Ignite Me

Love triangles are a common, though often polarizing, trope in young adult romance novels. Following this trope, each potential partner represents something more than themselves as an individual to the protagonist; typically, each romantic option indicates a choice the protagonist must make in other avenues of their life, such as in the tension between clinging to a past version of themselves or progressing and changing, even when that change is frightening or difficult.

Ignite Me’s romantic tension between Juliette’s two love interests, brothers Adam and Warner, provides a twist on this trope, as Juliette does not truly consider a romantic relationship with Warner until after she has ended her relationship with Adam (in previous installment Unravel Me). This difference creates a more stark “breaking point” between Juliette’s experience with the two contrasting values that her love interests represent (though there is some “in between” represented in Unravel Me). In Ignite Me, Juliette measures her current self against her past self—represented in the first novel in the series, Shatter Me. While Juliette describes this version of herself as “broken,” Adam—who’s resistant to any shift in Juliette’s personality—characterizes it as “goodness” or “sweetness,” framing any growth or change in Juliette, by implication, as a rejection of this goodness regardless of the increased happiness these changes afford her.