In the old days, life was simple. One heroine, one hero. Sometimes one lousy ex who’d come back and mess things up, or a villain who put the pressure on. These days, we are swimming in a sea of multiple heroes, and a heroine with choices to make. The more the better, right? Maybe. It depends.

In erotica, threesomes, orgies, and multiple partners are the norm, but in many books, even in category romance, we toy with the idea of more than one sexual partner or more than one love interest for the heroine. Off the top of my head, Julie Leto’s Blaze, Undeniable has a love scene where the heroine has a phone sex encounter with a man who is not the hero, and in Cara Summers’ Two Hot, you have a woman fulfilling her fantasies with two men she’s attracted to – sort of. Susan Kearney’s Extreme Blaze, Beyond the Edge has a hero who can multiply himself, sort of like cloning. ;)

In the summer anthology story I’m working on right now, for Summer 2008, my heroine meets two different men at the same time and toys with the idea of having both of them, but of course, there’s only one who’re really right for her. In category, the Harlequin promise still holds: one heroine, one hero, HEA. So we Harlequin writers have to get really creative to include more than one hero for one heroine.

Then there are the single titles, and the paranormals, particularly.

There is the ever-famous Stephanie/Ranger/Morelli triangle in Evanovich’s Stephanie Plum series, but after so many books of dorking around between these two men, readers are impatient, and in my view, a lot of the shine wears off Stephanie, who seems to be playing boths ends against the middle. I end up liking both heroes, but not Stephanie all that much. So, having multiple heroes is risky.

In Charlaine Harris’s Southern Vampire series, Sookie has no fewer than 5 men she is attracted to, sleeps with, wants to sleep with, and that’s way risky as well. For a while, it’s fun to have a few different heroes, and for readers to debate which one the heroine should end up with, but that can turn on a dime, and quickly become tiresome, and most of all, the sexual tension drains away in her flitting around. While these books aren’t billed as romances, they still read that way. They have the components, and "Who will Sookie end up with?" is a big question for readers. The jury is still out, though she has been making an effort to be more or less monogamous with Quinn in the last 2 books.

The exception is in epic-length stories, like Buffy, where the lifespan of the character extends long enough that events can happen which change the course of the character’s actions – but even so, Buffy had her lovers one at a time, and she was committed to each of them when she was with them. And of course, we know Angel will always be her one true love.

Patricia Briggs is doing it right – so far. Mercy has the choice of Adam or Sam, and Adam seems to be the winner, for good solid reasons, but Mercy is careful. She thinks things though and is a well-motivated character. She cares for both men, but she’s not a user, she’s not a slut, and she’s not stupid. To her, getting involved with someone has consequences, and she’s mulling it over, which makes for great romantic tension. I know who I want her to end up with.

And that’s the ticket, I guess – it’s fun to have multiple heroes, but too many cocks in the kitchen spoil the soup, and there has to be a clear leader for it to work, even if the heroine doesn’t make up her mind as quickly as we do.

I guess the obvious argument is why does she have to? Can’t contemporary, modern women have more than one lover and not have to be hearing wedding bells? Does she have to commit? Can’t she just play the field forever?

Sure, just not in romance. Readers enjoy the fun of choice and sexual tension, but ultimately I think we want the HEA, we want the heroine to choose, and to know who's right for her. Or maybe that’s just what I want.

As a writer, I am working on a paranormal with multiple heroes, and two heroines, for that matter, but for me, the book is a romance, and that means that while there are complications, there is only one clear choice for the heroine, one man she’ll end up with. I hope I’m doing it right. It was a big issue to balance in the writing.

Anyway, do you like multiple hero romances? Do you have any that you think do it right, or others that have botched it? Discuss…

PS: If you didn’t know already, I am running a website contest at www.samanthahunter.com -- check on the details are there. It runs the entire month of August, and the prize is a $50 Amazon Gift certificate. You aren’t too late – I started the contest yesterday on my WriteMinded blog, but if you post there today, you can still get in the game!