Reading order
| # | Title | Published | Author | Buy on Amazon |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Almost Midnight | 2017 | Rainbow Rowell | Buy |
| 2 | The Prince and the Troll | 2020 | Rainbow Rowell | N/A |
| 3 | Hazel and Gray | 2020 | Rainbow Rowell | N/A |
| 4 | Scattered Showers | 2022 | Rainbow Rowell | Buy |
| 5 | The Princess Game | 2020 | Rainbow Rowell | N/A |
| 6 | The Cleaners | 2020 | Rainbow Rowell | N/A |
| 7 | The Wickeds | 2020 | Rainbow Rowell | N/A |
Almost Midnight (2017) pairs two of Rowell’s best-known short pieces: Midnights, which follows two friends over four New Year’s Eves as they slowly work out whether they want to be more than that, and Kindred Spirits, the World Book Day Star Wars story from 2016. The two stories share a preoccupation with friendship turning into something else, and together they make a satisfying short read.
Scattered Showers (2022) expanded the collection significantly, bringing together nine stories including new work written for the volume. The title comes from the idea that love stories arrive unpredictably, in different forms, at different stages of life, and the collection reflects that range. Some stories feature characters from Rowell’s novels, others are standalone, and the mix gives a sense of her range as a writer of short fiction alongside her novels.
The Faraway stories, published individually in 2020 as part of an Amazon Publishing project, also appear in this category. Each one is a fairy tale retelling by a different author, with Rowell contributing The Prince and the Troll, a modern reworking of a bridge troll story built around the unlikely friendship between a man and the creature living under his bridge.