Shiloh Walker: From friends to lovers

Shiloh Walker, author of You Own Me, shares her experience with the friends-to-lovers romance trope. Sigh.

Shiloh: He remembers it better than I do … which is kinda weird, considering I'd had this crush on him forever. But this guy — we'll call him G — came into the kitchen when I was making a grilled cheese sandwich. I was 12. He was almost 15. He wanted a sandwich and asked for one. I was mercenary and made him pay me. It was probably $2-$3.

I'd known him since I was probably 10 years old, so it wasn't like I'd just conned a total stranger out of money. He was a skater, hung out with my older brother … see where I'm going here?

A few years later, G showed up looking for my brother. My brother wasn't there. At this point, I'd known G for almost five years … and I'd had a crush on him for almost five years. We'd been friends … mostly … for several of those years. I was terribly bold when I made my demand, "How come you never come over here to see me …"

And thus it started.

We've been married for more than 18 years now. A crush that led to friendship that led to marriage.

I guess this is one of the reasons I love the friends-to-lovers trope in romance.

I love to write it. I love to read it. I just think it's fantastic. Really, what's not to love about it? It's such a fun trope, such a beautiful one. There's something so amazing about watching a relationship develop from friendship into something more.

The trust is already there, you know that person … at their best, and most likely, at their worst. You know their secrets, their fears … and you love them anyway. Or perhaps you love them because of all of that.

Another appeal of the friends-to-lovers trope is that you can find it in so many genres … say, paranormal. Nalini Singh's Heart of Obsidian has a powerful friends-to-lovers story. One of my favorite series ever, while not romance, had a strong underlying romance where the heroine and her love interest started out as friends (of a sort) and ended up together. That would be the Stardoc series by S.L. Viehl. You can find this trope in historical romance … Julia Quinn seems fond of these, and they are easy to find in contemporary as well. Shannon Stacey and Lauren Dane, in particular, came up a lot when I was asking for reader favorites.

There are just so many directions you can take that old trope. I've told it probably a dozen times, and each story still feels new. My latest story, You Own Me, is one story that pretty much bit me on the butt — and it wouldn't let me go until I wrote it. The hero pretty much walked into my head and sat down, made himself comfortable. I've got a story for you to write down … and I'm not leaving until it's done. So his story, one where he is an ex-con in love with his best friend, started to whisper in my head until I just had to write it. An ex-con, not typically the sort of guy I write … he was guilty, he did his time, and now he's a guy who feels like he's on the sidelines, watching the woman he loves with another man. Fate steps in, because that's where fate — and writers — come in. It was fun to see it all play out, and watching Decker and Lizzie find each other made me smile. Plus, Decker is a hot and sexy handful.

No matter how many times this trope gets used, there is always a way to make it new again … and I love that.

Find out more about Shiloh and her books at www.shilohwalker.com.