Today I am excited to bring to you my review of Triangles by Kimberly Ann Miller!
A cruise ship. A beautiful island. Two sexy guys. What could possibly go wrong? In the Bermuda Triangle—a lot.
Hoping to leave behind the reminders of her crappy life--her father's death years ago, her mother's medical problems, and the loser who’s practically stalking her--seventeen-year-old Autumn Taylor hops on a ship with her sister for a little distraction. When she wakes up in the Bermuda Triangle, she fears she's gone nuts for more than one reason: that loser’s suddenly claiming they're a happy couple... a hot guy is wrapping his arms around her and saying "Happy Anniversary"... and suddenly, she’s full of bruises, losing her hair, and getting IV medication. Autumn visits the ship's doctor, hoping for a pill or a shot to make the craziness go away. Instead, she's warned that these "alternate realities" could become permanent.
She just has to ask herself one question—how the hell is she going to get out of this mess?
I had the opportunity to meet and spend some time with Kimmy at BEA this year. She is truly a great person and so much fun to be around!
The Cover Contessa's Review:
I would like to thank Spencer Hill Press for sending me an ARC of this book to read and give an honest review. Receiving this book for free has in no way influenced my review.
When I first read the blurb for this book, I thought, Bermuda Triangle, well that surely could prove to give an interesting story! And a love triangle to boot. Sounds good to me. I’m not usually one for contemporary books, but I thought I would give this one a try! And the fact that it had some kind of paranormal/sci fi element really got my juices flowing.
I really like the cover of this book. I have to say at first I didn't understand it. But once I read the book, I got the whole Triangles thing: Bermuda Triangle, love triangle, life triangle. It all kind of fit. I really love the colors on the cover, as well. They blend so well. It's quite pretty!
What can I say about the main character Autumn. Unfortunately, I found her annoying and whiny and just a bit over the top. She treats everyone except her best friend like they are beneath her, including her own sister.I had a hard time connecting with her. I'm not sure if it's because she's a true teenager and I am so far removed from my teens, or if it's just because she's not who I expected her to be. I could tell that the reader was meant to feel sorry for her, that she has had a hard life and we should understand these flaws in her personality. And that much of this revolved around death, which is hard for anyone, especially a teen, to cope with. Joey seems like the typical obsessed teen. He wants to be with Autumn and goes to great lengths to show her. But she continuously fights him off. I honestly don't blame her as he kind of had a stalkerish quality to him. But at the same time, I think Joey just wanted to be loved and appreciated and was trying to be sweet, in an ove-rextreme kind of way. Marcus just came off as cocky to me. He really had a big head on his shoulders and wasn't afraid to go after what he wanted at any cost. Sometimes I wanted to smack him in his face. Yet Autumn is very attracted to him, constantly telling us how good looking he is. And Autumn's sister, well, she just seems stressed. She's had this teenager thrust upon her and now she has to act like a mother at such an early age. I felt sorry for her and wanted her to be able to have some kind of life. She had to give up so much for her family.
The characters were bit underdeveloped for me. I would have liked to see all of them grow a little more during the book. Each character is laid out to an extreme of a personality, so having a change would not have been unheard of. But I only really saw Autumn change, not surprising since this really was her story. I was thankful for her turn around in the end for sure.
I enjoyed the sci-fi aspect of the book. The way Miller wove the Bermuda Triangle mythology in was an interesting twist. I liked how it kind of had this time warp feel to it, that things are never what they truly seem to be, that reality might not be as we know it. It kind of reminded me a bit of the movie Ground Hog's Day where Bill Murray's character experiences the same day over and over again, each time trying to adapt and change things to make them turn out different. Only in Triangles it was not the character in control of adapting, it was the magical aspects of the Triangle that were twisting the plot line.
There is some redundancy in the book that made me want to put it down and not continue at times. However, I did continue on because I was invested in seeing what the end of the book brought; how the author wrapped things up into a tidy package. I was praying for a happily ever after, and, in the end, I did get that, which was nice closure.
Overall, I liked the story that this book told and would recommend it to anyone who would like a short contemporary read with a bit of a magical/paranormal/sci-fi twist!
When I first read the blurb for this book, I thought, Bermuda Triangle, well that surely could prove to give an interesting story! And a love triangle to boot. Sounds good to me. I’m not usually one for contemporary books, but I thought I would give this one a try! And the fact that it had some kind of paranormal/sci fi element really got my juices flowing.
I really like the cover of this book. I have to say at first I didn't understand it. But once I read the book, I got the whole Triangles thing: Bermuda Triangle, love triangle, life triangle. It all kind of fit. I really love the colors on the cover, as well. They blend so well. It's quite pretty!
What can I say about the main character Autumn. Unfortunately, I found her annoying and whiny and just a bit over the top. She treats everyone except her best friend like they are beneath her, including her own sister.I had a hard time connecting with her. I'm not sure if it's because she's a true teenager and I am so far removed from my teens, or if it's just because she's not who I expected her to be. I could tell that the reader was meant to feel sorry for her, that she has had a hard life and we should understand these flaws in her personality. And that much of this revolved around death, which is hard for anyone, especially a teen, to cope with. Joey seems like the typical obsessed teen. He wants to be with Autumn and goes to great lengths to show her. But she continuously fights him off. I honestly don't blame her as he kind of had a stalkerish quality to him. But at the same time, I think Joey just wanted to be loved and appreciated and was trying to be sweet, in an ove-rextreme kind of way. Marcus just came off as cocky to me. He really had a big head on his shoulders and wasn't afraid to go after what he wanted at any cost. Sometimes I wanted to smack him in his face. Yet Autumn is very attracted to him, constantly telling us how good looking he is. And Autumn's sister, well, she just seems stressed. She's had this teenager thrust upon her and now she has to act like a mother at such an early age. I felt sorry for her and wanted her to be able to have some kind of life. She had to give up so much for her family.
The characters were bit underdeveloped for me. I would have liked to see all of them grow a little more during the book. Each character is laid out to an extreme of a personality, so having a change would not have been unheard of. But I only really saw Autumn change, not surprising since this really was her story. I was thankful for her turn around in the end for sure.
I enjoyed the sci-fi aspect of the book. The way Miller wove the Bermuda Triangle mythology in was an interesting twist. I liked how it kind of had this time warp feel to it, that things are never what they truly seem to be, that reality might not be as we know it. It kind of reminded me a bit of the movie Ground Hog's Day where Bill Murray's character experiences the same day over and over again, each time trying to adapt and change things to make them turn out different. Only in Triangles it was not the character in control of adapting, it was the magical aspects of the Triangle that were twisting the plot line.
There is some redundancy in the book that made me want to put it down and not continue at times. However, I did continue on because I was invested in seeing what the end of the book brought; how the author wrapped things up into a tidy package. I was praying for a happily ever after, and, in the end, I did get that, which was nice closure.
Overall, I liked the story that this book told and would recommend it to anyone who would like a short contemporary read with a bit of a magical/paranormal/sci-fi twist!
3 Fist Bumps
Kimberly Ann Miller received Bachelor's degrees from Georgian Court University and Rutgers University and a Master's degree from The University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey. She is an avid reader and particularly enjoys true crime and young adult novels. She grew up in New Jersey and currently resides in Monmouth County with her husband and three cats. When she’s not writing, she loves to travel to sunny islands where she snorkels by day and stargazes by night. She always takes her Nook with her.Goodreads/Website/Facebook/Twitter
Makes me want to take a cruise!
ReplyDelete