While it’s been a known feature in romance novels for well over a decade, why choose romance has grown in massive numbers in both independent and traditional publishing over the past few years.
Why choose often offers a fix-it for one of our biggest frustrations with love triangles (or squares, or pentagons, or…): why not both? Or all, as it were. In response, we have this growing selection of romance novels in which the protagonist (often women, but not always) is pursued by several potential love interests (usually men, but we’ve been seeing a nice combination of genders recently), and ends up in a joint-HEA with several partners.
Many of the more popular why choose romance novels on the market average two or three love interests, but I’ve seen as many as twelve. (Which…how?) Some stories lean heavily into the sex, while others use it as a conduit to deeper feelings. And of course, some don’t have sex at all. But they all reach the same conclusion: in cases of romantic love, there is no reason a person open to it should have to choose between their love interests, as long as everyone is on the same page.
This is essentially the core ...
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