The Love Triangle

According to AI Overview, the love triangle trope in romance novels can be described as a romantic relationship involving three people, usually two vying for the affections of the third. It creates tension and explores themes of jealousy, rivalry and choice. The third person in the triangle may be indecisive, unrequitedly in love with one of the suitors or be drawn to both. Three new YA novels attempt to add a fresh spin on the love triangle trope in unique ways. Something Like Fate by Amy Lea has a psychic predicting a girl named Lo meeting her soul mate on a backpacking trip, but the prediction is complicated by her feelings for her best friend. Love Unmasked by Becky Dean introduces Evie Whitmore who goes to Venice with her art class. By day she is attracted to Gabe her project partner, but by night she disguises herself to meet up with Angelo on a quest to find the Elven Realms from her favorite book series. All Paths Lead to Paris by Sabrina Fedel has Aurie McGinley, a fashion influencer, managing two fake dating relationships. One is between Aurie and her best friend pop star Remy St. Julien and the other is between her and her math tutor. She struggles to decide which romance she wants to be real. 

In Something Like Fate, the psychic women in Lo Zhao-Jensen's family have for generations foreseen meeting their soul mate.  When Lo finally has her vision, she finds she'll meet him on her backpacking trip to Italy. After her trip companion breaks her foot, Lo's best friend Teller Owens takes her place.  He has just broken up with his long-term girlfriend, and Lo thinks he needs a distraction. When they get to Italy, Caleb, a fellow backpacker saves Lo from getting hit by a runaway trolley, and she knows he's fated to be her great love.  However, her complicated feelings for Teller make Lo question fate.

Love Unmasked finds Evie Whitmore in Venice with her art and architecture class. Venice is not only an inspiration for her art, it is also the setting for her hidden passion, a series of novels entitled Elven Realms. It has a fan club which meets at night, wearing costumes and reenacting scenes from the books.  Sneaking out at night, she meets Angelo, another fan in disguise, who accompanies her on a quest to find the Eleven Realms. Meanwhile, during the day, Evie is partnered with Gabriel Martinez for her class project.  Gabriel is a loner, and people-pleaser Evie can't help but try to win his friendship.  As she and Gabe explore the city, working on their project, she begins to wonder where her heart lies: with Angelo in the fantasy realms or with Gabe in real life. 

The love triangle trope in All Paths Lead to Paris involves fake-dating.  Seventeen-year-old Aurie McGinley is a fashion influencer in Paris.  Her best friend is a pop star, Remy St. Julien whose publicity agent thinks a fake relationship between Aurie and Remy will boost their popularity.  But when they stage a kiss for her online video diaries, she finds herself developing real feelings for Remy, which he seems to rebuff.  To ward off the demise of their friendship, Aurie begins fake-dating her math tutor Kylian and her double life becomes even more complicated.  As she and Kylian draw closer and Remy becomes jealous, Aurie struggles to decide which love she wants to be real. 

Whether it's psychic predictions, lovers in disguise or fake-dating, the love triangle spins in these three new YA romances are sure to be entertaining summer reads. 

Summer Travel Reads

 Summer is the time for family travel, and even if you can't go to exotic places you can read about them.  One of my favorite trips, a bike ride from Venice to Florence, was inspired by one of my son's school projects. He had to write about Italy from many perspectives including famous sites to visit.  Four new young adult novels focus on travel in Rome, Alaska, Paris, and the Appalachian Trail in the US. In All Roads Lead to Rome by Sabrina Edel, Astoria Herriot poses as a tour guide for a Scottish influencer, who is trying to hide his affair with a pop star. Many sites in Rome are described in great detail as they attempt to avoid the paparazzi. Hearts Overboard by Becky Dean finds Savannah Moore on an Alaskan cruise with her high school nemesis and his family. Having taken an Alaskan cruise myself, I was impressed by the accuracy of her experiences. Love Requires Chocolate by Ravynn Stringfield, introduces Black American Whitney Curry, who is studying in Paris at an international arts school, hoping to finish her one woman play about the legendary Black songstress Josephine Baker. Wild About You by Kaitlin Hill focuses on a reality TV show which challenges selected teens to complete various tasks while hiking the Appalachian Trail. Having just returned from the Smokey Mountains, this book appealed to me on many different levels.  

All Roads Lead to Rome is an homage to the movie Roman Holiday. Loner Astoria "Story" Herriot, attends an American School in Rome.  She runs into Luca Kinnaird as he is attempting to escape from the paparazzi who are chasing him and Jasmine, an international pop star. Story has on the same color dress as Jasmine, so Luca grabs her and has her pretend that she is his tour guide.  In exchange for posing as his girlfriend/tour guide, he promises to fund a memorial scholarship for recovering addicts in the name of her late father, who died of an overdose. As Story and Luca attend many society events and tourist attractions, their opposites-attract chemistry kicks in. Story takes Luca to many of her favorite places in Rome and the surrounding countryside, and ultimately ends up accompanying him to Scotland, where she finds out there is more to Luca than meets the eye.  

Hearts Overboard opens with Savannah Moore being dumped  in front of most of the senior class by her boyfriend Caleb, who says she's boring and set in her ways.  Headed for an Alaskan cruise with her parents, their best friends, and their son Tanner, Savannah enlists Tanner's help, despite his being her nemesis at school.  He volunteers to take photos that they can share on social media of all their risk-taking adventures, including zip-lining, dogsledding, hiking the bear-infested Alaskan wilderness, singing late night karaoke, and taking a polar plunge, showing Caleb what he's missing.  Along the way she and Tanner clear the air about their antagonism toward each other, which stems from mistaken perceptions. After spending so much time with Tanner, Savannah wonders if Caleb is the one she really wants. 

Love Requires Chocolate is set in Paris where Black American drama student Whitney Curry is attending an international arts high school, where she hopes to complete her one-woman show about Josephine Baker.  She has a "Parisian Bucket List" for research she hopes will help her finish her play.  Her French tutor, is a caustic black athlete, Thierry Magnon, who is doing community service for a racially charged fight during his team's soccer match. When she gets lost in Montmartre and calls him to rescue her, she offers him a good review as a tutor, which will end his team suspension, in exchange for his being her Paris tour guide.  The first-person narration chronicles her introduction to the city of love, including making chocolate at Thierry's family chocolate shop, as well as insight into the global Black culture. 

In Wild About You anxiety ridden Natalie Hart loses her college merit scholarship and decides to enter the teen version of Wild Adventures, a reality TV show with a grand prize of a $100,000 scholarship. The challenge is to hike the Appalachian trail, while completing various tasks with a complete stranger.  She is paired with Finn Markum, who resents Natalie's brash perky personality and lack of outdoors experience. He is grieving his father's death, as he had hoped to do Wild Adventures as a father/son duo. Natalie with her complex beauty routines seems like a thorn in his side.  As they complete one task after another, he finds Natalie has skills he hadn't counted on needing and realizes they make a good team. This slow burning romance explores mental health issues and grieving, as well as how to trust oneself when the going gets tough.

Classic Connections

 Classic Connections is one of my favorite chapters in my book, and I find myself gravitating to modern re-imaginings of stories I know and love, so I can add them to the unit.  This month I am recommending Being Mary Bennet by JC Peterson, which of course references Pride and Prejudice, Great or Nothing, a retelling of Little Women written by Joy McCullough, Tess Sharp, Jessica Spotwood, and Caroline Tung Richmond, and Love and Other Great Expectations by Becky Dean, which involves a scavenger hunt in England to the sites of many British classics. 

Being Mary Bennet, a contemporary homage to Pride and Prejudice, introduces bookish Marnie Barnes, a typical middle child, who feels unseen in light of her older and younger sisters' accomplishments.  She decides to design a program for children to read to shelter dogs, in the hope of winning the Hunt Prize, which is given for innovation to a senior at her prep school.  When her roommate Adhira accuses her of being a Mary Bennet (nerdy and annoying), she goes on a quest to prove herself otherwise.  Adhira introduces her to Whit, a volunteer at the animal shelter, who helps her get her project off the ground, But despite his interest in her, Mary keeps coming back to her childhood crush on the odious Hayes Wellesley, who is wooing her to get her father to invest in his new company.  As Marnie struggles to come out of her shell and be generous to others and more understanding of her family, she realizes that she needs to embrace the positive qualities of Mary Bennet and become the heroine of her own story.

Great or Nothing, a reimagining of Little Women set in 1942, finds Meg at home with Marmee, as her boyfriend John, her father, and their family friend Laurie are off at war.  The family is struggling with Beth's death and grieves in a variety of ways.  The sisters have a falling out and Jo heads off to work as a riveter at an airplane factory, Amy lies about her age and joins the Red Cross in London, and Marmee buries herself in charity work.  Meg resents her sisters leaving and flirts with dating another man, Jo finds herself attracted to a female journalist, and Amy runs into Laurie in London, where they fall in love.  The stories, penned by four different authors, are told by Jo, Meg, and Amy, with Beth adding free verse observations between chapters. More than distance separates the girls, as they struggle toward adulthood and rediscovering their sisterhood. 

In Love and Other Great Expectations, Britt Hansen, whose soccer career has been ended by a knee injury, receives a mysterious invitation to go on a literary scavenger hunt through England. The $100,000 prize will keep her UCLA dreams alive after she loses her athletic scholarship.  Her English teacher has arranged an all-expense-paid trip for a scavenger hunt based on Canterbury Tales. The four student competitors must solve riddles that lead them to the sites of literary masterpieces, where another riddle awaits. Each student must complete a journal for the competition.  Britt is accompanied by Alexis, a snarky chaperone, as well as Al's cousin Luke who is avoiding problems of his own.  He is a literature major who helps her become acquainted with the books referenced on the hunt. As the outgoing Britt follows the clues, she makes friends and charms Luke in the process. Britt, who is not a strong reader or writer, must become acquainted with the great literary works that are part of the hunt and find a way to stand out in the process. Along with the history and backbiting competition between the four students, the mystery as to how and why this competition is being financed keeps the reader guessing.  The references to great British literature are informative for Britt and the reader, and the "will they or won't they romance" between her and Luke adds a sweet charm to this delightful novel.