To explain a little about what this post will be about, every Trope Tuesday post starts with the same introduction. In every romance book you read there are tropes or archetypes you find inside its pages. You can also see them in shows, movies, plays, etc. Every type of entertainment and media. Romantic tropes are everywhere, and they are fabulous. I adore them and I always tend to find my favorite ones in romance books so I can enjoy them even more. Trope Tuesday is a weekly column where I share books that I know people will enjoy with a specific central trope.
What is a trope? Urban Dictionary explains it best: “Despite the erroneous definitions already published here, trope on the interwebs really refers to an often overused plot device. It can also be described as another variation on the same theme. TV shows, movies, comics, games, anime’, & books are full of tropes & many rabid fan-sites now name & track said tropes with a self-explanatory title for each one.” We can name a few: accidental pregnancy, best friends to lovers, sibling’s best friend, marriage of convenience, and so many more. Your favorite couples? They probably got a trope too! It’s always so nice to realize or find out your favorite romance trope and keep searching for books with the same theme. So really? I’m just helping you find that new favorite book of yours. If ever you want a post on a trope I haven’t done yet, do drop me a tweet at @thebookvoyagers and let me know!
Funny enough, I’ve never written a best friends to lovers Trope Rec Tuesday? How is that even possible. Ok, I have expressed my opinion on this trope many times, but I think I’ve changed my mind. Best friends to lovers? Deserves rights. Hear me out, hear me out! THE YEARNING. The yearning makes everything ten times better. And when you’re in love with your best friends for… quite a long time now, well, the yearning multiples to the thousands. Add to that some pining, a heck of a lot of tension and you got yourself one amazing romance story!
Go Deep by Rilzy Adams
I will never get tired of recommending this book and truly Go Deep made me go all “best friends to lovers trope is really good.” Because you see, in this book, the heroine and hero have known each other all their lives. YUP, 30 years of being best friends. And to top it off, their mothers are also best friends. So triple threat here!!!
Erotic writer needs inspiration to write her smut scenes so she asks her best friend to help her out in this department. He isn’t that into it at first, because he has never thought of her in that way, and neither has she. But when they start this new relationship between them everything changes completely. They cannot see themselves with anyone else but with each other. This relationship flows so naturally and it’s great to watch them figure out their own feelings. The sexiness in this book is off the charts! There is a restaurant scene with a toy and lots of edging. You’ve got to read it to know for yourselves because I WILL NOT TELL YOU WHAT HAPPENS. Ritzy Adams tells a beautiful and fun romance story that will make you obsessed with her writing and will have you wanting to read them all.
Forever Ain’t Enough by J. Chary
This romance novella is going to give you everything. It is set during specific times in the characters’ lives, so it skips through years. It starts with Hayven, the heroine, getting betrayed by her boyfriend. At that point, she decides she is better off alone so she moves out. She calls a moving service to help her with her stuff and it’s then that our hero, Xander, appears.
They have instant chemistry and it’s clear Xander has a soft spot for her. You can see that they will have fun together by the way they interact and you cannot wait to see them get to that next step in their relationship. But years pass before anything happened! They take their sweet little time and make us wait for that DELICIOUS GOODNESS. But it’s all worth it because it’s clear Hayven isn’t ready yet to take that extra step. While Xander is 100% clear she is the one and he will wait however long Hayven needs to be sure that she’s ready. *We love that*
I also love the fact that while being best friends, they kiss. THEY KISS FROM TIME TO TIME. Like no big deal, we kiss each other, we’re best friends. Obviously they still like each other and do it because they care about each other. But the thing is, they do not go farther than that because they know if they have sex, they won’t be able to stop their relationship from changing.
Second Position by Katherine Locke
I still have a soft spot for Aly and Zed. A and Z. Their story is raw and complicated but I love that Locke crafts a magnificent tale of recovery and second chances. Content warnings include eating disorders, suicidal thoughts, alcohol abuse and self-harm.
Aly and Zed’s life came crashing down four years before the book starts. Since then, they haven’t been in contact with each other. Zed lost his leg during that crash and ended his ballet career. Aly’s eating disorder made her take a leave of absence from ballet, but now she’s back. When they meet each other again in a coffee shop, they decide to try being “them” and to give a second chance to this relationship.
There is a book two and is a continuation so keep that in mind! I read this so long ago, but I still remember it so fondly and the emotions it brought out of me.
