The Book Blogger Hop was originally created by Jennifer @ Crazy-For-Books in March 2010 and ended on December 31, 2012. With Jennifer’s permission, Billy @ Ramblings of a Coffee Addicted Writer relaunched the hop on February 15, 2013. Each week the hop will start on a Friday and end the following Thursday. There will be a weekly prompt featuring a book related question. The hop’s purpose is to give bloggers a chance to follow other blogs, learn about new books, befriend other bloggers, and receive new followers to their own blog.
Question:
What’s your opinion on love triangle plots?
(submitted by Julie @ JadeSky)
Answer:
Love triangles…hmmm…there aren’t any that stand out to me from the books I’ve read recently. Now, tv shows and movies are another thing. I remember many from tv, and I have to say, I have a love/hate relationship with them. The one from Reign – the tv show about Mary Queen of Scotts that was on from 2013 to 2017 – is one that I still haven’t gotten over. I’m not talking about the Frances – Bash – Mary triangle – though ((swoon))
I’m referring to the one that came later – the Mary – Lola – Frances triangle. It absolutely broke my heart—so much lasting pain. My heart is breaking all over again just thinking about it.
So, in terms of plot, I think love triangles can be a very powerful tool by creating lots of tension and suspense and eliciting strong emotional responses. And we all know how fast that makes the pages fly. As with all plot devices, though – it only works if it is well-written!
Tessa Talks Books 
Great post! I loved the show reign and completely understand what you mean about that love triangle. I also agree that I can think of more TV shows where they’ve popped up compared to books I’ve read recently. I think they are good and create a discussion point, they also divide opinions which can be interesting. Some of my more memorable TV love triangles have to be Vampire diaries (Team Daemon) and One Tree Hill (Team Peyton and Lucas) 😊
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Ah, Vampire Diaries and One Tree Hill were two of my must watch shows when they were on. Great love triangles too!
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For me it just depends. Some I can deal with, and some I can’t. The one in the Twilight Saga drove me mad on the screen, but it was fine with my initial reading of the books.
Gosh, I guess I’m going to have to watch this show now. It’s funny because Frances’ character in The Last Kingdom is about the same as far as faithfulness but way more crude though. It’s weird seeing him in this show. Thanks for sharing this! 🧡
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That would be weird. You’ll have to watch Reign and I’ll have to watch The Last Kingdom. 😆 And, yeah sometimes love triangles drive me a bit batty. It’s like “enough already.”
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Just FYI, it’s a bit gory and graphic at times. Hands down my favorite show though. 👍
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The book I’m reading now has a type of love triangle (at least, one character sees it that way), and it is kind of cute. But normally, romance isn’t my thing so I can take it or leave it.
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Romance isn’t my thing either. Occasionally, I see it in fantasy and even rarer is a twisted version of a love triangle in one of my thrillers that I read. But nothing recent enough that I can name a title.
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Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t, but it’s definitely not something I actively look for in a story.
I wholeheartedly agree about Reign!
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Right? So heart-breaking 💔. But totally agree about the sometimes they work, sometimes they don’t.
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Hate ‘em. My most despised romance trope. If I know beforehand that a book includes a love triangle, I won’t read it.
With that said, the best book I ever read that included one is Outlander. Obviously, I didn’t know about it before starting but it was so well done, both in the book and on screen.
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Really? That’s interesting. I totally forgot about the one in Outlander, but yes, that one was well-written and, if I remember correctly, it made my heart hurt for them. ❤️🩹
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I so often fall for the one who gets kicked to the curb or just feel pain for the one that had to walk away (hear me, Hunger Games?). So, I can’t win reading these stories.
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Oh, Hunger Games! Totally broke my heart. And frustrated me. And had me wanting a third better option to appear on the scene.
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I’m not that interested in romance to begin with. I feel like like love triangles almost always coincide with melodrama, which I really don’t care for. Not for me. (But I’m not the intended audience, so you can ignore my answer when you’re tabulating the results to your poll. 🙂 )
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No poll, just a bookblogger meme question, but I’m with you. I don’t do pure romance which is why I rarely read a book with it, though I do watch dramatic tv shows some. Some of these bookblogger hop questions – which are already set for the year – I’m just like 🤷🏻♀️.
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I am not a huge fan of love triangles. Sometimes they work and help to drive a story (often have them in cozy mysteries) but when they drag on and on and on, I get bored and just want it to end. So, I guess my answer would be sometimes I like them, but not often.
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I agree. Sometimes, they do just drag on too long. It’s like, “just move on already.” I’d be that character who decides to choose themselves and not either of the guys. 😊
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😆😆
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As with any trope the quality of writing and story telling has more bearing than anything else, so I agree that it’s totally down to the author’s rendition.
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I don’t even think on the line of tropes because I’m so much about the how it’s written.
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Lately, I’ve been avoiding love triangles, but you’re right. If it’s done well, it’s great! A show that I think did it well was Vampire Diaries. The thing with good love triangles is you really feel for all sides. Not many writers can accomplish that.
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Vampire Diaries did it very well, I agree. And this is true that the more you can emphasize with each character, the better the triangle ❤️
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I’m not sure how I feel about love triangles. Watching Bones, before Booth and Brennan got married on the show. Booth had a girlfriend, but we all knew they needed to get married and this other woman was getting in the way. It makes for good viewing though.
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It definitely ups the tension in a story ❤️
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Definitely.
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