Today I’m glad to welcome back South African author Ronel Janse van Vuuren, who’s here to announce her latest release, Magic at Midnight.

Award-winning author Ronel Janse van Vuuren mainly writes for teens and tweens, though she is known to write mythology-filled short stories for anthologies aimed at older readers. Her dark fantasy works, usually full of folklore, can be viewed on her website and on Goodreads.

Ronel can be found tweeting about writing and other things that interest her, arguing with her characters, researching folklore for her newest story or playing with her Rottweilers when she’s not actually writing.

All of her books are available for purchase from major online retailers.

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Ronel’s thoughts on First Love

There is a favourite romance trope, no matter what age group you write for: the love triangle.

And it isn’t limited to a girl being torn between two hot guys, it can be one of the guys being torn between her and the other guy, three guys, three girls, a girl torn between a guy and a girl – the mashups are endless. It can even be a triangle from only one point of view: remember Gaston’s obsession with Belle in “The Beauty and the Beast”?

This trope, though, is very popular when writing about first love. Why? Because the main character gets to fall in love with to people, for different reasons, love different qualities, and get to know themselves through the mirror of their beloveds’ actions.

It’s good for character development. Besides, as readers, we love the idea of falling for two different people, recognising in them what we have in us, and then rooting for our favoured champion.

Team Jacob, anyone? (Or: Team Dimitri, Team Peeta, Team Puck, Team Tamani, Team Damon – you get the idea.)*

Readers wear their champion’s name proudly on their clothes – a signal to other readers of the franchise to interact.

That’s another point: love triangles usually span over multiple books, giving the main character (and readers) the chance to bond with the love interests. Though, it’s not always necessary. Sometimes society, another love interest or other antagonist of some kind will “steal away” one of the main character’s love interests – leaving her to decide whether she really loves, wants and needs the remaining love interest in her life or not.

In “Magic at Midnight” we have Team Rachel and Team Francois. The reader gets to root for both these love interests, both of them falling under the banner of Amy’s first love. Both have admirable qualities, both show her the world in a way she hadn’t seen it before, both make her feel strongly about them.

In the end, it is Amy’s choice whether she will be with one of them or not.

“Just because she didn’t need more in her life, didn’t mean she didn’t want more.” – Amy, Magic at Midnight.

Through the span of the book, Amy learns to trust her newfound romantic feelings, revel in them and find her one true love – and she chooses to be with this person, not because she needs to, but because she wants to.

Which is excellent, in my opinion, for far too many books make the main character too dependent on the hero (very much like a classic Barbara Cartland novel), leaving her without her own hopes, dreams and wants.

What are your thoughts about love triangles? And first love? Do you like romance in your novels?

*Team Jacob – Twilight by Stephenie Meyer; Team Dimitri – Vampire Academy by Richelle Mead; Team Peeta – The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins; Team Puck – The Iron King by Julie Kagawa; Team Tamani – Wings by Aprilynne Pike; Team Damon – The Vampire Diaries.

Connect with Ronel online

Twitter: https://twitter.com/@miladyronel/

Pinterest: https://za.pinterest.com/miladyronel/

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/17528826.Ronel_Janse_van_Vuuren

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/miladyronel/?hl=en

Amazon author page: https://amazon.com/author/roneljansevanvuurenmythmaker 

Ronel the Mythmaker, Website of Dark Fantasy Author Ronel Janse van Vuuren: http://www.ronelthemythmaker.com/