Born at Midnight – jenacidebybibliophile

Love comes in ALL shapes and sizes…

Especially TRIANGLES.

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~* 10 YA Book Love Triangles *~

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1. The Healer (The Healer series) by C.J. Anaya

Genre: YA/Fantasy

There’s no better way to start off a love triangle post then with a love triangle of EPIC proportions!

Step the f**k aside moody werewolves and sparkly vamps –

the Gods have arrived!

The Healer series tells the tale of two gods who basically fight over a girl who is prophesied to save the world. It switches between present tense and 1000 A.D., where our main character (Mikomi/Hope) learns that she is a reincarnated princess with extremely powerful healing abilities. She is prophesized to marry Masaru Katsu (Victor), the God of War, so they they may seal the veil that is bringing demons into the world…but NATURALLY she finds herself being pulled to Musubi (Tie), the God of Marriage.

The series is wonderful when it is in the flashbacks, and meh when it goes back to present times. BUT the flashbacks are SO incredible and captivating, packed with romance, action and detail, that reading the series just for that would be worth it.

My Pick: Team Musubi/Tie

(See my review here)

2. Throne of Glass (Throne of Glass series) by Sarah J. Maas

Genre: YA/Adult/Fantasy

Hold on to your panties, boys and girls!

SJM just walked into the building to confuse your heart and give you a dose of book-boyfriend that will NEVER be replicated in real life.

…sorry.

Throne of Glass is the downright AMAZING, WONDERFUL, EVERYTHING series that you need to get involved in if you STILL refuse to read it.

There are stacks on STACKS of love triangles in this colossal series, and they are heart-wrenching, raw and will make your heart implode inside your chest from all the feels.

There are practically 30 combinations of love interests and crushes in this series and it is…bloody fantastic. They’re exhausting, they’re passionate, they’re…

Just read them. You’ll understand.

My Pick: Team Rowan, Team Aedion, screw Chaol.

3. The Best Lies by Sarah Lyu

Genre: YA/Contemporary/Thriller

Now this isn’t your TYPICAL love triangle, but I think it more than deserves its spot on this list.

The Best Lies is about Remy Tsai and the story of how her best friend ended up shooting her boyfriend and killing him. It switches between Remy being questioned by the police and dealing with the aftermath, with a bunch of flashbacks to moments with her boyfriend Jack and her best friend Elise.

As I said, this is an unconventional love triangle. You might think you know where it will end up, but you’d be wrong. It is beautifully written, will take your breath away, and then sprinkle dirt on top of you as you slowly begin to die.

Ugh. I’m still reeling.

My pick: Just be single, girl.

(See my review here)

4. Born at Midnight (Shadow Falls series) by C.C. Hunter

Genre: YA/Fantasy/Paranormal

Born at Midnight is kind of your typical teen fantasy love triangle series. Kylie Galen finds herself sent to a campy for “troubled youth”, but really the troubled youth is just a bunch of teen werewolves, shapeshifters, vampires, witches, and fairies.

This love triangle is between Kylie, obviously, Derek (half-fae) and Lucas (werewolf). There is drama, there is secret kisses and tumultuous past feelings and there are EVEN countless attempts at our main character being killed!

How romantic.

My Pick: Lucas

5. The Selection (The Selection series) by Kiera Cass

Genre: YA/Romance/Fantasy

The Selection: It’s like The Bachelor for the YA book obsessed boys and girls who have an affinity to ball gowns and castles.

The quest to LITERALLY marry your Prince Charming.

Thirty-five eligible girls are picked around the kingdoms to compete to win the hear of Prince Maxon. But our main character, America, has no desire to be in the running because she is in love with a boy named Aspen, who is in a caste below her.

This turns into a love triangle that I found myself conflicted with who to root for. The “down to earth” love from her past, or the regal and charming prince in her present?

My Pick: Aspen, but it’s a tough call!

6. A Court of Thorns and Roses (ACOTAR series) by Sarah J. Maas

Genre: YA/Adult/Fantasy/Romance

Don’t act so surprised.

You knew I was going to put ACOTAR in this list.

It is THE love triangle!

ACOTAR is a loose beauty in the beast retelling about a human girl named Feyre who kills a wolf in order to provide for her poor and less than helpful family. But then a Fae beast show up at her house, demanding she live out her days in his territory for taking his friend’s life.

That isn’t even a smidge of the devastating beauty and sorrowful wrath that this book is.

But a love triangle LIKE NO OTHER is filled within these magnificent pages, and I think it is the best one I have EVER come across.

My Pick: The NAGC…and Cassian, even though that doesn’t count ❤

7. Wicked Lovely (Wicked Lovely series) by Melissa Marr

Genre: YA/Fantasy/Paranormal

Wicked Lovely is a fae series that showcases the darker and more cruel side of the whimsical creatures you love to read about.

Aislinn is a human that has the ability to see faeries, even though she wish she didn’t. She has spent her whole life trying to avoid them, but suddenly, all her hard work is for not…and she is thrust into the thicket of these sneaky creatures.

This love triangle involves Aislinn, Seth and Keenan. Seth is a human friend of Aislinn’s and Keenan is Fae, but also the Summer King. Though USUALLY I always go for the mysterious, arrogant, dark creature type of love interest…I can’t help but like Seth a little more.

Well, at least in the first book.

My Pick: Seth

8. The Host (The Host series) by Stephanie Meyer

Genre: YA/Adult/Fantasy/Romance

The Host is yet another lusty love triangle from Stephanie Meyer, but one that has WAY less cringe and a little more flare.

Aliens has taken over Earth, inhabiting the bodies of humans. Melanie Stryder is no playing host to an alien creature, but she refuses to go quietly. Hellbent on finding her brother, the battle for control of Melanie’s body begins.

So this love triangle is really more of a square, but you get the idea. Melanie is still in her body, but so is an alien. They can communicate with each other and…it’s just odd. Melanie is in love with Jared, the guy she was with before she became a host. But the “alien” inside Melanie, named Wanderer, begins to have feelings for Ian…but also Jared due to Melanie’s memories.

I know…sounds weird.

But sooooooo good!

My Pick: Ian, surprisingly

9. Red Queen (Red Quuen series) by Victoria Aveyard

Genre: YA/Fantasy/Dystopian

Not my favorite series ever, but there is still a quote from it that I LOVE.

“I don’t miss her eyes flicker back to the notch, where half my heart sleeps. And then to the forest, where the rest wanders.”

Red Queen is about a world that is divded by the color of blood you have, red or silver. Red are the lower class, with silver being the high who possess powers. Mare is a red blood, but eventually begins working in the palace, and eventually she discovers that she has powers of her own.

Blah, blah, blah.

The triangle is this: Mare, Cal and Maven. Be aware, this is one of those very lonnggg drawn-out love triangles. The ones where little things are said, slight looks and movements are made, but not really anything of consequence happens for a while. It’s just a meh triangle for me, but a triangle nonetheless.

My Pick: Nobody

10. Splintered (Splintered series) by A.G. Howard

Genre: YA/Fantasy/Retelling

Splintered is the first in the Alice in Wonderland Retelling trilogy called Splintered, and follows Alyssa Gardner, a descendant of Alice Liddell who finds herself in Wonderland. But this Wonderland isn’t the cutesy little place with a couple of tricks and sassy characters roaming around. It is dark, gritty and full of countless dangers!

This love triangle involves Alyssa, her best friend Jeb and the mysterious and alluring Morpheus of Wonderland. This love triangle was super one-sided for me, inthe sense that I was rooting for Morpheus the ENTIRE time! Jeb was so blah and boring. Like stale bread, or unseasoned chicken.

My Pick: Team Morpheus, ALL. THE. WAY.

(See my review here)

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Stay Witchy ❤

Bookoutlet.com – Shadow Falls: The Beginning

Genre: YA/Fiction/Fantasy

Plot: One night Kylie Galen finds herself at the wrong party, with the wrong people, and it changes her life forever. Her mother ships her off to Shadow Falls―a camp for troubled teens, but it soon becomes clear that the kids at Shadow Falls are far from ordinary. They’re supernatural―learning to harness their powers, control their magic and live in the normal world. Kylie’s never felt normal, but surely she doesn’t belong here with a bunch of paranormal freaks either. Or does she? They insist Kylie is one of them, and that she was brought here for a reason…if she can only figure out why, and what her burgeoning powers mean.

As if life wasn’t complicated enough, enter Derek and Lucas. Derek’s a half Fae who’s determined to be her boyfriend, and Lucas is a smokin’ hot werewolf with whom Kylie shares a secret past. Both Derek and Lucas couldn’t be more different, but they both have a powerful hold on her heart. As Kylie struggles to make sense of her feelings and her new abilities, the dark side of the supernatural world emerges and makes life a whole lot harder. An evil enemy lurking in the shadows is about to threaten everything she holds dear…and bring her closer to her destiny.

Opinion: YES! Just when I thought I was running out of great fantasy books and thinking that I wasn’t going to find another great series, I come across this little gem. I had bought this “2 Books in 1” version of Shadow Falls from Bookoutlet.com quite a few months ago, but for some reason I have waited until now to read the series. I can’t tell you guys how sad I am that I waited this long to start it. This series has me hooked in that way where your family is like “Sweetie, I think you have a problem” but you just keep saying “No, no I swear I have this under control. I don’t have a problem, it’s just recreational”. Yeah…that’s what this series has done to me. I’m comparing book obsessions to drug addictions. No big deal.

Just to clarify though, this version includes book 1, Born at Midnight, and book 2, Awake at Dawn, in the series. I could have done these reviews separately, but I honestly was reading through this series so quickly that I didn’t have time to stop. Addictions, remember?

Though Kylie Galen assumes she is a regular teenager going through typical teenage problems, she soon finds her life getting way more complicated. While dealing with her parents’ divorce and her boyfriend Trey dumping her, Kylie finds herself in a rut where she feels like her world is collapsing around her. To make matters worse, she has a tendency to wake up in the dead of night screaming and there seems to be a man she refers to as “soldier dude” following her around. Not only is the soldier stalking her, but it appears that she is the only one that can see him. After a party that Kylie attends gets shut down by the cops and drugs are found on the premises, Kylie’s mother insists that she be sent to a camp for troubled youth per the request by Kylie’s therapist.

Soon after Kylie’s arrival at Shadow Falls camp, she is told that the camp is actually for gifted supernatural teens and not troubled youth. The camp consists of werewolves, witches, shapeshifters, vampires, and Fae. But to make things even stranger for Kylie, the camp leader, Holiday, confesses to Kylie that they actually have no idea what supernatural group she falls into. The reader follows Kylie as she acclimates to a world where fairytale creatures are real, while also trying to find out what she is. To make matters worse, Kylie finds herself stuck on an emotional roller coaster with a Fae named Derek and a werewolf named Lucas, who just so happens to be a neighbor from her past. As she learns more about her fellow supernaturals, unknown powers start to emerge in Kylie and she finds out that her frightening night terrors are more than just bad dreams.

I know this may sound like a typical fantasy series that has an annoying love triangle tangling up the plot and making it too mushy, but I assure you…well, okay yeah it’s kind of like that. Though I will say that this author has done a WONDERFUL job of making sure the story-line and plot has more substance than just a dramatic teenage love triangle. Something about this series makes me want to shut the world out and just read for the rest of my life. The characters are unique and each have their very own likeable quirks, there is a twist on these supernaturals that differentiates them from the typical myths, and there is a wonderful quest that the reader gets to take with the main character as she tries to discover what she is. These books are evenly paced but really give a lot of detail and dialogue to give the reader a vivid picture of everything that is happening. I like that Kylie has many adolescent moments that keep her character seeming realistic for her age, but she never gets to the point of being annoying or too dramatic.

Our two main male characters are Lucas and Derek, who make up the love triangle with Kylie. Usually in these types of stories, the author always seems to make a decision to make one character highly mysterious and macho while making the other goofy and boring. I mean think about it: Edward and Jacob, Morpheus and Jeb, Jace and Simon. There is an obvious Alpha in every mix, and let’s face it, we all know a girl can’t resist a bad boy when her life is in turmoil. It’s just a fact, we have problems 😉 . The interesting thing about this series is that though I once again favor the “alpha” male character in this story, which is Lucas, I keep finding myself not completely hating Derek. I think this might be the first series EVER where I actually like both male characters and where one isn’t overly annoying me. That shows me that the author put a lot of time into her character development to ensure that the reader felt Kylie’s struggle between having feelings for the two, and for that, I love this author even more.

I think this series has captured my attention so much because there is CONSTANT action and excitement happening. As Kylie gets closer to finding an answer to what she is, more dangerous obstacles jump in front of her and it shows the strength that the character has. The author also gives the reader a closer look into the other supernaturals lives by the roommates that Kylie lives with as well. Miranda is a witch that has a tendency to mess up her spells, and Della is a vampire with a spunky and sarcastic attitude. Holiday is also a prominent character in this story. Though she is the camp leader (director? Counselor? Whatever) she creates a strong bond to Kylie because of a gift that they share. Throw Derek, Lucas, and the shapeshifter named Perry into the mix, and Kylie has a friend in every supernatural group. You go girl.

There really isn’t too much I can say about these two books without giving the entire read away. I tried my best to give you guys a more in depth summary of what it was about, so hopefully that persuades you to give this AMAZING series a read. I am already on the book 4, and it is actually in another “2 books in 1” installment called Shadow Falls: The Next Chapter. I am glued to this series and am SO GLAD I found it on Bookoutlet.com, because it was only $2.49. Yes, you read that correctly. GO GET IT!!

4 Stars