BFFs With Benefits

Tammy
Grant

Have you ever found a particular storyline in a romance (I call it a "trope")  that struck such a chord in you that you couldn't stop reading them?  I've been in that groove for a few weeks now, and it's all about the best friend romance.   I don't know what it is about these books, but for this latest reading binge I'm going to blame an Australian author named Sarah Mayberry.  (I dare you all to read just one of her books and not binge-buy her entire backlist, but I digress.)  She is an absolute master of this type of story.    
The beauty of this trope is that it can apply anywhere, to any genre, to any time period.  Any kind of heroine can star - she can be uber-stylish and spectacularly successful, a health-food nut, an insecure everywoman carrying more weight than she would like, a waitress, a lawyer, a yoga instructor - the possibilities are absolutely endless.   Same with the subgenre - steam punk, western, historical, NA, paranormal, what-have-you, although my favorite is the regular, straight-up contemporary.
The back stories are as varied as the authors who write them.  I've read ones where the hero and heroine have been friends since they were babies, friends since college, it just doesn't matter, but it can get a little bit sticky once some other details are set up.  If one party is secretly in love with the other, it becomes an unrequited love trope.  If the hero or heroine is a sibling's best friend, or they are co-workers, or God forbid, married to a friend?  Well, those are different stories altogether - a mix of tropes that come with their own particular affectations and can sometimes appeal to a completely different audience.  
(We romance readers are a right picky bunch; we know what we like, and how we like it, and sometimes we are pretty particular about mixing our metaphors, so to speak.)
The only prerequisite is that one of the heroine's best friends is a male.  Well, male and gorgeous.  And heterosexual.  (Come to think of it, in real life that can be a pretty tall order.)  Usually the hero and the heroine have been friends through thick and thin - they've partied together, hung out together, been through each other's breakups, and have just never realized that the reason neither of them can commit to anyone else is because deep down they are committed to each other.
And that's the beauty of it - the journey.  Any romance is only as good as the writer who pens it, but this particular type is escapism at its finest.  What could be more romantic than to fall in love with your best friend?  
The BFFs with Benefits storyline is closely related to a couple of other tropes that I've mentioned above - and I've read lots of variations in the past few weeks:
BFFs with Benefits:  The standard, fall-in-love-with-your-best-friend fairy tale.  
Little Sister/Big Brother:  This is the one where the hero and heroine have known each other forever but just never saw each other "that" way.  Usually contains a life history of pulled pigtails, noogies and/or motorcycle rides, they meet again as adults and sparks be flyin'.
Unrequited Love:  This one's a doozy, and can be combined with either of the above for some extra angst.  For some reason, for me this angle is much more poignant when written from the Hero's point of view.
Spouse of a friend:  This one wins, hands down, in the heartbreaking department.  Before all of you who can't stand a cheater skip this paragraph, you should know that the ones I'm talking about are where there has been a divorce or a death.  In one truly excellent example (Sarah Mayberry's "Within Reach") the hero's wife dies suddenly, and as he learns to live without her, he falls in love with her best friend.   Methinks this particular storyline happens WAY more often in real life than one would think.
No matter which variation of the BFF trope you read, they all share a common thread - the beauty of discovering something new with a person you already know.  From the first frisson of awareness, the moment when you see them from a different angle, perhaps,  or a jolt of awareness when your hands touch.  If the author is truly talented, those moments and the resulting chemistry and romantic/sexual tension are what sets these stories apart from the regular "boy meets girl" variety.
But are they at all realistic?  As much as I love these books (and have been scarfing them down like candy lately) even I have trouble giving them a pass on the reality check-o-meter.  Perhaps that's why I find them to be such a wonderful escape.  
For every BFF novel I read that has a happy ending, I can think of a real-life example where friends becoming involved ended terribly.  As Harry famously said to Sally back in the 1980s, men and women can't be friends, the sex always gets in the way.  Believe him or not, I think he had a point.  Outside of these types of novels, I am hard-pressed to think of anyone I know in real life that has a genuine friendship with someone of the opposite sex where sex wasn't a huge part of the equation.
It usually went something like this:  girl/guy really wanted to jump the bones of the other one, but settled for friendship in the hopes of making something happen; girl/guy was in love with the other one, but settled for friendship in hopes of making something happen.  You didn't often see close friends that seemed oblivious to one another sexually.
That must be the appeal for me, and perhaps for the thousands of others who love this particular story.  As I said before, what could be more romantic than falling in love with your best friend?  The one who knows you best, knows all of your quirks and foibles and loves you anyway?  Think of the level of intimacy there would be - and to have passion thrown in on top of it?!  Egads!  
 It is a completely different type of love story than the standard, where the person you meet and are attracted to becomes your best friend; in the BFF trope, they are your best friend first.
So if you haven't tried one of these romances on for size, you should - the heroine could be any of us, the hero is always gorgeous, and the storyline is one of the grandest fairy tales of them all.  
I'm off to read another one.  

What do you think?  Let's talk best friends and lovers!