars, narrated by Adenrele Ojo, kicks things off and sets up the world. NASA employees are putting the finishing touches on a nationwide emergency alert system for space debris, part of a wider worldwide effort. An accident happens and the alarm goes off. This story was the weakest of the anthology for me; the incompetence of the character who messes up (neither of the love interests fortunately) was astounding; I didn’t get how, in a team of four, the FMC and the MMC had so much downtime; especially as the FMC was the Team Leader. When the crap hit the fan why was she able to go for a nap rather than pitch in to help? This novella also featured a second chance trope and I found the reason for the break up unconvincing – I’m not sure the MMC deserved to be given that second chance. The narration was very good though.
Keep Calm and Curry On by Farah Heron, narrated by Soneela Nankani, was in my top two novellas from Even if the Sky is Falling. Set in a large undercover market, the protagonists, both of Pakistani heritage and the children of immigrants and former best friends each have a food truck. Their dads are no longer friends but can Tariq convince Maya that their generation doesn’t have to be at odds? Can Maya’s Masala Girls food truck coexist beside Tariq’s Curry Junction? Do they need to be in competition? There is also a hot guy in a Henley with the sleeves pushed up and a (the same) hot guy reading a romance novel! (I believe it’s a Tessa Dare book but it’s never named). There’s also a cat. I haven’t listened to Soneela Nankani before but her narration was excellent. She had great characterisation and bought into the somewhat meta nature of the story, adding a touch of humour to those beloved tropes so it never edged into too much.
My Lucky Stars by Lane Clark, narrated by Karen Murray is the only queer romance in the anthology. The only two Black girls in their law school class do not get along. Jones is prickly and aggressive, Diana is not. Enemies to lovers is something of a tricky trope for me at the best of times; I don’t like it when characters are mean to each other. Here, Jones was pretty mean to Diana and I didn’t really like her which made it difficult for me to root for them as a couple. I figure that people who don’t struggle with E2L will like this one a lot better than me. The narration was good though. Karen Murray is also a new-to-me narrator but I’d happily listen to her again.
Bunker Buddies by Charish Reid, narrated by Marissa Hampton was my other favourite of the anthology – my first story from this author. A bookshop owner with a bunker underneath (inherited from his prepper grandad) has been crushing on a customer for months. A university professor who keeps coming to the bookshop to order obscure books just to have an excuse to see said hot bookseller happens to be the only customer in the shop when the siren sounds. All alone together in the bunker while the world may or may not be ending. All that unresolved sexual tension has to go somewhere, right? The only thing that let this one down was the speed of the narration. Ms. Hampton’s pacing was too fast for me. Otherwise, her characterisation and voice differentiation were very good.
Interlude narrated by Sarah Smith, narrated by Donnabella Mortel – a composer and jingle writer spends the maybe-end of the world in her basement with her cat and the hot contractor who, when the alarm went off, was at her house to give her a quote on replacing her kitchen cabinets. I found this difficult to get into because precious word count was wasted on things which didn’t really matter. There was too much time spent on things which didn’t really impact the story and it made my eyes glaze over a bit. On the other hand, the narration was great. Ms. Mortel is another narrator I’ll be looking for again. The story didn’t work super well for me but she kept me entertained nonetheless.
Anything You Can Do I Can Do Better by Denise Williams, narrated by Joy Beharie & Teddy Hamilton was another that suffered (for me at least) as a result of the enemies to lovers start of the story. I’m not sure I really bought why she didn’t like him in school when he didn’t do anything beyond being related to the founder of the university. Trapped in an empty college together, the pair eventually work their way through the misunderstandings that plagued their school years (I’m also not a fan of the Big Mis) and find their way to a HFN – and likely HEA. The narration by both performers was very good, with solid tone, pacing and emotion. It’s difficult to say new things about Teddy Hamilton – AudioGals readers know he’s a favourite here!
Like many anthologies, Even if the Sky is Falling was a bit of a mixed bag but I loved the premise and I did find some new-to-me authors and narrators to follow which was an even bigger plus.
Grade: B/C
