The Love Triangle In Historical Romance

Has a love triangle ever intrigued you in a book or on the screen? You’re not alone. It is a hugely popular romance trope, one that worms its way into your psyche.
WHAT IS A LOVE TRIANGLE?
A love triangle is a circumstance and often a rivalry, in which two people are pursuing another which creates tension and raises conflict. The three individuals connect through romantic ties, with each one vying for attention and affection. The reader or viewer is excited enough that they feel like they are part of this developing story. Some examples of famous love triangles are in the movie Casablanca between main characters Rick Blaine, Ilsa Lund and Victor Laszlo. Rick is reunited with his former lover only to find out that she’s married. In the novel, The Summer I Turned Pretty, between main characters, Belly Conklin who falls in love with two brothers- Conrad and Jeremiah Fisher. Finally, we have Edith Wharton’s The Age of Innocence. Archer is married to May but falls in love with the exciting Ellen Olenska an unconventional divorcée.
WHY DO READERS LOVE A TRIANGLE?
Readers and viewers are attracted to love triangles because of the tension, the drama and how the whole thing plays out. It’s this uncertainty that not only makes for an excellent story, but it also keeps us on edge wondering how the plot twists. And this conflict and rivalry keeps us tuned in to what happens next. A love triangle can have many variations, it could be a former lover who reenters the picture and connects with their former partner, and the former partner has to choose, or it could be one of the happy couples is smitten with someone else causing a rivalry to ensue. Readers see the humanity in the situation. This romance trope shows the turbulence of a genuine relationship, human flaws, feelings of jealousy, revenge, unrequited love, one that leaves one person alone.
LOVE TRIANGLE FEATURED IN THE REBEL ISIDORE SAMUELS
In the historical romance, THE REBEL ISIDORE SAMUELS, it’s June in 1775 in Newport, R.I. and the American Revolution has broken out in the colonies. Isidore is a dashing surgeon and fearless patriot steeped in the rebel cause. At his sister’s wedding he meets the like-minded spirited and indomitable midwife, Emma Potts. Sparks ignite and there is a real future together for the two of them. That is until Maggie Dickinson, Isidore’s fashionable former lover now turned British spy wants Isidore back promising a high-stakes love triangle fraught with tension, twists and turns throughout the colonies and the West Indies, concluding in a spellbinding resolution.