Three Sides of a Heart: Stories about Love Triangles

This anthology gets lots of points for its diversity- in settings, writing style, race and sexuality. But there are hardly a few stories here which would actually qualify as love triangles.
It starts on a good note with a couple of nice stories but falters a lot in the middle. But the last 2 by Tessa Gratton and Bethany Hagen just blew my mind and I was left crying. No better way to end the book.

Individual reviews are below:

– Riddles in Mathematics by Katie Cotugno

This was a sweet start to the book. Rowena is trying to juggle a lot of things - dealing with her mom's (assumed) disappointment over her sexuality, hiding her longtime crush on her brother's best friend and just proving to everyone that she is still the same person despite coming out - all this was well depicted in so few pages. It also ends on a very hopeful note.

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐

– Dread South by Justina Ireland

This story is told through the POV of a racist southern white woman in the 1800s who is suddenly confronted by situations that make her question her prejudices and see her black Attendant Juliet in a new light. I loved that Juliet was super confident in her ability to kill the undead, very cool and wise in difficult circumstances but also showed a quiet indifference towards the racist attitudes flung at her. The ending is very optimistic and I kinda wanted to know what happens next.

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐

– Omega Ship by Rae Carson

A spaceship containing the last surviving humans goes crashing and the three people alive land on a new planet. Eva is the only girl and is aware of the massive implications of it. The way the two guys immediately started to make decisions affecting her without even letting her speak just hit too close to the real world for me, where men are often quick to decide things on behalf of women in the name of “duty”. I really don't begrudge Eva the choice that she makes. But the story didn't really work for me because I didn't like any of the characters.

Rating: ⭐⭐

– La Revancha del Tango by Renee Ahdieh

Maya is on a trip to Argentina after finishing high school where she meets a young British guy and they go salsa dancing. There is also the guy who she sees dancing a mesmerizing tango in the club. Frankly, I didn't understand the point of the story and it's so overdone with bookish references that I cringed a lot. I might be a total bookworm but I wouldn't compare every bearded guy with Gandalf or a creepy hallway to Grimmauld Place.

Rating: ⭐

– Cass, An and Dra by Natalie C. Parker

Cass is descended from a family where they can see the possible futures. An is the future she has chosen for herself but she is startled when she is presented a future without her but with a new mysterious person Dra. I didn't really understand Cass's fascination with Dra because they are not someone she has met but just a possibility and it kind of made me question her feelings for An. But, the writing was very interesting and I think the genderfluid rep of Dra was done well. I especially loved that their names together form “Cassandra”.

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐

– Lessons for Beginners by Julie Murphy

Ruby is a fat high school girl who is invisible at school but is secretly giving kissing lessons to anyone who wants to improve. So, she is shocked when one of her clients turn out to be a couple, one of whom is her once close childhood friend. She is in for more surprise when she finds herself attracted to Annie. I loved that Ruby is so comfortable with her body and doesn't really bother with labels for her sexuality. The writing is also very easy to read and the story was quite sweet until the end, where it took an unexpected turn.

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐

– Triangle Solo by Garth Nix

Connor and Anwar are chilhood friends who go to school together, are percussionists and love competing with each other. When their once best friend Kallie returns from Earth, they both want to ask her out. There was nothing remarkable about this one.

Rating: ⭐

– Vim and Vigor by Veronica Roth

Edie is still feeling lost years after Amy's death. She has also lost touch with her friend Kate since then and has been in therapy. And currently very panicked about choosing between the two guys who asked her out for prom. When she asks Kate to give her access to Kate's dad's very important piece of scientific equipment to make her prom choice, without telling Kate the reason, knowing full well that Kate might be punished for it, I kinda lost it.

Rating: ⭐

– Work in Progress by E. K. Johnston

This story had nothing working for me. The writing style was unique but hard to get into because it had multiple sections - each one being a story of it's own. And each section had three POVs - all narrated in second person - so I had to figure out on my own whose POV I was reading. It just got too difficult for me to comprehend the actual story.

Rating: ⭐

– Hurdles by Brandy Colbert

This was probably the most conventional love triangle of the lot. Mavis is a high school track player on the path for her Olympics trials. She has a boyfriend who is a good, dependable guy but she is also in love with Bobby, her best friend's brother, who is just out of rehab. Who should she choose? I wasn't even convinced about Bobby's feelings and I wasn't happy that she wasn't even considering her supportive parents while making her choice. Not the story for me.

Rating: ⭐⭐

– The Historian, the Garrison, and the Cantankerous Cat Woman by Lamar Giles

This story was very fascinating. It's like if Alfred was younger and in love with Batman who was in turn in love with Catwoman. Tatiana has always thought that she would be the one for Jermaine until Niya came into their lives. And she will do anything to get him back. I did not see the end coming.

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

– Waiting by Sabaa Tahir

Ani is hopelessly in love with her best friend Sam - who is currently in prison - but also has to deal with some growing feelings for Felix, the sweet basketball player who will be with her at college. Though I understood Ani's feelings and conflict, I coouldn't get over how indifferent Sam seemed. But the ending did give a hopeful feeling.

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐

– Vega by Brenna Yovanoff

This story is about Elle, who has to choose between her childhood best friend and the city she loves. Both the characters had this rage that manifested out of their loneliness which they expressed through partying, booze and drugs. But when Alex has had enough, Elle has to decide if she wants to chase the light with him or drown herself in darkness. I liked the writing style but have mixed feelings about the story itself.

Rating: ⭐⭐

– A Hundred Thousand Threads by Alaya Dawn Johnson

This story had a unique writing style, told in the form of letters, poems, interviews - most of them in second person. I saw the “twist” quite early in the story, which is quite rare for me and the plot went predictably from there. It was still an enjoyable read though and dealt with some moral dilemmas, which was interesting.

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐

– Before She Was Bloody by Tessa Gratton

I absolutely fell in love with the setting and the characters here. The princess has to dedicate herself to a god - preventing her from being with the woman she loves - but then they fall in love with a guy. When tragedy forces her to become the brutal, strong willed and determined leader that she was never meant to be, she finds strength in their beautiful polyamorous relationship. This was a delight to read and I would love to see this story expanded into a full length novel.

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

– Unus, Duo, Tres by Bethany Hagen

Two vampires deeply in love with each other start falling for a new girl at school, who is struggling with a secret of her own. OMGGGG!!!! This was beautiful and heartbreaking and I was sobbing uncontrollably by the end of it. What a perfect finale to this anthology.

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Three Sides of a Heart is a collection of sixteen short stories about love triangles, of varying natures and sexualities. I honestly wouldn't have picked this anthology up if it wasn't for buddy reading it with Melanie , because I'm not typically a big fan of the trope, but some of these stories executed it wonderfully! I will say that this collection is a huge mixed bag of good and bad stories, and many of the tales aren't what I consider triangles at all, but we'll get there.

→ Riddles in Mathematics by Katie Cotugno - ★★★★★ ←
A young girl who has recently come out to her family has to face the struggle of being in love with her brother's best friend, who everyone thinks her brother is destined to marry someday. This was such a beautiful and sweet opener to the collection. It had a wonderful example of how parents deal with teens and big revelations: just because someone takes time to adjust to a change, doesn't mean they're unhappy with that change. I was rooting so hard for the MC the entire time, and was hooked to the very end.

→ Dread South by Justina Ireland - ★★★★★ ←
A young white woman living in the 1800s has to face down her racism and come to terms with the fact that her Attendant is not “less than” just for her skin color. I was LIVING for this story! I already loved Dread Nation (review here) by Justina Ireland, and I was ecstatic to read this story set in the same timeframe. I loved the fact that we were actually looking through the eyes of this racist young girl coming to terms with her own ignorance, and more than anything, I was so here for the self-confidence and cool indifference the love interest exuded throughout the entire story, right to the end. I don't think I will ever give anything Justina writes less than five stars.

→ Omega Ship by Rae Carson - ★★☆☆☆ ←
A ship carrying teens to a new planet to start a new home for the human race is on a crash course, forcing three of its passengers to escape and to make a new life for themselves on their own - with only one young woman left to repopulate the planet. This was honestly such a bizarre story to me. I appreciated the feminist ideal behind the ending, and the thought that the girl wanted to take her life into her own hands, but the writing wasn't for me, and one of the guys was so cringe-y it was a little nauseating.

→ La Revancha Del Tango by Renee Ahdieh - ★☆☆☆☆ ←
A college-bound Indian girl from the southern states heads off to Argentina for a quick vacation, where she meets an obnoxious-but-cute British boy and tries her hand at authentic salsa dancing. There was so much going on in this story, and the worst of it was honestly the geek references. I'm a lifelong geek and gamer girl; I get it, you want to prove yourself. But it was so unbearable in the narrative, it felt incredibly fake, and the whole thing was just a disaster. On top of that, where was the love triangle? All I saw was this girl drooling over some rude British kid while lusting a little over some salsa dancer that probably didn't care to know she existed, seeing as they never even spoke! By far and large, the worst story in the collection was this one.

→ Cass, An, and Dra by Natalie C. Parker - ★★★★☆ ←
A family curse: every time our narrator faces a decision, they see visions of what will happen if they take either path. Throughout the course of the story, their visions start to show a common thread: one path keeps them in a relationship with their familiar and lovely girlfriend, An, while the other path leads them to a love-at-first-sight encounter with a nonbinary stranger named Dra. The idea for this one was so unique, and I adored how totally queer it was. The idea of the insta-love that Cass would face upon meeting Dra was a little bothersome, though, so I knocked off a star for how much I disliked that general “theme”. I found it really interesting that their names formed “Cassandra”, though, and I kept wondering if the whole story was a metaphor for the narrator's struggles with their gender identity, rather than a literal tale of three people and romance.

→ Lessons for Beginners by Julie Murphy - ★★★★★ ←
When a highschool girl learns that she is naturally a great kisser, her best friend convinces her to become a kissing instructor. A wrench is thrown into her normal routine when she takes on her first couple for lessons, and develops unexpected feelings for the girlfriend. Oh. My. GOD. I loved this story so freaking much I can't even describe it. The narrator is a plus size gal and she is so sexy and fun and proud of herself, and I was so here for the idea of this girl accepting her sexuality with pride and letting herself be “out there” with her body. As a plus size girl, I almost never see myself represented in YA, period, but when I do, it's rarely in good lighting, so I was literally clapping throughout this story. I am here for queer fat girl rep, all day, every day. <3

→ Triangle Solo by Garth Nix - ★☆☆☆☆ ←
Two high school best friends are used to competing, but when the boys both fall for the same girl, things get a little messy. There's a sci-fi twist, but honestly, the writing was so laughably terrible in this story that I skimmed the ending and can't tell you much about it. I remember Garth Nix being a YA god when I was a kid, and now I can't tell if his writing hasn't held up over the years, or if he just bombed this particular story, because wow. It was such a bummer to be so disappointed by this one, since I saw his name on the contents page and honestly thought I would end up loving his entry.

→ Vim and Vigor by Veronica Roth - ★★★☆☆ ←
When a highschooler reunites with her childhood comic book fangirl friends after working through the loss of one of their club members, she is ecstatic to find her place again - until she ruins it by abusing her former best friend's trust to utilize the other girl's father's scientific tools to make a decision between the two boys who have asked her to prom. I don't like Veronica Roth's writing much anyways, but I really tried to enjoy this one, and just... couldn't. I thought it was so ridiculously cringe-y that she used her best friend's father's stuff just to decide between the two boys - neither of whom had a built-up backstory worthy of me caring even the tiniest bit about who she chose - despite knowing that it would get her friend in major trouble if they were caught. She then blamed the whole thing on her anxiety and, as someone who suffers from major anxiety issues, it felt so bad to me, watching her brush off her harmful decisions on her mental illness! The only reason I gave this 3 stars was because I adored the ending, but overall, I thought this story was a disaster.

→ Work in Progress by E.K. Johnston - ★☆☆☆☆ ←
Multiple stories of three childhood friends, with each section switching perspectives, and each story fading into the next. The writing style behind this one was unique, for sure, and could work well for someone who's looking for something unusual in their reading routine, but man, it did not work for me at all! It took me an unfortunate amount of time to realize that the little mini-sections were switching narratives, because it's all second-person (as in, “you” are the narrator) and there's no indication at all given to let you know the perspectives are changing. Then, when I realized it wasn't one cohesive short story, but was several very short stories combined into one? Well, that was the moment I just sighed and accepted the fact that I was 1-starring this entry.

→ Hurdles by Brandy Colbert - ★★★★☆ ←
A young track star is forced to choose between two boys: one, her current boyfriend, is widely loved by her father, appreciates her affinity for running track, and encourages her to pursue huge, Olympic-sized dreams. The other is her best friend's brother, recovering alcoholic, who skips classes and wants her to run away from everything with him. This story wasn't perfect, but it offered this incredible and candid look into the pain that comes with choosing between what your heart wants, and what your mind needs. I only wish the opening had been more solid, but I won't spoil that for you.

→ The Historian, the Garrison, and the Cantankerous Catwoman by Lamar Giles - ★★★★☆ ←
Imagine a world in which Alfred falls in love with Batman, while Batman leaves Alfred for Catwoman. Our narrator is “Alfred”, the Historian, who's in charge of keeping things in order for the Garrison while he gallivants about, fighting monsters and sweeping the Cantankerous Catwoman off her feet. I was actually a little bored in the beginning of this one, and thought the writing could use a little more polishing, but by the end, I was hooked. I positively loved how morally grey the Historian was, and was delighted by the unusual circumstances that came with the end of the story.

→ Waiting by Sabaa Tahir - ★★☆☆☆ ←
A girl must choose between her best friend - currently doing a stint in prison after being caught with meth - and her new co-worker - the sweet basketball player who's head-over-heels in love with her, despite knowing she's emotionally unavailable. I wasn't in love with this story from the beginning, but I thought it had some potential, until it became evident that she wasn't getting over the bestie, despite the fact that he was treating her like complete garbage. I won't spoil the ending, but I will say that I thought the bulk of this story set an incredibly unhealthy example for young readers learning how to navigate relationships.

→ Vega by Brenna Yovanoff - ★★★★☆ ←
A girl is in love with two things: her childhood best friend, and the city they live in. When he says he wants to leave, she's left to face a shockingly tough decision. I actually really enjoyed the idea of this one - it showed the side of a young woman who's mature enough to recognize that sometimes, we aren't actually choosing between the person we love and another person or thing, so much as we are choosing between the person we love and ourselves. My only problem with the story was that it portrayed such a stereotypical and negative view of Las Vegas, and I feel like that's a bit hurtful and tired for people who live in the city and have to face those assumptions and cliches everyday of their lives.

→ A Hundred Thousand Threads by Alaya Dawn Johnson - ★☆☆☆☆ ←
A girl writes letters to her cheating lover, but who he thinks he's choosing over her isn't quite who she seems to be, either. I thought this was nice enough writing, but the plot was so boring and predictable that I couldn't bring myself to give it a higher rating. Once it was confirmed (more or less) that I had, in fact, guessed the “twist” from the very first page, I skimmed the rest to see if it got any better, and sadly, it did not.

→ Before She Was Bloody by Tessa Gratton - ★★★★★ ←
Being a leader comes at a price, and for this young woman, it's being forced to give her body to a god, rather than the girl she loves most in the world. This story was so beautiful and incredible. I adored the poly rep, and how flawless and real it felt. The love shown in the romances here were so pure and wholesome, and I just wanted to bask in them for a while. I would absolutely love to read a full-length story about these characters, and I'm certain that Tessa Gratton will be a TBR author for me after this entry.

→ Unus, Duo, Tres by Bethany Hagen - ★★★★★ ←
Two vampires in love face an unexpected set of circumstances when one of them falls for the new girl, and learns she has a secret of her own, too. Oh my god, you guys. I won't spoil, but... this one wrecked me. I was literally a blubbering mess of tears by the end. It was so unexpected and beautiful and heartbreaking and perfect. I desperately need to read more by Bethany Hagen ASAP, because she made me feel things for these characters in a few short pages that many authors don't manage to do in 400.

→ FINAL THOUGHTS ←
Averaged out, I gave this collection 3.25 stars, which I feel perfectly comfortable with lowering to a 3-star rating overall. While there were a few major gems that I loved, most of the anthology was lackluster or downright bad. I honestly wish I could pluck out the stories I 5-starred (and 4-starred, even) and put them in their own bind-up and give it to all of you, but since I can't, I'm having a hard time deciding how strongly I should recommend it. I guess I'll just say YMMV, and if you do read it (or already have), let me know your thoughts!

Thank you to HarperCollins for granting me this ARC in exchange for an honest review!