Do you love… or hate… love triangles? Personally, I have a love-hate relationship with them.

It all started when I took an Arthurian Lit class in college. I loved Camelot stories, and we read everything from Cretien de Troyes to T.H. White. Most of all, I loved the stories centralized around Arthur, Guinevere and Lancelot, or at least the idea of them. In the end, I’m always heartbroken. I call it the Guinevere effect.

The kissing scene in First Knight can make me swoon. Until I see the tortured look on Sean Connery’s face.

Some portray Guinevere as the weak-willed woman who cheats on her husband with his best friend. Others say that Lancelot’s love for his queen was good and pure. In The Once and Future King, Arthur even cheers when Lancelot manages to carry Guinevere away from being burned at the stake. Lancelot accomplished what the king could not.

But over and over, Guinevere ends up in a nunnery and her loves end up dead.

Why does she have to choose? I loved Lancelot’s shining honor and his unswerving dedication to his king. I loved Arthur’s courage and dreams for a united future. They worked together to accomplish good for their country. I imagine them saving each other’s lives, fighting back to back in battle. They bled together. Why couldn’t they love together too?

I guess that’s why I’m so drawn to menages. I keep trying to right the wrongs done to Guinevere.

I don’t like love triangles where the heroine is forced to choose one of the heroes over the other. In fact, I hate them. Inevitably, one hero is left to suffer alone. Oh wait, he just becomes sequel fodder, right? So how could his love have been so great if his “true” love waits in the next book?

I loved The Hunger Games. Until Katniss was going to have to choose either Peeta or Gale and I knew it wouldn’t make me happy either way. So I refused to read the final book. (I got the cliff notes from my oldest daughter who read Mockingjay for me.)

So I made a promise to myself–and to my readers. Whenever I write a love triangle, in the end, the heroine won’t be forced to choose. In Yours to Take, I kept that promise. But I never said it would be easy for her to figure out how she can keep both Elias and Jesse. wink

What about you – what’s your favorite or most hated love triangle?

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Joely always has her nose buried in abook, especially one with mythology, fairy tales, and romance. Find her on her website, Twitter, and Facebook.. Be sure to check out her free reads.

Stop by my blog for details about the $100 online book gift certifcate I’m giving away!
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Joely Sue Burkhart
http://www.joelysueburkhart.com

Giveaway: One lucky commenter will win a download of Ms. Burkhart’s book Yours to Take.  Giveaway ends at 7:00pm on Sunday, May 20.

All fire and gunpowder need is a stray spark…

The day one of her old clients gunned down a cop, former defense attorney Vicki Connagher lost everything—her passion for justice, and her lover, Detective Elias Reyes. The dead cop’s partner.

Even though she’s following her dream to start her own fashion line, it’s tough with heartache as her only companion. Until she brings Jesse, a wandering street artist, in from a freak Texas snowstorm. His submissive flirting brings out dominant tendencies she never knew she possessed, yet she hesitates to let him take her as far and as hard as she wants to go.

Some homeless junkie in Vicki’s house? Not on Elias’s watch. Pride kept him away, but as long as Jesse is staying in Vicki’s downstairs shop, he’s staying with Vicki. On the couch, but it’s a start.

As the days go by, the three work out an uneasy alliance. But Vicki’s joy at having Elias back in her life is tempered with a growing desire to have it all. Elias in her bed, and Jesse under her command. The only question remaining is if her tough alpha cop is willing to embrace all that she is…

Product Warnings Explicit sex, BDSM, a tough alpha cop, a reluctant Domme, and a smoldering submissive street artist willing to do anything to belong to her.