Three strangers heading to a convention in Toronto are stranded in rural Ontario, where a small town with a subtle kind of magic leads each to discover what he’s been searching for.
Very interesting. 3 stories. I enjoyed all of them .

Short book, younger audiences, it was a good read, just not my type of story. I may read the rest of the books.

Thank you to Netgalley for the ARC.
This was a fun and pretty short book. I didn't know it was an anthology before starting the book. It is definitely aimed for a young audience, but still good.

Okay so this book contains three stories that are kind of similar. I'm glad they weren't actually short stories, but more like novella's, because short stories always leave me with so many questions. These stories were about three teens, living their lives, being queer, ad then just starting friendships. I'm not sure how to describe it but it just made me feel really content, just happy that not all life is bad.

So unbeknownst to me before I read it, this turned out to be anthology. A lovely set of three short stories that are separate, but happen at the same time, in the same town. I quite liked it! All three stories are about queer teens who end up in this town on their way to a sci-fi convention. Each story was a delight and had a sense of magic to it. In them, one of the boys on his way to the convention, once stopped in the town, meets another boy and together they each find something these boys were missing in their lives, whether romance or something else. I liked that each of the stories were long enough that I really got a sense of who the characters were and I got attached to them and their stories. I liked the setting of the town, it really was all so magical. I had expected the stories to somehow come together in the end, they didn't. However, I was satisfied with how things ended anyway. Overall, the stories were so sweet and I enjoyed them.

This was an entertaining read and I will always love a book that has a beautifully created setting. My main criticism is that I just did not really care about the characters.

I'm not usually a fan of anthology-style story collections, but for some reason I thought these three stories were going to be more connected. They were not, or at least not in a way that increased my enjoyment, so that was my mistake. The characters in the first two stories also feel a little younger than I usually like to read.

All three stories are tied together by Magical Realism, a genre I usually love, but it felt like everyone was buying into the town's spooky mechanisms too easily.

This whole collection was definitely written for the youth, and I do not think it was a coincidence that my favorite scene involved a character's "hot dad" intentionally embarrassing his son! It was hilarious.


>Roadside Assistance by Jeffrey Ricker -- 2 stars

This was a new to me author, and I didn't love the writing style. It was slow-moving, and the characters also felt very immature. 


>The Scavenger Hunt by J. Marshall Freeman -- 3 stars

Also a new to me author, but probably my favorite of the bunch. (I'm biased towards romances :)

The MC felt so, so young, but also realistic. He was extremely annoying at times, like most 17-year-olds, but in a pretty enlightening way if you can look past the teenager of it all. It touched on the universal nature of otherness in a clever, subtle way. I especially enjoyed what read to me as one of the most realistic depictions of teenage demisexuality I've seen yet, but the story felt more incomplete than the others and the demisexual aspect was one of the things I would have really liked to read more of. I liked the dynamic between the MCs and really wanted to know where they went from here.


>Hope Echoes by 'Nathan Burgoine -- 3 stars

Not a romance, which I may not have minded if the previous story hadn't left me wanting more on that front. Josh and Logan felt like such fully fleshed out, likeable characters that I kept wishing this was their origin story instead!

It's lovely on its own, though. This author wrote one of the more successful anthologies I've read recently (Of Echoes Born), and this story would have fit perfectly there.

Three stories, one magical town in Ontario.
In every story someone is on his way to Toronto, passing a small town and get stucked there. And in each story the main character finds someone/ something special.
A wonderful magical book!

Thank you to NetGalley and Bold Stokes Books for providing me with an arc of this book.

I'm not a massive fan of short stories and based on the info given, I assumed all three shorts here would seem repetitive, but they weren't! Each was great in its own way despite some similarities, they were all compelling and well written.
I enjoyed the stories and hope to read more from the author in the future.

I’m not a lover of short stories so I wasn’t quite sure I would enjoy this book. However, the stories were complete enough to be enjoyable in their own right with a connection to help it along.
I enjoyed reading the short stories in between full on novels. Enjoyable quick reads

(ENGLISH REVIEW BELOW)
C'est une lecture que j'ai savouré au fil des jours.
¤
Ce roman regroupe 3 courtes histoires différentes et indépendantes, qui se déroulent tout de même dans la même ville de Hopewell.
Personnellement, je n'ai pas lu les 3 histoires d'un coup, mais j'en lisais une lors de pauses entre des livres lus. Chaque instant pris m'a permis de plonger dans chaque histoire.
On découvre plusieurs personnages dont le destin se croise à Hopewell, une ville bien mystérieuse. J'ai beaucoup apprécié suivre les aventures et les réflexions d'Ed, Rome et Fielding. Ce qu'ils vivent à Hopewell va faite ressortir en eux bien des révélations qui m'ont surprise tout au long du roman. L'autrice a fait un travail phénoménal sur le développement psychologique de ses personnages et j'ai bien aimé leur évolution à tous.
J'ai bien aimé aussi ce concept de donner de l'importance et de l'influence à une ville, un environnement comme si Hopewell était un personnage à part entière.
Je ne peux pas dire grand chose à propos des 3 histoires car elles sont vraiment courtes. Mais la lecture était chouette et j'ai passé un bon temps.

---------------
ENGLISH REVIEW

It's an anthology that I read slowly over the days.
¤
Three strangers heading to a convention in Toronto are stranded in rural Ontario, where a small town with a subtle kind of magic leads each to discover what he’s been searching for.
Ed Sinclair and his friends get stuck in Hopewell after their car breaks down. It’s snark at first sight when he meets local mechanic Lyn, but while they’re getting under each other’s skin, the town might show them a way into one another's hearts.
Rome Epstein is out and proud and clueless about love. He’s hosting a giant scavenger hunt at the convention, but ends up in Hopewell. When the town starts leaving him clues for its own scavenger hunt, he discovers a boy who could be the prize he’s been searching for.
Fielding Roy has a gift for seeing the past. His trip to reunite with friends hits an unexpected stop in Hopewell, but a long-lost love letter and two local boys give him a chance to do more than watch the past. This time, Fielding might be able to fix the present.
¤
This book brings together 3 different and independent short stories, which still take place in the same town of Hopewell.
Personally, I didn't read the 3 stories at once, but I read one during breaks between reading books. Every moment taken allowed me to dive into each story.
We discover several characters whose destiny intersects in Hopewell, a very mysterious town. I thoroughly enjoyed following the adventures and thoughts of Ed, Rome and Fielding. What they experience in Hopewell will bring out in them many revelations that have surprised me throughout my reading. The author did a phenomenal job on the psychological development of her characters and I really liked their development.
I also liked this concept of giving importance and influence to a city, an environment as if Hopewell was a character in its own right.
I can't say much about the 3 stories because they are really short. But the reading was fun and I had a good time.

Fun triptych from three authors, all writing in the same location. Great YA LGBTQ stories. Always happy to read something new from 'Nathan Burgoine.

WOW. This was a beautiful book.
I loved it. The places, the story, the characters.

I love queer characters..

slightly my worst nightmare considering right off the bat there’s references to pop culture. ignoring that, except not really because thats. my biggest ick, my least favorite thing ever, but anyway. all things considered the stories itself were cute enough but the characters i found bland and uninteresting. i didnt really have any particular attachment to any of the stories but i enjoyed the third one the most. it was the least romance centered out of the three and i think that did it justice

Unique Stories

Three strangers heading to a convention in Toronto are stranded in rural Ontario, where a small town with a subtle kind of magic leads each to discover what he’s been searching for.




Ed Sinclair and his friends get stuck in Hopewell after their car breaks down. It’s snark at first sight when he meets local mechanic Lyn, but while they’re getting under each other’s skin, the town might show them a way into one another's hearts.




Rome Epstein is out and proud and clueless about love. He’s hosting a giant scavenger hunt at the convention, but ends up in Hopewell. When the town starts leaving him clues for its own scavenger hunt, he discovers a boy who could be the prize he’s been searching for.




Fielding Roy has a gift for seeing the past. His trip to reunite with friends hits an unexpected stop in Hopewell, but a long-lost love letter and two local boys give him a chance to do more than watch the past. This time, Fielding might be able to fix the present.

Three short stories, three chances to enjoy unique and unusual stories with LGBTQ characters that aren’t your typical. Not only are the stories different but the geek in me loved that all three characters are on the way to a science fiction convention. As a scifi fan myself, I loved this element. But there truly is a lot to love in these stories.

In the first story ‘Roadside Assistance’ by Jeffrey Ricker, the two characters don’t start out as friends in the beginning but exploring the town leads to friendship. While there are romantic elements, each story takes place over a couple days and so the romance is kept to potential only. The friendship is developed at a great pace and the plot is engaging as is the dialogue. 

In the next story, ‘The Scavenger Hunt’ by J. Marshall Freeman, we meet Rome who is different from the others around him but the boy he meets is equally distant from those around him. When the pair meets, they find common ground. The fact that they find commonalities makes the story fun and interesting. Again, I really like that the pair like each other but start as friends and we only see the potential beginning of a relationship. 

Like the previous two, the story of ‘Hope Echoes’ by ‘Nathan Burgoine is all about the friendship that Fielding Roy develops with two new friends in Hopewell. The boys help Fielding get a lost letter to its rightful owner and in the process, the friendship shows a possibility for romance between the three. 

I like that the romance is light, it is realistic that none of the characters try to maintain a relationship after only two days but get to know each other and find a friendship amongst their troubles. 

If you like friendship and unusual romances, this is the novel for you. The stories are short but are complete, well paced, and engaging. 

Rating: 5 out of 5 left turns.

Thank you to NetGalley and the authors for a free ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I quite enjoyed this trio of YA novellas -- I'd say it's two romances and a romance-adjacent friendmance. In each story a kid (or kids) on their way to an SFF con gets temporarily stranded in Hopewell, a small town that has a way of bringing people into contact with who or what they need. Each has supernatural elements -- definitely warm, cozy, wants you to have hot cocoa and all the snuggles supernatural, not creepy, scary supernatural.

Recommended for teens who like warm fuzzy love stories, especially ones who want to see their geeky, geocaching, discord-chatting selves reflected on paper.

I really enjoyed this book.
i liked how each character had there own secrets but the town has some sort of magic that helps them deal with what they are going through.
keeps you reading with every page turned.

This is an adorable set of three short stories that all have a similar premise: a boy in his late teens is driving to Toronto for a con, and gets sidetracked in the small town of Hopewell for a short period during the same weekend.

Hopewell is a lovely little town with pieces of magical realism, and the residents are kind and friendly. The linked stories are charming and very gentle stories of nerdy queer romance and desire.

<i>Three Left Turns to Nowhere</i> is a collection of three novellas set in the same universe over the same couple of days by three different authors: Jeffrey Ricker, J. Marshall Freeman, and ‘Nathan Burgoine. Each story follows a different set of characters involved in Toronto SciCon who are made to stop in Hopewell, a small town in rural Ontario, on their way. There’s a sense of magic in the town that brings each of them to something that they were missing in life, and two of them to romance.

I loved each of the stories of this book. The first one was sweet, the second felt very real in terms of what it is like to be a young queer person today, and the final one explored grief and holding on to the past in such an incredible way. I was expecting the three stories to converge at the end, but whilst it’s clear that some of the characters will meet – Ed in the first dating Lyn who is best friends with the couple Logan and Josh in the final story, for instance, and hints at seeing other characters in passing in the second – there is no finale to tie the three together, and I enjoyed that in how it reflects life. There are people who you will be similar to who you will potentially cross paths with, but who equally may just pass you by in close proximity.

I also loved the magic of Hopewell and the way it’s just how Hopewell is to the residents – although it’s not without its sceptics, such as Lyn. It was interesting to see how it manifested in different ways in the different stories, and I especially loved the idea of the Echoes that Fielding can see and how the story unfolds around them. The epilogue of the final story can still make me cry thinking about it, and it’s that story that elevated the book to a five star review for me (it was a solid 4.5 stars before that).

I would say there is one risk that you take in reading this book: I guarantee at the end that you will be craving a grilled cheese sandwich, sad about the fact that you will never experience Hopewell’s most famous delicacy.

The contents of “Shared World” short story or novella anthologies, with multiple authors working ostensibly in the same setting, can be notoriously hit/miss depending on factors as varied as the depth and breadth of the world-building before the authors start on their own stories, how all of that information is communicated from editors to authors, faithful to the shared setting the individual authors are. Typically, the more writers working in the setting the more likely it is to find “outlier” stories that don’t fit the setting or match the mood of the majority of the stories in the anthology. I’m happy to be able to say that Three Left Turns to Nowhere, a collection of novellas all set in the magical small town of Hopewell, is far more hit than miss despite, or perhaps because of, the quite different tones of the novellas. What all three stories have in common is the set-up of a slightly grumpy out-of-towner stranded in Hopewell meeting a local (or locals) who help lift the out-of-towner’s mood.

Jeffrey Ricker’s “Roadside Assistance” is a great lead-off: a sweet meet-cute of a romance between the grumpy out-of-towner (Ed) and a friendly local mechanic (Lyn) that doesn’t let the grumpy guy stay grumpy for too long. The attraction between the characters is clear from the start and nudged along by forces both human (Lyn’s BFF Josh) and not (a local ghost that only Lyn can see). I could try to count the number of times I found myself smiling at a geeky exchange or adorable moment, but there were too many. Ricker also does a wonderful job setting up the shared world in which these stories operate: by the end of the story I had a solid mental image of the “downtown” of Hopewell, a good sense of the character of the townspeople as a whole, and a total acceptance of the town’s subtle magic and how it works.

“The Scavenger Hunt” by J. Marshall Freeman is still a romance, but not as sweet meet-cute as Ricker’s. It’s a bit darker – homophobia rears its ugly head early in the story and stays a threat throughout in a way that doesn’t quite fit with the other two stories herein – but still centers a budding romance between an out-of-towner (activist Rome) and a local (artist Darcy). I liked the pacing of the story, I liked the way the town’s magic expresses itself (by sending Rome on the same type of scavenger hunt he’s designing for the Con all these out-of-towners are on their way to), and I loved Darcy’s found-object sculpture art. In fact, I loved Darcy – awkward, artistic, possibly neurodivergent Darcy – from the moment he’s introduced. Unfortunately, I can’t say the same for Rome, who I found self-centered beyond likeability even at the end of the story. (Your opinion, of course, may vary.)

The third novella, “Hope Echoes” by ‘Nathan Burgoine, doesn’t center romance for the lead character at all but still hinges the plot on one. The out-of-towner in the equation is Fielding, who can see echoes of the past, and the locals are adorable boyfriends who show him around town and help him resolve a mystery he’s stumbled into thanks to the echoes he can see. The romance is one that occurred well before any of the young men in the story were born, and I won’t spoil how the mystery of the love letter is resolved other than to say there’s a happy conclusion for all involved. The fun of this story is Fielding’s growing friendship with Josh and Logan, a nice interpretation of the way the town’s magic works. The town recognizes that what Fielding needs isn’t a boyfriend or romance – it’s supportive friends and a way out of his depression.

As one would expect, characters from one story pop up in the background or are mentioned in the other stories. But the authors also do an excellent job populating the story with interesting local characters: bed and breakfast owner Candace, used good store owner Mrs. Tremblay; Lyn’s mother; Josh’s father; Logan’s grandmother and her fellow residents at a nursing home; and auto shop owner Sloan and her wife the town Mayor. They make the shared setting of the stories consistent.

I do hope this isn’t the last we’ll see of the magical town of Hopewell. In fact, I’m putting in a request right now for a second anthology with perhaps a focus on lesbian characters – and please, Bold Stroke Books, let one of those be the story of how Sloan and Dina met!

I received this book for free from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.