Happy Saturday everyone! We’re continuing our fun bi-weekly meme What Does The Bookworm Say? with this week’s topic: Love Triangles- Love ’em or Hate ’em?
Be sure to check out my friends Nicole at The Reader’s Antidote, Crystal at Elegantly Bound Book Reviews and Thuy at Nite Lite Book Reviews to see what they said!
Hmmm, tough one
I think it really depends on how it’s done. I’ve read some pretty ridiculous love triangles in the past where it’s more of a marketing ploy than an actual challenge for the characters. I’ve also read some romantic, swooning love triangles!
For me, a good love triangle will have:
Two love interests that are both different from each other yet equally supportive to the main character. I want each of them to be good for the main character in different ways. I hate it when one is so obviously bad and one perfect. It makes it less interesting and I usually roll my eyes because of course we know which one the main character should end up with! I want some intrigue. I want to debate over which love interest is best.
Some real back and forth. Each love interest should be interesting enough for them to be an amazing character if you took the love interest part of the story away. I want the main character to be drawn to both options genuinely. Who each is, what each represents. What life/road will each lead them down? Put some feeling behind it, people!
Choice! I want the main character to choose the love interest in the end. (Yes, Hunger Games. I’m talking to you.) None of this, well one of the love interest dies/turns evil/vanishes/does something horrible that will take them completely out of the running. Again, I want the main character to make a decision and choose which one she/he loves. And why.
Favorite love triangles?
Evie/Jack/Death from The Poison Princess series– Yeah. Still not sure who I want Evie to be with. I mean, they are both amazing/handsome/dangerous and deadly. You know. What every post apocalyptic girl wants in a Major Arcana man.
Alina/Mal/Darkling/Sturmhond from The Greisha trilogy – more than a triangle yet still perfectly well done. The triangle changes as the series goes making it
Kate/Henry/Calliope/Persephone from The Goddess Test series – Jealousy, love, lust and evil abound. Of course, it’s obvious I want Kate and Henry together, but the sheer evil that is Calliope keeps the Love Triangle interesting and the heartbreak that happens in Book Two broke my heart too.
Nora/Soren/Wes from The Original Sinners series – Nora is torn between her Master Soren and her lovely, vanilla college student roommate Wes. I wasn’t sure who she would end up with till the very end. And honestly, each character is so wonderful, I would have been happy either way!
Rose/Dimitri/Adrian from Vampire Academy series- Team Adrian or Team Dimitri? Very very hard to choose!!
Georgina/Seth/Maddie from Georgina Kincaid series – Love Love Love. I’m pretty sure Richelle Mead knows how to do a proper love triangle. Especially because Seth and Georgina are so totally flawed.
I am not going to mention bad love triangles because once I get started, I won’t be able to stop. But you get the point.
Do you like Love Triangles?
I totally agree with all of your criteria! And I love your examples. For me, it was always Team Dmitri. I loved Adrian as a character (which is obvious since I love him in the Bloodlines series), but never for Rose. On that note, I really need to start the Poison Princess series.
Um, PLEASE? I love that series, and yet none of my friends are reading it yet! AH!!
I totally agree and hate it when it’s so obvious that one is perfect for her and the other guys is just there to add drama. Though I love Wes, I never thought he was right for Nora. He’s too vanilla, man. And I have to read the Goddess Test Books. You love them so much.
I do I do I do! 😉
I forgot to say that I totally agree about making a choice. They set up this triangle so that it’s “supposed” to be hard to choose and then they take the choice away. Total cop out.
AGREED!!!
I don’t like love triangles. I always feel bad for the person who ultimately gets left out!
Pam, totally agree. I always feel bad for them too. Unless they get their own HEA with someone else or a spin off series 🙂