Three Sides of a Heart: stories about love triangles
Natalie C. Parker (Goodreads Author) (Contributor), Rae Carson, Brandy Colbert (Goodreads Author), Katie Cotugno, Alaya Dawn Johnson(Goodreads Author), E.K. Johnston (Goodreads Author), Tessa Gratton(Goodreads Author), Garth Nix (Goodreads Author) , Veronica Roth (Goodreads Author), Sabaa Tahir (Goodreads Author), Brenna Yovanoff (Goodreads Author), Renee Ahdieh (Goodreads Author), Julie Murphy (Goodreads Author), Justina Ireland (Goodreads Author), Lamar Giles (Goodreads Author), Bethany Hagen(Goodreads Author)
Published: December 19th 2017 by HarperCollins
Rating: 3/5 stars
Goodreads Summary:
You may think you know the love triangle, but you’ve never seen love triangles like these.
These top YA authors tackle the much-debated trope of the love triangle, and the result is sixteen fresh, diverse, and romantic stories you don’t want to miss.
This collection, edited by Natalie C. Parker, contains stories written by Renee Ahdieh, Rae Carson, Brandy Colbert, Katie Cotugno, Lamar Giles, Tessa Gratton, Bethany Hagan, Justina Ireland, Alaya Dawn Johnson, EK Johnston, Julie Murphy, Garth Nix, Natalie C. Parker, Veronica Roth, Sabaa Tahir, and Brenna Yovanoff.
A teen girl who offers kissing lessons. Zombies in the Civil War South. The girl next door, the boy who loves her, and the girl who loves them both. Vampires at a boarding school. Three teens fighting monsters in an abandoned video rental store. Literally the last three people on the planet.
What do all these stories have in common?
The love triangle.
Overall, I really enjoyed that this anthology had a lot of diversity and LGBTQ characters in many of the stories. My biggest complaint though is that for a anthology about love triangles, in some stories it was very hard to figure out where the love triangle was! The preface did say that some are very out there and will make you think, but I didn’t think they meant every story! There was probably only two to three stories that had a clear love triangle. Below I will break down each story without trying to give much away and give my individual rating for each.
Riddles in Mathematics by Katie Cotugno ★★★★
This was a very strong first story for this anthology. This one is about a girl who recently came out to her family and friends and is trying to deal with how they all view her now as well as dealing with an unrequited crush. The crush? Her brothers best friend that happens to be a girl. There didn’t really seem to be a true love triangle in this though.
Dread South by Justina Ireland ★★
This one takes place in an alternate history after the American Civil War with zombies. The African Americans and Native Americans are forced to go to schools to train to kill the zombies, and then they are hired by white people to protect them. Louisa is gifted an African American girl to protect her by the guy she is hoping to be her fiance. It took Louisa the whole story to realize that she was born into privilege and that she didn’t even like the guy.
Omega Ship by Rae Carson ★
The only reason why this one was a love triangle, was because there was only three people in the whole story. I thought this story was just meh. The girl in this story is literally the last human girl left and it is up to her and two guys to start repopulating before the human race becomes extinct. I didn’t really like the main character or any of her choices. I understand why she did them, but I also think that she did what she did without fully thinking things through.
La Revancha del Tango by Renee Ahdieh ★★★
A girl graduates from high school and goes to Argentina alone. While there she checks in to a hostile and talks to two guys. You think that would be the love triangle, but you would be wrong. She gets invited to a salsa club, and ends up watching this couple dance. Where is the love triangle?
Cass, An, and Dra by Natalie C. Parker ★★★★
This one is about a girl who has a gifted family. Cass can see possible outcomes and she always chooses the outcome that has her and her girlfriend An together. Then one day she see’s an outcome that if she goes to a party she will meet another girl named Dra and cheat on An with her. So she then spends the whole story avoiding any outcomes that have Dra in them until the very end. This story was interesting and besides the first story, my favorite so far.
Lessons for Beginners by Julie Murphy ★★★
This story is about a girl who is an expert kisser and gives lessons to fellow classmates who are not allowed to disclose her identity. Her most recent client is a couple, and the girl used to be one of her really good friends until they drifted a part. Normally she likes to keep things professional, but then she gets feelings for her client and tries to make her client choose her instead of the boyfriend. This was a decent story, kind of reminded me of Easy A.
Triangle Solo by Garth Nix ★★
I really don’t understand why the triangle was so disliked by the guys best friend. I know for the main character it was only because his friend didn’t like it so he didn’t like it on principle. I wouldn’t necessarily say that there was a love triangle in this story, more of a debate and competition between two guy friends over a girl. And then said girl only liked one guy to begin with, so there wasn’t really a competition except for the ones that the guys made up.
Vim and Vigor by Veronica Roth ★★★★★
I loved this story! It was nerdy and had all the feels. It seemed as if the main characters biggest problem was which guy to choose for the dance (I think it was homecoming or prom…I don’t remember), but it was so much more than that. This one had a very strong theme of friendship and how it evolves after a something tragic happens. I would be totally okay with this becoming a full length novel!
Work in Progress by E.K. Johnston ★
With this one, I will just say that I was very very confused and did not get it at all. There was about three different stories, each told from three different perspectives but they all sounded like they came from the same person. This was definitely a work in progress, and if that was what the author wanted then she definitely succeeded.
Hurdles by Brandy Colbert ★★★
This story dealt with a girl who has an over bearing dad wanting her to succeed and qualify for the Olympics. It also doesn’t help that her dad is also her coach and her boyfriends coach at the high school. It seemed as if she was just going with the flow and dealing with things as they come, until her best friends brother gets out of jail and comes back to school. When he comes back in the picture she has to decide who she wants to be with the boyfriend and the Olympic dream or her best friends brother with an unknown future.
The Historian, The Garrison, and the Cantakerous Catwoman by Lamar Giles ★★★★★
This was another story that I really loved! I will definitely be checking out the author to see what else they have written. This one had a true love triangle, and it was all about how far you would go for the one that you love. Plus it had a lot of demons, and demon fighting!
Waiting by Sabaa Tahir ★★★
The only thing I will say about this story is that she chose the wrong guy. I don’t care how long she has known whatshisface, the other guy should have been picked.
Vega by Brenna Yovanoff ★★★
This story was a little bit confusing at first. But by the end I finally realized who the third part of the love triangle was and I liked the story a lot more by then. This one did take me a little bit to get in to, mainly because I didn’t really like the main character. She was already jaded by a young age because her mom kept telling her that nothing good will ever happen unless she does it herself. And to basically not have any trust in men.
A Hundred Thousand Threads by Alaya Dawn Johnson ★★★★
This one reminded me a lot of The Mask of Zorro or something similar. I figured out early on who the third part of the love triangle was way before the guy did, but that didn’t bother me in the slightest. I liked how the rebel treated the almost blind nephew of the mayor, by questioning how he could love someone he just met when he had a steady girlfriend. This story was told from the three different perspectives, in a lluminae format, which I really liked.
Before She Was Bloody by Tessa Gratton ★★★★
The world building in this one was great. The author was able to give us a quick background on how the main characters family became in power, and the impact their god and goddess are in their lives. The main character kind of reminded me of the woman version of Vlad the Impaler (I know there is a book out that is just like that, but I can’t remember the main characters name or book at this moment). In this story she was ruthless, cunning, and understood what was needed to keep her family in power. I am assuming by the title, that she gets a little power hungry and is a take no prisoners kind of person. Which you got to see a little bit of in this story. I liked how the love triangle in this played out at the end.
Unus, Duo, Tres by Bethany Hagen ★★★★★
I was a little worried about this one when I found out that it had vampires in it, but I was pleasantly surprised with how it turned out! I loved this one, and the way it ended was perfect for being the very last story in this anthology.
So out of a possible 80 stars, I gave this anthology 52 stars total. Which is 65% so about ★★★ overall.
Sam's Little Corner 