I was thoroughly enjoying procrastinating my work to read this blog post on Confessions of a Romance Reader when it nudged me into finally writing a post of my own that I’ve been putting off doing. I’ve blogged about classic themes in romance before–the marriage of convenience, opposites attract, and enemies to lovers. But there are a few more themes I find myself turning to again and again in my own writing, and one is the older brother’s best friend and/or best friend’s little sister. You know the stories. The plots have been written and rewritten… Younger sister has a lifelong crush on her older brother’s best friend but he sees her as a kid. Younger sister of the hero’s best friend is suddenly all grown up, but she’s off limits out of respect for his friend so he fights his own attraction. The conflict is inherent in the plot and makes the story even juicier. I must like this trope a lot, because look how many of my stories employ a variation of it! Bucked (Studs in Spurs series)- Sage grows up with a crush on the neighbor boy who ends up dating her older sister before leaving home. Years […]