More POV Questions

I had this problem with a WIP. It was mostly in the MC's POV, but I wanted to show off what happened to the LI when they split off, and also at the end the MC was effective "unconscious" so another chapter had to be in the LI's POV. Long story short, it didn't work. It WAS messy, but I couldn't just cut them. So what I ended up doing was going back and adding chapters in the LI's voice, effectively making him a full second POV through the whole story. Some existing chapters got changed to his voice for a back-and-forth flow, but mostly, they were new chapters. The current version never goes more than 2 chapters in one POV, and it works a lot better. His voice is established and the POV switches aren't as jarring because you expect them from the second chapter. Take a closer look at your WIP and see if you can figure out if you can work in more chapters for her POV.

Why not give her more scenes in her POV, especially when she's with the protagonist?

I doubt it will work. The opening of a novel sets the terms of engagement, which readers either sign onto, by continuing to read, or opt out of, by choosing a different book. Those terms include establishing your MC, his major challenge (around which the plot is organized), the setting and the POV. Your opening proclaims that this is the protagonist's story and will be told from his POV. By changing that well into the book, you break that contract and you almost certainly wake readers from the fictional dream you've lured them into. They might readjust, or they might not; every such awakening carries the risk that readers will desert.

There are other options. If the love interest's POV is essential to the story, I suggest you bring it in much sooner and revert to it on regular occasions, so readers can adjust to the fact that this story will be told from 2 different perspectives. If you're just doing this because it's an easy way to convey her thoughts and feelings, find other ways.There are always other ways.

Good luck!

I would say if you are adding more of her POV, then make it start on chapter 2 or 3, that way the reader will catch on at the beginning, instead of being thrown into it during the middle.

I don't think there's anything wrong with introducing her POV at the point where she and the protagonist diverge.

But once you have established her as a central character in her own right with her own perspective and storyline and not simply an appendage of the protagonist, it would bother me to have her completely subsumed by the other POV once they reunite, and return to her again only after they split up again. That makes it too obvious that her POV is just there as a narrative convenience to provide a camera for scenes the protagonist isn't around for.