My Bookish Confessions: I Sometimes Kinda Like Love Triangles!
There are some tropes in books that I kind of like. Now don't get me wrong, if I had a splurge of love triangles, by the third book in a row, I'd definitely be getting tired of it. But love triangles and I have a love-hate relationship. Sometimes I love them. Sometimes I hate them. There are times I can see that yeah, the heroine (for the most part, as I've yet to read a book with a guy struggling to choose between two women or two other guys or whatever!) is struggling to choose between two guys and she does care for them both in different ways. Other times I feel like we're just thrust into a love triangle for the sake of having a love triangle.
Now I'll tell you who writes amazing love triangles, and her name is Jennifer L. Armentrout! Who could forget the epic love triangle we were faced with in The Dark Elements trilogy! We were all divided over Zayne and Roth. Don't get me wrong, I liked Zayne, but I felt like there were things about him that I didn't like as much, hence my endless voting (or perhaps it was just a one time vote, I can't remember, lol!) for Roth!
I think her Covenant series had a love triangle as well. For the longest time, Alex was crushing hard on Aiden, but it seemed like it was never meant to be. So she started hanging out with Seth and thus the love triangle begins! Naturally, we all know how that turned out. I still need to get going on Seth's books!! But once again, I found myself liking Aiden more for Alex. Though obvious Seth redeems himself in all our eyes by the end. And yeah...I REALLY need to start his series already! Hopefully soon!
So there are good love triangles, the ones where you feel that pull towards both guys. Though you likely have a favorite one in mind, but you still see the good in the other guy too! I truly didn't know how The Dark Elements was going to turn out! The votes were really close too apparently!
And since I rambled for enough with this trope, I figure I can save other tropes for future posts! But I'd like to know how you guys feel about love triangles. Do you love em, hate em? Or like me and you sometimes might sorta like them but are loathe to admit it? ;)
Interesting! I don’t think I’ve ever liked a love triangle. I either hate them or am indifferent to them. This is probably because I don’t like books where the romance is the focus. Love triangles tend to take over and become the main focus of the story.
ReplyDeleteAj @ Read All The Things!
I can really enjoy a love triangle, when it's done well. One of my favourites is from Cynthia Hand's Unearthly trilogy. I still get emotional when I think about it, because Hand did such a great job of building up both relationships!
ReplyDeleteOh I love love triangles! I agree that there are some that just feel forced and unnecessary, but it is actually a draw for me when I see that a book has a love triangle because they have the potential to add lots of heart-wrenching emotion!
ReplyDeleteAs a general rule, I detest love triangles. Most of the time, I don't understand how the heroine gets one interested party let alone two. I don't like the indecisive back and forth of it all.
ReplyDeleteBut there are times when it works to the benefit of the story. Black Iris by Leah Raeder has a true love triangle where all parties involved are in love with each other. And in the novel One & Only by Viv Daniels the lead girl is one of two girls the guy she likes has to choose between which was different for me to read about.
(Also, Team Roth all the way! Zayne bored me :P)
I loved the Dark Elements trilogy too. I agree that a love triangle can be great when it's done well---when it's not, it can be torture. I'll confess that I still haven't read the third book in the trilogy, though. Unlike you (and, maybe most people?) I'm Team Zayne. I actually really loved Roth in the first book, but then Zayne won me over. I looked back at my review and was reminded that I mostly didn't like who Layla started to turn into with Roth---Armentrout could turn that around in the third book, though. Guess I need to read it!!
ReplyDeleteNicole @ Feed Your Fiction Addiction