Crushing on your Best Friend’s Brother: Author Karen White

12:16AM Apr 9, 2022

Speakers:

Keywords:

claire

tropes

love

books

best friend's brother

week

nola

husband

series

street

met

friends

romance

couch

sister

tim

talk

visiting

trad

karen

What happens when the person you fall in love with just so happens to be the brother of your best friend. It is one of the most Tried and True Romance tropes and one of my personal favorite romance tropes. But today we're going to hear about a real life. Best Friend's big brother. Love Story. I'm Alisha Rai.

And I'm Sarah Wendell. Welcome to lovestruck daily, where we bring a true love story to your earbuds each and every weekday. Love with you?

And sometimes that love stories between you and I, Sarah?

It's true. It's true. We're all about all kinds of love, friendship, love of things, live with things that make us happy. Love reality TV, we talk about all the love. Yeah. Well, it's time for us to do our New York Times 36 questions to love Question

of the week. Yeah. And I hope everyone's following along. So because we are we are zipping through this quiz every week to doing a question a week. Yeah, we want to hear your answers you should tell us yeah, please tell us your answers to any of these questions we'd love to know.

Well, this week's question is, name three things you and your partner have in common.

So let's let's say that you're my partner for the purposes of this because I think you owe fine to bring us

closer together. Yes. It's designed to bring us closer together as work wives. Yes.

I do think we're both extremely empathetic people. Yep.

That was my first one.

I think we have similar senses of humor. Yes. Beyond that. I mean, just like superficially, we both love the same shoes. We have the same shoe size so I can try on your shoes.

Yep. And I think in terms of locations of importance, a very comfortable couch is a necessity for both of us. Yeah, we

do both appreciate cozy things.

Yes. We like to be at home. Yeah, to be home. We like to be safe and snuggled up in our homes. Yes, we like we both value the sanctuary of home. Yeah, I like that. I'm so glad that we have such a long friendship to draw from and to enjoy as we make this show. And today we are talking to an author who writes many generations of love and friendship. We are so excited to welcome bestselling author Karen White onto the show. Now you've probably heard of one of her 20 novels, including the incredible house on treads Street series. And she is here to tell us about her work. And the absolutely trope tastic story of how she met her husband. Welcome, Karen, it is so nice to talk to you. How are you?

I'm doing well. I have fun. We're about to have a thunderstorm here. I've been on the road for a week. I barely know what city I'm in. But it's all good. Well, I

am so excited to talk to you today about both your love story and your book. There's a lot to cover.

It is Yes, quite a bit. So you,

your publicist tells us that you are a living embodiment of a very popular romance trope.

Yes, the meet cute,

the meet cute and my best friend's brother. Please tell me everything. Tell me how you met your husband.

So Claire White, who was a junior in high school, and that's how we met she was assigned to be my lab partner in chemistry. And of course, I was the chatterbox and and we're supposed to be doing this experiment. And I told her to stick her hand into this chemical and just hold it down because ours was exploding. I said to be right back. So like, you know, 20 minutes later, she's like, Karen, because I was chatting and everything's but for some reason we decided we were best friends from that point on. And we had many adventures together many, many adventures in the year and a half. But I she just kept on talking about her brother in uniform, the one at West Point. And so he was the one I wanted to meet. But unfortunately that summer after we graduated from high school, it was her brother Tim who came to visit and he actually spent the night in the Wimbledon tennis court line. So he'd slept all night waiting to get tickets. And then his mother sent Claire and me to go bring coffee. And I looked at I was like so disappointed because you know like she just built him up. Not as much as MC because MC went to West Point but you know, I'm like, Oh yeah, whatever. And it wasn't love at first sight. And then later on when I was lip synching to meatloaves Paradise by the dashboard lights in their living room on here. And I threw myself on a couch not realizing it was on wheels and slammed it across a The wall. And so the effect the the attraction, neither one of us felt attraction when we first met. But then, you know, Claire went to Penn State, I went to Tulane and her parents actually moved back to the states, my parents moved to the Netherlands. So every college vacation, I would always spend like five days to a week with Claire and her family. And Tim would just conveniently be there to visit with his parents and sister, you know, so we just had a lot of fun trading barbs back and forth, because he's very sarcastic. I'm very sarcastic. And I remember at one point, the three of us went out somewhere, and he said something very rude. And I literally said to him, he remembers this. And so just Claire, because I said to him, I hope your balls fall off on your wedding night. They did not have two children.

Do you remember when you first started thinking of him or noticed him as something other than you know, your best friend's brother? That guy who's always around who you hit with a couch singing meatloaf? Oh, Lee,

I think was always there that attraction, you know, because, you know, they always say, before you choose your spouse, see how he treats his mother and his sister. And he was golden with his mother and sister. I mean, it was just beautiful. But, you know, his sense of humor, just even though it's usually directed at me. It really sucked me in I mean, he, you know, intelligence and a sense of humor. Always the things that that got me and he had both of them. I think it was pretty early on. But don't tell him.

I will not I will not say a word. How did you know that he

was the one for you. How you know, I love visiting Claire. But there is always that extra little jump in my step when I knew he would be there at the same time, you know. And that was just, I just remember when I was visiting Claire. And Tim had just left. I didn't get to see him that time. And his mom must have seen something. She said I haven't had a chance to change the sheets on Tim's bed yet because I would usually sleep in that extra room. And she says but I guess you wouldn't mind. Mom to say that, you know, very strict Catholic mom, you know, there was no no fooling around with her. And, you know, it was pretty funny. So I guess she saw it before I did.

I would I would have expired. I know I would have requested all floorboards swallow me up immediately. Oh, my goodness.

I know. I'm like what do you what do you mean, you know, it's like, deep. When I was a senior in college, I mean, like this went on for years. And when I was a senior in college, I was visiting. And he was there visiting with his parents and his sister. And he was mentioning this. His company was having this huge awards banquet at the Waldorf Astoria black tie on February 8. And he was allowed to bring a date, but he couldn't think of anybody he wanted to bring. So I of course, told Claire in, you know, like, hint hint, like, can't find anyone you know, I mean, I've got all these, you know, evening gowns, I wouldn't even have to buy a new dress if, you know, I just need somebody to fly me up to New York City. And that was our first official date. Although we'd been to movies and things like that with Claire or you know, a lot. first official date. And that was that was it. And the only thing that really kind of worried Claire was that, you know, what if what if it didn't work out with him and me, you know, then could we still be friends? We still are. She's still my BFF she was my maid of honor. I was her matron of honor in her wedding. We are godmothers to all of our children. She's three I have to and we still do our girls weeks, every year, we get to see each other. So we're still very close. And my husband hasn't quite forgiven her for introducing. But we've been married for it'll be 35 years this September. Wow. Congratulations. Thank you. He just yeah, you know, cuz he can't get rid of me.

So you went from chemistry class, to knocking a sofa across the room to insulting his balls up to a formal gown first date?

I get no. Yeah,

right. Go big or go home. Right. No, I

exactly. It's sort of amazing. And then yeah, and that was just sort of the beginning. Then we got engaged that year, married until the following year. So

now I also want to ask you about Your best friend, that you've been friends for so long that you have these two long relationships in your life? What are some of the things you love about your best friend? Tell me about her.

Oh, she is she is one of those people that you can't say anything bad about her. She, she listens, you know, and I got her into some escapades, you know, and she was like, you know, I never would have done this for met you. We were totally goofballs. You know, but, and I kind of made her, you know, she came out of her shell, but she's one of the kindest, most open minded warmest individuals I've ever met. I

love the idea that she was already like your sister. And now she's your sister in law, exactly.

Like she and I were both just raised with brothers, her brothers were a lot kinder to her than mine were. But, you know, so we've sort of found the sisters in each other that we were, you know, born with. So it's been great. I love it when we talk about this. Because you know, that whole male gene, it's like a, it's a whole, it's a whole different story. And by the way, I put her husband, rich kobelt In all of my books, always the plumber, you know, he's the plumber in one of my series that always has his crack showing in the back, because how can you not? So the four of us were really good friends, you know, we're so happy that you know, Clary, Claire married a fabulous guy. And so the four of us have a blast, just a fabulous amount of fun.

And I know that your books also include other sort of surprise secret references to your family. How has your romantic life appeared in your books? Has it influenced your work at all?

Yes, I told you my husband's pretty sarcastic. Yes, he's a real punster and a one one liner. There are so many things in that he has said to me over the past that I just give to my character Jack Trentham in the triad Street series, just all of them, like all the sorts of snarkiness that, that in my character, Jack trinem through seven books, I get them from my husband, you know, just so Tim. So Tim.

So you started with the treads Street series. And now you have a spin off. Can you tell me about the spin off?

Yeah, so the truck Street series, the first one came out in 2008. And the last one, the seventh one came out last year in 2021. But they all knew that it was time for that chapter to close. And there was a main secondary character Nola, who was a clear favorite of fans. And fans kept on saying we want to hear more Nola. And when I leave her in the last Trad street book. She is a junior in high school. So we have fast forwarded almost a decade where we now have Nola is a 26 year old woman who has a graduate degree in historic preservation from the College of Charleston just like my daughter because I believe in cheap and easy research. So yeah, so there's so there's a lot of connections. But the important thing to note is that you do not have to have read the TRad Street series to be able to jump right into the shop on Royal Street, which is the first book and what I hope will be a long running series.

Now I want to ask you about the idea of tropes. So much of fiction is built on very familiar tropes and archetypes and stories that are very familiar. And obviously, your love story is a very specific set of tropes. There are so many rented Metro of apparently, Yeah, apparently my best friend's brother is I mean, Alicia, would you say that there are easily several 1000 books in romance that are based on my best friend's older brother is cute. Oh, no.

Oh, for sure. 10s of 1000s hundreds of 1000s

Yeah, yeah, it's a classic. Do you have any other romance tropes that you love?

My favorite is when the opposites attract, you know, where you think they have nothing in common. And they're different, you know, different parts of life and you just don't think that then they have that one thing that they are both passionate about, and that is that thing that brings them together. And with Nolan, Melanie, like you first think that there's no way they're gonna get along. And then this mother daughter relationship that forms like you don't see it coming. And that's what I love it those tropes where you don't see it coming and all of a sudden, it becomes clear as day that these two were meant for each other. Love that.

And if that doesn't work, lip syncing meatloaf and hitting them with a couch is also a solid approach. Whenever the cue comes on

now he's like, oh boy, because of course I have to like get a hairbrush and start singing it. So I

mean, there's an entire playlist that I play regularly in my kitchen that is titled hairbrush karaoke. I know exactly what you're talking about of it. Yes. Thank you so much for joining us. Where can people find you? You and please tell us the title of this new book and where people can find

that. Yes. So I am on social media everywhere. Heron dash white.com. That's my website and you'll see the little icons on the main page. And yes, my, my latest book came out last week, the shop on Royal Street, and it is

available wherever books are sold.

Isn't that the nicest phrase? It is?

I love it, but disappoint your independent booksellers because they are such important members of our communities.

Agreed. Thank you so very much for doing this. And thank you for taking the time to talk with us on book tour. I know that is a very busy sequence of events.

It is and I'm about to take a nap. Good. Awesome. Thanks, Joe. I appreciate it. Sarah, do

you have a love to go for us today?

My love to go is the beautiful knowledge that love stories reach beyond one generation, that the love that you have right now will last beyond your lifespan. It's very comforting.

It is very comforting. And I love that my favorite thing is when I'm at you know any kind of book signing and like a mother and daughter will walk up to me. Oh, it's such a nice thing to see people extending the love of

books from one generation to another. That's really nice. Well, we would love to hear about the generations of love in your life. Please email us your love story at lovestruck daily at probably got media. We would love to have you follow us on Instagram and Twitter at lovestruck daily. And please tag us because you don't know the joy that I experience. Every time I get an alert about a new tag. I still get very excited. Pure Joy. Please subscribe and tell a friend leave a review. Yell out the window grab a stranger on the street. Tell him about the show because we would love to bring more happiness and love to everyone's eardrums across every generation. Our researcher is Jesse Epstein. Our editor is Jen Jacobs. We are produced by Abigail steckler and little Scorpion studios with executive producer frolic media. This is an iHeartRadio podcast and we wish you a very happily ever after today. I'm in love with God is good to see you. Love with you. I'm in love with you