If the Fates Allow

A Short Story

By: Rainbow Rowell

Narrated by: Rebecca Lowman

After a long, lonely year, two people stumble toward each other in this holiday short story by the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Eleanor & Park and Fangirl.

Social distancing came easily to Reagan. Maybe a little too easily. She’s always liked people better from afar. But Reagan doesn’t want her grandpa to be alone for Christmas this year - he’s already spent too much time on his own in 2020. So she heads back to her hometown with a dish of holiday Jell-O salad, hoping they can have a little normalcy. Hoping it will be safe...

She isn’t expecting to run into the boy next door. Mason is all grown up now. He’s considerate. He’s funny. He doesn’t mind how prickly Reagan is - he maybe even likes it. And it makes Reagan feel like her defenses are falling. She needs her defenses, doesn’t she? In a time when six feet is close enough, how long can they keep their distance?

©2021 Rainbow Rowell. (P)2021 Brilliance Publishing, Inc., all rights reserved.

Critic reviews

“Narrator Rebecca Lowman captures common feelings of uncertainty and dread in her narration of Rowell's pandemic romance, set in Nebraska. Lowman's husky, drawn-out voice creates a memorable portrayal of Reagan (from Rowell's FANGIRL).... Lowman faithfully reproduces Reagan's pugnacious, resentful thoughts about her pandemic-ignoring extended family and her interactions with her grandfather's neighbor, Mason, who turns out to be Reagan's high school acquaintance.... Lowman captures Rowell's tone and spotlights the surreal encounter that jumpstarts Reagan and Mason's romance.” (AudioFile Magazine)

Loved the little update on Cath and Levi!

3.5 stars
I was super excited for If the Fates Allow and was excited to listen to the audiobook too. Narrator Rebecca Lowman has also narrated some of my favorite Rainbow Rowell books (Fangirl, Attachments, Landline) and I love how her voice and pacing pair with Rowell's words. Reagan was such an interesting character in Fangirl and I was intrigued to see present day Reagan. I was slightly disappointed to see how fearful Reagan was of Covid- she was such a badass in Fangirl that I expected to more of a "Damn the man" attitude and some eye rolling from her. Nevertheless, I still enjoyed listening to this, and especially enjoyed getting a little Levi and Cath update.

amazing picture of life during covid times

I love rainbow novels didn't expected to be an short story with covid times as setting. I related with Reagan in so many levels.

I’m a fan!

I will read and/or listen to anything Rainbow Rowell writes and have yet to be disappointed. This so eloquently captured a dire time during the pandemic and left me wanting to hear more about the two main characters.

oh my god

rainbow rowell can make me fall in love with anyone and she did it again. another story of hers to add to my christmas reread pile along with Landline and Fangirl <3

I loved this!

This story was great! I love that there is a story that keeps the characters from Fan Girl alive. My only complaint is it was much to short.

Just what this Midwestern progressive expat needed

This story is perfect for anyone who has understood that leaving a Midwestern home immediately after high school was necessary to their stability and authenticity -- yet cannot stop "going back for more" at holidays. The global pandemic exposed the vast differences in world view for families like the protagonists' -- and my own. This story expresses the needs, longings and losses in a touching manner.

A short story

Rebecca you read this very well but you need to work on voices if you are going to do them otherwise please just read it. The story is just a bit predictable I don’t know if it is because we are living it in real life or what. Overall it was an ok story.

Excellent

Really cute, really short, Christmas story that takes place over Christmas 2020 and 2021 - and extremely relevant to present day (C-word protocols, quarantine, masking, etc.).

About a girl who has been paranoid about the current world and how her family hasn't been too safe, so she and her grandfather, who do take it all seriously, are able to be together, just the 2 of them, at Christmas in 2020. She and the neighbour's son, who she went to high school with, bond over jello salad on the back deck in the cold and snow, and chat.

A year later, Christmas 2021, when the world is in a much worse place, the family has been through a whole lot, but they are all together, the two meet up again on the back deck after Christmas dinner, and continue to bond over jello salad again.

I like that Rainbow Rowell was willing to write a story about the current world and how it has truly affected families and how some people were unwilling to follow protocols and got sick (or even unwilling to believe it, and spreading conspiracy theories), and how they couldn't properly spend holidays together, and how others safely could, and the impact the past year has had - all in this nice, 70 minute little snippet of 2 friends chatting over some shared jello!

Ok, but would've preferred less Covid

This was a nope for me. The writing wasn't bad and I actually liked the characters and the premise, but having the story be 100% focused on Covid wasn't something that appealed to me. After living in this world for nearly 2 years, I wanted more of an escape. The heroine was too fixated and anxiety ridden with the state of the world, which was understandable, but like I said before I would prefer more of an escape.
With that said, I would've appreciated more of the characters and less of Covid. Still appreciated the performance of the narrator.

cathartic

this was the most relatable listen in a cold world. I want more time with these characters.