Megan Erickson explores m/m friends-to-lovers trope

Megan Erickson, author of Trust the Focus, puts an m/m twist on the friends-to-lovers trope.

Megan: I've never written a friends-to-lovers romance before. As a reader, I tend to gravitate toward those books and relationships that start off with a bang, an insta-like or an insta-dislike.

I've written a couple second-chance-at-love stories, including Make It Last and the upcoming Dirty Thoughts (June 16). But in both of those, the relationship between the hero and heroine ended badly the first time, so there was built-in tension.

The friends-to-lovers trope has its own set of skills that I find interesting as a writer who is continually working on her craft. There has to be a solid reason the couple never ventured beyond the friend-zone in the past. And not just a solid reason, but a believable reason, which in my opinion, isn't as easy to write as it seems.

And then the writer has to take that friends narrative and make it evolve over the course of the book into a non-platonic relationship. How does the friendship change now that intimacy is involved? Is the banter sexually charged? Do they stand closer together? Touch more often?

Trust the Focus, my m/m New Adult romance out this week, had its own set of issues in that my friends-to-lovers narrative had the added detail that the hero and his love interest are both male. As I wrote this book, I kind of felt like I was falling in love as Justin and Landry were. They started out the book with a very bromance-type relationship. They joked around, and they shoved each other playfully. But once all the cards were on the table, and they realized that they had more-than-friendly feelings for each other, then those jokes had innuendo to them, those touches weren't made as casually.

So I had to shift my mind-set along with them. I was as emotional as they were, I think, and I fell in love with them as they fell in love with each other. It was one of my favorite parts of drafting this book. I had to believe the relationship, too. Because if I didn't, why would the readers?

Author Sarina Bowen wrote two friends-to-lovers books in her New Adult series The Ivy Years (this series is one of my favorites!). In The Year We Fell Down, it takes a long time for the heroine and hero to figure out they were meant for each other. She said the friends-to-lovers trope often means intimate scenes happen later in the book. "If you want that slow burn and a build-up of yearning, that can be inevitable."

Cindi Madsen has a friends-to-lovers New Adult romance coming out in April called Getting Lucky Number Seven (which I loved!). Her hero is a hockey player and her heroine is a chemistry nerd. They start out as friends … but don't stay that way! She offered some tips on how to write this trope.

"When I'm writing friends-to-lovers, I like to show how comfortable they are with each other, and how easily they can read each other. As they think about crossing the friends line, though, the dynamic gradually changes, the comfortable, at-ease feeling begin to disappear, and you get that great internal conflict as the characters debate acting on their desires and taking a shot, vs. holding back so they don't risk the friendship. Then, when they inevitably cross that line, there's a new awesome level of intimacy that combines the best of both the friends and lovers worlds. And who doesn't want the best of both worlds? Especially when it includes lots of kissing?"

I obviously agree with that! I think friends-to-lovers is such an attractive trope because the happily ever after is more believable if the reader believes that there is more to the relationship than just lust. That when the honeymoon is over, the two lovers will still get along — when they realize the coffee is all gone at 7 a.m. or the heater burst at midnight. Friends would get through that and laugh about it when it's all fixed. And then kiss.

What's your favorite friends-to-lovers romance?

Find out more about Megan and her books at meganerickson.org.