Review and Giveaway: 3 Sides to a Circle by Jolene Perry and Janna Watts

By Jolene Perry, Janna Watts

Publisher: Next Door Books
Publication Date: February 25, 2013
Genre: New Adult Contemporary
Source: YA Bound Tours
Follow the rest of the tour here!

Love is the ultimate rush.

Freshman year of college isn’t easy. But with a friend like Libby Patterson, it is unforgettable.

Libby is honest and fearless and adorable. She’s the girl on campus that everyone knows. The life of every party. Infectious and addictive, Libby captivates all those around her. Particularly her roommate Honor and their boy bestie Toby.

But three isn’t always a magic number. And there’s more to this trio than what everyone sees.

When Honor finds herself falling for an artist, and Libby doesn’t approve, and Toby finds himself watching Libby more than he should…the sides of their circle become strained.

The three are suddenly stretched between friendship, love and taking sides. They must fight to hold on to each other. But the tighter the hold, the harder it gets. Especially when Libby’s unpredictability turns dangerous. Now it’s up to Honor and Toby to save her from the downward spiral that could break their circle for good.

Goodreads Summary

3 Sides to a Circle is available at:
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If I remember correctly, Knee Deep was the first book I read by Jolene Perry and I haven’t picked up anything by her since then that I haven’t enjoyed. She’s one of my “sure bets” in NA fiction/romance and I’ve enjoyed her two earlier collaborations with Steph Cambell and Nyrae Dawn so much that I was excited to read this, her second book with Janna Watts. There was less romance in it than I expected and it was unsettling, a little uncomfortable and it made me question how much I actually liked the characters sometimes, which is also something Perry, and obviously Watts, do beautifully.

3 Sides to a Circle is the story of a dysfunctional relationship full of angsty love, jealousy and buckets of a “failure to communicate” between three college freshmen who become friends during a semester. Quiet, reserved Honor doesn’t know what to do with her purple-haired, frenetic dorm mate Libby, the girl everyone on campus seems to know. Libby is a serious pain in the ass, even if she tries to seem charming and cute about it. She moves the beds around all of the time, she’s nosy, loud, has no filter on her mouth and never stops moving. They meet Toby when he moves down the hall and Hurricane Libby pulls him in and makes him the third member of their odd friendship.

This is a mostly character-driven story, so there isn’t a big plot to follow, for the most part. Honor does meet someone, a hunky painter named Sawyer, and their relationship is challenged by her issues with Libby and Toby. I may have wanted more heat and more time with Honor and Sawyer, but I really loved how authentically things between them played out.

I liked Honor and even though I normally love dual POVs, I wished hers had been the only one and that she’d been more of the focus of the story. Libby exhausted me. Toby exhausted me. Once I got into the story of their friendship, I could accept most of what was happening as long as it was from Honor’s pretty steady perspective. Getting Toby’s on top of it was just confusing and gave me a little bit of a headache sometimes. I think he might have been better in smaller doses maybe.

Toby is described as somewhat nerdish, and with the popular Libby and gorgeous Honor paying attention to him, he keeps imagining himself attracted to, or with, one or the other of them. He was a nice kid, but a real follower, always doing what Libby wanted. Everyone did what Libby wanted, which was so maddening and pretty much the point of the story. Honor had been very shy when she arrived at school, just wanting to skate under the radar, but a lot of the things Libby did made her come out of her shell. Having two friends was good for her but these particular two friends… eh, I don’t think so much.

I felt for these characters, even if I didn’t really like them all, all of the time. I figured out what Libby’s issues were early on, but she still drove me up the wall with the way she interfered with Honor’s happiness – but that’s what the story was about, so it was effectively told. The same went for Toby. Much of what annoyed me about him were things that were very realistic and perfect parts of the story that led to the right ending for him. I never did like Libby and I’m not sure if having had her as a narrator would have improved it or if it would have driven me to drive a pencil into my ear. Honor said something to the effect that she took over the entire room when she was in it and she did take over too much of the book for my taste. I still enjoyed the story for what it was and how it turned out, but I couldn’t help but wish that Honor and Sawyer had played a bigger role.

My Rating: B-

Jolene wears juvenile T-shirts, worn-out Chucks, and eats too much chocolate. She makes up words, drinks Shirley Temples, and suffocates a little without her iPod.
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Janna wears juvenile pajama pants, worn-out Chucks, and wakes up ridiculously early. Pen name abuser. Rule Breaker. Trouble maker. Corrupter of youth. In books.
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