Thank you for the great response last week on this new meme!
Today's post is dedicated to my awesome Love Triangle Free Zone ladies.
Thanks for giving me a place to rant when I need to get out my anti-triangle aggression.
Today's post is dedicated to my awesome Love Triangle Free Zone ladies.
Thanks for giving me a place to rant when I need to get out my anti-triangle aggression.
Things I Dislike About Love Triangles (2)
When you loved watching a romance develop in the first book of a series and are excited to get back to the couple, only to discover that a love triangle pops up unexpectedly in the
second book.
The. Worst.
Sadly, I've had to abandon several series this year after discovering that a love triangle has been added in book 2. I just can't take it any more. I also don't understand why this happens again and again!? I'd rather see a couple mature together, than deal with a third party. The love triangle almost always is used as a device for tension, but it just ends up ruining the entire book for me. And very often makes me frustrated with the heroine. I'm tired of dodging them constantly, but I see no end in sight.
Does this bug you too?
What's something you dislike about love triangles?
YAAAAS!!! And it's the worst when it's a freaking duology :S Like wtf? Is this how you treat your fans who have stuck by you and rooted for the great guy you introduced in the first book? The reviewers who said they're glad that there's no LT in sight? Well, eff you, honestly! >.< I'm tired of this. Just staaahp, please. Come up with original concepts to create tension and leave those triangles alone and do not bring them to ruin out parteey :(
ReplyDelete*and as for the reviewers who've said they're glad for no LT? That was in almost every review I read (and I read a lot of them for that particular book). You can probably guess which one I'm talking about as we just spoke of it in the LTFZ group*
DeleteThat seems to be the newer trend -- "Hey, let's add conflict to the second book (so as to avoid a saggy middle) by throwing another love interest into the mix! People love that!" Um, no. No, we don't.
ReplyDeleteI think I know what book exactly inspired this post, Lauren, and I couldn't agree more with you. There are a million different ways in which you can create tension in a book without the need of a love triangle. Unfortunately, only a few authors know how to tackle tension in a book well without love triangles. Have you read The Perilous Sea yet? I think you're going to appreciate Sherry Thomas for that book!
ReplyDeleteAt this point, I feel like love triangles have become an unnecessary trope like the vampire romance phase was. It's everywhere and honestly making me want to not start any series whatsoever. It seriously needs to go away.
I'm glad I'm not the only one who feels like this. I had to not start a number of series because they had a love triangle in it. It especially annoys me if I find a series that has a good plot line and when I go to buy or read them I find out they have a love triangle, it just ruins the series for me.
ReplyDeleteI think this is the absolute worst--and most cowardly--trope an author can pull on a reader. I feel as if it must be easier to write meaningless angst with a love triangle than work through the pitfalls of a normal relationship. Of course romance is hard but no one said being an author is easy and I lose so much respect for author's who resort to this. I've never seen this trope pulled in a manner that made me believe it was necessary to the storyline. It wasn't, it isn't, and it won't be. (It just makes me so mad, as you can probably tell.) *sigh* Loving this meme, still hating the love triangles, though. ;)
ReplyDeleteYES TO THIS.
ReplyDeleteLike that whole thing with the sequel to Uninvited?? So not called for.
This is one of the things I absolutely despise about love triangles. After reading a whole book free of one, you don't want to read a sequel that introduces one and at this point I give up. I refuse to read it.. or if I do it'll only be because I know who she/he chooses and I approve of the choice. -.-
Love triangles need to die.
Rashika @ The Social Potato
YES! I hate unexpected love triangles that pop up in the second book. You know what else I've noticed? If I liked the MC in the first book, but then a love triangle happens in the second, I automatically starting disliking the MC to the point where I hate her (or him but it's usually a her) by the end of the book. She becomes whiny, idiotic and selfish. And that may not be the case, but I'm so biased against love triangles I can't enjoy anything that goes on. I've been steering clear from them for a while now, and I'm a much happy reader!
ReplyDeleteThe problem with adding a love triangle to the second book of a series is that not only does it mess up the second book, it retroactively destroys what might have been a fantastic first book. I wasn't going to name names, but then I decided, why not? I loved "Twilight", and one of the things I loved about it was the whole idea of Bella and Edward being soul mates. But when Meyers shoved Jacob Black in as a second love interest - and Bella ACTUALLY FELL IN LOVE WITH HIM!! - it completely destroyed the entire premise of the first book. How was I supposed to believe that Bella and Edward are some kind of for-all-eternity couple when she was able to fall in love with another guy? Now I can't even reread "Twilight" without rolling my eyes.
ReplyDeleteOkay, I will admit that this is pretty sneaky. Even as someone that doesn't mind a love triangle (my patience with them is actually lessening a little, I think they're getting a little sloppy?) I think it is a crude slap sometimes when I commit to a couple and then get broad-sided.
ReplyDeleteI will wear the button for this one. (:
Omg, I hate this so much! I loved Shatter Me, but then the sequel...ughh. D: If there's going to be a LT I would much rather have it pop up in book one so I save my time and just stay away from it, rather than getting investing in the couple.
ReplyDeleteThis is the worst. There is a book I just read this week that starts a trilogy and I'm so scared the author will do this in the second book. And yeah, I can't keep reading if that happens. It is sloppy and a cheap cop-out.
ReplyDeleteAh I just hate it.. thex come together in book one and all is good, but of COURSE There needs to be a Triangle in Book 2 - which basically leads nowhere!
ReplyDeleteWhile I hate it usually don#t drop the series and just be annoyed.. :)
Arg, this! This literally destroyed my enjoyment of Lauren Oliver's Delirium series. I still haven't finished it because of the love triangle in Pandemonium ):
ReplyDeleteI think this might be the worst of the worst because you're so completely blindsided. You have to wait pretty much all of book one for a couple to get together, but you're rooting for them, and they FINALLY make it work... only for a love triangle to be introduced in the next book. Really?! Can't authors write about more stable relationships? Don't they realize it's okay for a couple to, yes, have issues, but ones that they work through together? It's a much more fulfilling romance when we see a couple making progress. That's the stuff OTPs are made of.
ReplyDeleteYES. I feel like some books should come with love triangle warning labels!!
ReplyDelete-Scott Reads It!
I so agree with that it would make life so much easier if we know from the start it has a LT in it.
DeleteFuck this. Yesss. I so agree with you. <3 It was what I hate THE MOST about love triangles. It makes no sense. And it HURTS. And it makes me HATE the girl. So much. Grrr. Love triangles sucks :( Thank you for sharing sweetie. <3 You are awesome.
ReplyDeleteI HAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAATE THIS. Hate hate hate stabbity stab stab. This is why I so value slow burns. If a couple gets together in the first book, it seems almost GUARANTEED that one or both of them will have doubts and start flirting with someone else in the second book, and then I have to stab them. And I get that uncertainty and choice all factor into romance, but hey, why not let them look around BEFORE they enter a committed, spit-swapping relationship? AKA, keep it slow burn in book one and maybe even book two, and don't let their relationship be an established thing until REALLY late in the series as a reward to us faithful readers.
ReplyDeleteThis is exactly why I like stand-alones. I don't like a happy settled couple to be ruined with drama and angst making me hate the entire story.
ReplyDeleteI guess Archetype/Prototype introduced a love triangle in the second book but that couple wasn't happily settled in book one so I don't think it was the same.
This bothers me too!
ReplyDeleteMost definitely. It's often enough to keep me from continuing the series. :(
ReplyDeleteI like watching the skill of an author who can show the developing of a relationship past the *attraction* *butterflies* *first-physicality!* stage, working it's way toward intimacy. I see the introduction of the "alternate" as evidence the writer doesn't have that skill/depth. They have to write the same thing again, but with a different guy, because it's what they know how to do.
ReplyDeleteAnd, yeah, since I'm specifically looking for growth (preferably incremental), this cop-out really bugs me.
For the most I'm over love triangles. There are a few of them that I think actually work, but I hate it when boy 2 is obviously a distraction, and everyone knows who's the protagonist is going to end up with.
ReplyDeleteAnd also, to quote Johhny Depp, "If you love two people at the same time, choose the second one. If you really loved the first one, then you wouldn't have fallen in love with the second one".
YES. There's come a certain point where I can feel like I can sense a love triangle just due to how the romance is ending up in the first book. Honestly, I'm kind of surprised a triangle never developed in the Divergent series due to this, to be honest.
ReplyDeleteThis goes back to my main reason against love triangles: author laziness in engineering romantic conflict. There are so many other ways this could be done!
I completely agree, I think most love triangles that pop up in the second book are just plot devices to add tension, and, if you ask me, are just an author being a bit lazy. The other thing I hate in book 2 that authors do is to separate the new couple. Again, lazy. We root for them to get together, they finally do at the end of book 1 (usually) and while I understand it might be a bit boring to see them happy together, why not show the realities of a relationship under stressful times, getting to know the other person and dealing with the reality versus fantasy, etc? Instead, stupid love triangle or even just having the couple separated. We want to see them together!!!!! ~Pam
ReplyDeleteI hate this so much that I check out the next book summary ( sometimes spoiling the ending of book one) just to avoid it. It's a cheap cop out, authors need to stop - seriously!
ReplyDelete