Romance and Me: The “My Best Friend’s Little Sister” Romances

Filed in Alyssa Everett , Diane Alberts , featured , J. Lynn , Jill Shalvis , Laura Kaye , Romance and Me , The Latin Lover Posted on June 27, 2012 @ 3:00 pm 12 comments

There is a favourite trope of mine we haven’t discussed yet and that is the brother’s best friend falling for the brother’s little sister or vice versa. And lately it seems that most of the romances I have read featured this trope.

So why do I like this setting you might ask? Well it’s quite obvious: I LOVE protective and thoughtful men and usually these heroes have grown up with the heroines, saw them when they were little, vulnerable and as friends of their brothers they still feel a bit responsible for the sister’s wellbeing. I just love those scenes when these alpha male heroes get all Neanderthal when an other man behaves irrespectfully with the girl and they step in *Stella fans herself so as not to swoon* And those scenes where the big brother’s best friend hero is trying hard not to think about the beautiful woman the little sister has grown into that way are also a lot of fun 😀

I guess what it boils down to is that usually some sort of friendship or thoughtfulness already exists between these characters before they start developing romantic feelings for each other, and you all know what a sucker I am for the friends to lovers trope 😉

So you want some recommendations of the books I read with this trope recently? Here are just a few:

Contemporary romance:

Tempting the Best Man by J. Lynn – A sexy bantering romance I enjoyed a lot, as you can see in our dual review here.

Her Forbidden Hero by Laura Kaye – Such an angsty hero that he made my heart ache *sighs* You can read our dual review here.

Try Me by Diane Alberts – For such a short novella of 60 pages it sure packed a lot of emotion. I loved it and BLI’s dual review will be posted in 2 weeks.

Jill Shalvis’ Lucky Harbor series – Though here the big brothers are really brothers-in-law, but they are just as yummy ;P  To get a first taste of its awesomeness take a look at my review of Simply Irresistible and The Sweetest Thing.

Many Nora Roberts series/trilogies (like the MacGregors for example) 


Romantic suspense:

Nightfire by Lisa Marie Rice


Historical romance:

Ruined by Rumor by Alyssa Everett – Wow, wow wow. This hero is my dream hero. Seriously. *sighs* You have to read this! (Or until you get to it read my review to see what I’m talking about.)

A Lady’s Revenge by Devlyn Tracey – which not only features this trope but the brother, his best friend and the little sister are all spies in a historical setting! 

I just realized that I can’t think of more historical romances with this trope so please help me out.

And tell me,

 Do you like this trope as well? If yes why exactly?

 Any favourite books with this trope you’d like to highlight?

Please give me some great historical romance recommendations with this trope, I’d be so grateful!

About Stella


Stella is a proud bookaholic and a self-taught multilinguist in training. Besides reading, her other great passions are travelling and baking. When she is not globetrotting she lives in sunny Budapest, where she loves to spend her free time preparing (and feasting on) delicious cookies or devouring equally yummy books. Her favourite genres are urban fantasy and romance and she couldn't live without her daily dose of sunshine. Besides being the Latin Lover on BLI Stella also blogs about books and a bookish life on Ex Libris.

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12 Comments

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  • miki June 27, 2012 at 3:32 pm

    i haven’t read a lot of these i think but i enjoy it perhaps because for me this kind of love is more believable. they know each other so it’s a feeling slowly building ^^
    the book i can think that’s a bit similar but not exactly is darkest hour by maya banks because rachel isn’t their sister but she lived with them and is she is married to one the other act like brother for her before and after teh marriage ( oki one asked her out before and that what make ethan declartes himself^^)

    • Stella June 28, 2012 at 8:10 am

      Oh, sounds like an interesting book, thanks for mentioning it Miki!

  • draconismoi June 27, 2012 at 6:10 pm

    I see this pop up a lot in Speculative Fiction books.

    Harry Potter would be an example of it done VERY poorly. Oh my friend’s sister is a nice girl, until I notice she’s hot. Then it’s TRUE LOVE. Whatever.

    • Stella June 28, 2012 at 8:11 am

      Ugh I agree! The whole Gini and Harry thing..sorry I just don’t see it :-/

  • Ren Puspita June 27, 2012 at 10:12 pm

    As for “my best friend’s little sister” trope in Historical Romance, I don’t remember any. I just remember Rocky Mountain Haven by Vivian Arend that have it.

  • aurian June 28, 2012 at 3:19 am

    Yes I love that trope! And how about when big brother himself warns his friend not to hurt his little sister? It sort of skips a lot of learning about each other, when you already know so much about the other.

    • Stella June 28, 2012 at 8:12 am

      Ooh I LOVE that Aurian! All the testosterone in that scene 😀 I don’t mind losing the “getting to know each other” in this setting because they usually ahve such wonderful memories together, that they more than make up for it 😀

  • sienny June 28, 2012 at 9:43 am

    yes!! they’re so fun to read. from best friend’s little sister i have julia quinn’s the duke and i, and julia quinn’s the secret diaries of miss miranda cheevers for best friend’s older brother.

    • Stella June 28, 2012 at 10:05 am

      Thank ouy for the HR recommendations Sienny! Can you believe I still haven’t read anything by Julia Quinn? Will have to remedy that soon! Thank you 🙂

  • Diane Sallans June 28, 2012 at 3:42 pm

    I’ve just started reading Beverley Kendall’s Sinful Surrender which has the younger sister enamored of the brothers friend (& the brother has warned they guy off).

  • Stella June 28, 2012 at 6:27 pm

    Oooh sounds delicious! Thanks for telling me about it Diane! 😀

  • Catherine May 5, 2013 at 9:36 am

    An amazing one that follows would also be Johanna Lindsey’s Love Only Once. Regina is very protected by her uncles, not brothers, but it is the same case. And by the sameauthor, Gentle Rogue. Georgina is seduced by James, an uncle in Love Only Once, and when Georgina’s brothers find out, well its pretty toe-curling! Haha. These both fall in the historical romance category.

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