Guest post written by Den of Liars author Jessica S. Olson
Jessica S. Olson is the author of Sing Me Forgotten, A Forgery of Roses, and the Den of Liars duology. A former copyeditor from New Hampshire, she currently lives in Texas with her husband, four children, and carefully curated supply of snacks. Her books have received starred reviews, earned librarian/bookseller accolades, and been translated into several languages throughout the world. In her free time, she practices aerial hoop and eats peanut butter by the spoonful straight from the jar.
About Den of Liars (out 1 July 2025): The first instalment in The Devious, a new duology from acclaimed Jessica S. Olson. Den of Liars is set in a world where magic is spun from lies and deception, among the gowns, glitz and glamour of a casino.
Like many millennials, I spent high school bickering with friends whether Jacob or Edward was better for Bella and whether Katniss Everdeen should pick Peeta or Gale. Back then, love triangles were all the craze—and rightfully so. Love triangles have been a staple in literature for ages, hearkening back as far as Shakespeare with Juliet having to choose Romeo over Paris. They’re the perfect way to get romance readers invested—give us a good ship battle between two equally handsome love interests, and we’ll fight to the death for our pick.
In the wake of Twilight, however, YA book after YA book jumped on the love triangle trend, and soon people seemed to tire of it. Things then swung completely in the other direction, and for a long while, authors avoided writing even a hint of one to avoid triggering readers’ rage.
But, much to my delight, it seems love triangles are picking up steam again. From Feyre’s choice between Tamlin and Rhysand to the resurgence in popularity of Damon and Stefan Salvatore in the Vampire Diaries tv show, it seems that people still simp after a good love triangle—as long as it’s done well.
When I set out to write my newest romantasy novel, Den of Liars, which tells the story of a girl who enters a magical casino tournament in order to steal the secret of the casino owner, I knew that this was the book that needed a love triangle. My idea came to me almost fully formed: two brothers, one an illusionist known only as “the Liar,” and the other, “the Thief,” who steals not only trinkets and treasures, but words, souls, and hearts as well. These two brothers, I knew from the start, would have to be mortal enemies. There’s nothing I love more than a good plot involving complex brother relationships like Thor and Loki or Jamie and Tyrion Lannister, and even in the earliest stages of Den of Liars’s outline, the Liar and the Thief’s relationship seemed set to spark ablaze.
But the main character, Lola, would have to be stuck between them somehow. In my earliest iterations, I imagined her loving them both in the stereotypical YA love triangle way. However, as often happens when I write a book, things didn’t go according to plan. My characters grew into themselves, and so did their relationships. As their story took shape, it soon became clear that Lola’s relationship with the Thief was very different from what I originally expected it to be. Rather than being lovers, they were best friends with a bond far deeper than blood. Thanks to a magical deal they make during the prologue, they share a heart, and that makes them in tune in a way I’ve never had any other characters be. They understand each other on a fundamental level, love each other fiercely, and fight for each other no matter the cost.
Their shared heart and strong bond create quite the complicated dynamic once Lola stars to fall for the Liar—the very person the Thief hates most. Trying to keep secrets from your best friend is difficult enough without also having that person share your heart and feel everything you’re feeling all the time! It also makes her feelings for the Liar that much more complex with the Thief’s own disgust for him threaded through every experience they share.
Turning the traditional love triangle trope on its head was really exciting for me. In particular, I loved delving into the concept of platonic love—something not typically explored in YA—and how life-altering it can be. Lola’s relationship with the Thief isn’t lesser just because it isn’t romantic—it is just as influential to her as her budding love for his brother. It added a delicious bit of drama for me as the author because of the conundrum it poses: In a perfect world, she should be able to have them both, right? A best friend and a lover. They do not compete in the same way romantic rivals do, so she shouldn’t have to choose… except of course, in this case, the brothers want to kill each other. Which means she has to pick a side.
In some ways, I find that fashioning the love triangle in this manner also offers the opportunity for it to be a TRUE triangle in that there is a relationship between the brothers as well. They have a complex history, and while they loathe each other for their own reasons, they also have a deep, nuanced affection for each other as well—a sort of “only I get to kill you” sort of dynamic. I found that this lent itself to really exciting interactions, and I think one of my favorite scenes in the whole book is the scene when all three are finally in one place together and the nuances of their relationships get to take center stage.
As I work on the sequel to Den of Liars, which dives deeper into this three-way relationship, I can’t help but think back to my days as a teen when my friends and I would get so combative over our chosen ships in the love triangles of Twilight and The Hunger Games. Exploring a brand-new way of styling the love triangle has been one of the most exciting things I’ve done as an author, and I like to think that the younger version of me would have loved to read a love triangle like this just as much as she did the ones in those groundbreaking YA classics back in the day.
