Guest Column by Zoe Allison

Zoe lives in Scotland with her husband, two children, and massive notebook collection. As an adult, she went to medical school and became a doctor. However as time passed, she began to crave a creative outlet to counter the burnout that her career inflicted upon her, and also to achieve the happy endings that were so often lacking in the real world. A Zoe Allison novel promises a heroine who is not only her hero’s equal in ability and intellect, but whose hero equals her in emotional intelligence. Her characters overcome conflict infused with spine tingling sexual tension to forge a deep connection as soul mates as well as lovers, and ultimately, they both rescue each other emotionally. Even if they might begin their journey as enemies.

This trope is an old favourite of many and very satisfying to read. It can of course be used in any gender pairing but here I refer to female/male romance.

These are my four main ingredients when cooking up a tasty batch of the brother’s best friend trope.

1. A solid base—the brother’s best friend needs to be off limits

Part of the satisfaction of the brother’s best friend trope is that it’s a form of forbidden love—the draw of wanting what you can’t have in all of its delicious glory. So there needs to be a good, solid reason why the female main character (FMC) cannot have him, because in adult romance his status as her brother’s best friend usually won’t be enough of a reason on its own. When younger, i.e. as adolescents or teens, small age differences are more socially and emotionally significant so someone mightn’t be interested in their friend’s younger sibling due to differences in their maturity at that stage of life. However, as adults, this won’t be the case.

What else could be standing in their way? Did they have a dalliance that ended in heartbreak and estrangement? Was one of them in a relationship with someone else up until recently? Or did they have a tangible reason to dislike one another and that created the conflict between them?

2. Layer in—the satisfaction of “seeing her in a new light”

If in the past the brother’s best friend has only seen the FMC as his friend’s younger, possibly immature or annoying sibling, then there will come a moment (either short or more drawn out) where he “sees” her differently. Perhaps this is in a physical sense where she is dressed differently and this catches his attention. It might shift his focus from how he viewed her before to something new and now he wants to find out more about her and who she is today. Or perhaps witnessing a certain behaviour causes an epiphany for him. If it fits with the story, then seeing this moment on page is very satisfying and delineates a turning point in their relationship.

3. Mix with—being wary of sexual double standards

Bear in mind that the conflict between the FMC and male main character (MMC) being centred on the fear of (or an actual) overtly toxic reaction from her brother can nowadays feel uncomfortable to read. It’s easy to hit the wrong note with this in the context of present-day expectations. By this I mean that if the brother has a close friend who he views as a bad person and not good enough for his sister, then what does this say about both the brother and his best friend? Why is her brother friends with someone who he views as problematic? Why hasn’t he called out his bad behaviour in the past? This kind of issue is a little too close to reality for me, with real life men letting their friends get away with misogynist behaviours rather than calling them out on it, and I believe our fictional men should be held to a higher standard (and then perhaps life will imitate art!). It’s worth having a think about this in order to hit the right tone.

In addition to this, another issue with the brother not wanting his sister to be with his best friend, in particular if the best friend is viewed as a player, is this—why would the brother not want his sister to find love and fulfilment? Is it just because he doesn’t want a woman in his family to be a sexual being, whereas its fine for him to have sexual relationships with women? Be careful of double standards.

The area where this can be an easier line to tread is in historical romance such as Bridgerton, where the societal expectations were very different.

What can work in present day romance in this context is if the brother knows his sister is looking for commitment whereas his best friend has historically only wanted no strings/short term relationships. Here the brother is only concerned that his sister’s heart won’t be broken, which is a different tone entirely.

4. The icing on the cake—he needs to fall hard

Part of the emotional pay off of this trope is that if there has been a long period of wanting or pining on the part of the FMC, we want to see the MMC fall hard in some way. That doesn’t have to be immediate, it can grow over time as their relationship evolves but the end point being that he has to have her and only her makes all of the waiting and wanting worthwhile. Or perhaps he’s always carried a secret torch for her and then we only find out in his point of view (if it’s a dual point of view) or later in the story (if it’s single point of view) that he’s had it bad for her all along!

And, for me, there are bonus points if at the point he falls for her/admits he’s always had a thing for her, that she isn’t sure if a relationship is what she wants, and then he has to work even harder for it!

*Cue evil author laugh*

The beauty of this and all other tropes is that you can put your own spin on it! These are the basics of my recipe but they can be applied or adapted across any story which uses this trope.

The Wedding Engagement by Zoe Allison

Liv is a schoolteacher whose brother is marrying her best friend. Not only that, but she’s helping plan the wedding with his best friend, Arran. She has secretly crushed on him for a long time, but after a failed blind date, they never moved past this awkward, pseudo-friendship. Arran knows he blew it on that blind date, but after being left at the altar and operating as a single dad, he’s not sure there’s room for love. As the planning continues their interest becomes more evident, but can they get over the romantic blunders of the past?

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