Marie Harte – The Troublemaker Next Door – Interview & Review
The Troublemaker Next Door
McCauley Brothers series – Book #1
by Marie Harte
Release Date: June 3, 2014
Amazon / Barnes & Noble / Kobo / The Book Depository
Description:
Flynn McCauley never thought he’d be so cliché as to fall for the girl next door. But when Maddie calls him over to help fix her faulty sink, he’s a goner. Too bad the fiercely independent interior designer wants nothing to do with him. Even worse, he’s forced to rely on the advice of his nosy brothers—and his five-year-old nephew!—to figure out how to make her give him a shot.
Review:
The Troublemaker Next Door by Marie Harte is the first book in her new McCauley Brothers series. I have not read Harte before, but having discovered this was a romance with a family/brothers theme, which I have been enjoying lately, I couldn’t wait to read this book.
We meet our hero Flynn McCauley almost immediately, when he realizes his mother has rented the house next door to three women. It doesn’t take long for our womanizing Flynn to offer to help fix their sink, as he is a plumber and wants to meet these ladies. Just when he is finished, he hears one of the woman who just came home shouting, and he goes to find out what is wrong.
Maddie is a very angry young woman, as she describes to her friend Abby, how her boss tried to get her to have sex with him. Beside herself, and unable to control her temper, she eyes the handsome sexy Flynn and curses him out as a typical man. It was a funny scene, but it doesn’t take long for things to change. When she goes the next day to apologize to Flynn, she meets some of the other hot brothers, but it is Flynn who immediately rises her lust level just by looking at him waking up from and drunken hangover in his briefs.
Flynn and Maddie hit it off pretty quickly, and soon they hit the sheets and everything else around them. Both do not want commitment, and consider themselves casual friends, or is it sex buddies. Besides the sex scenes, and there were a lot, this was an interesting story, with an excellent cast of characters. Maddie’s roommates, her cousin and friend; and Flynn’s wonderful family.
Maddie having quit her job, decides to try to make it on her own, in an interior design business. She has her own issues of hiding her own insecurities, and being able to have a successful career. As her relationship deepens with Flynn, it is these issues that could put damper on any possible future, despite her friends trying to help her. Will Flynn and Maddie get past their no-commitment issues, or just remain sex buddies?
I enjoyed the friendship, the fun and snarky comments between the girls. I also loved the closeness of the brothers. This is an erotic storyline and thusly there is plenty of sex and may not be suitable to all readers.
Reviewed by Barb
Copy provided by Publisher
TRC: Hi Marie and welcome to The Reading Café. We would like to start with some background information.
TRC: Please tell us something about yourself?
Marie: Hmm. Well, I’m a night owl and caffeine addict. I have two awesome, energetic boys, live in beautiful Central Oregon, and writing is my passion. I’ve been a U.S. Marine, worked in IT, managed truck drivers for a transport company (oh, the stories!), and am now working at what I love—fulltime writing.
TRC: Have you always been interested in writing?
Marie: Always. As a kid, I’d write stories for fun. First on index cards, then notepads, then on a 5” floppy disk. Ha. In college I earned a BA in English, always with the dream of writing for a living.
TRC: Is there anything (in general) you find particularly challenging about writing?
Marie: The discipline it takes to sit down and do it every day, especially when the weather is beautiful. (My desk is right in front of windows.) Sometimes I don’t feel like writing, but I make myself sit down and do it.
TRC: Can you please tell us the premise of your new series, McCauley Brothers?
Marie: I LOVE my McCauleys! These books are a steamy new contemporary series featuring the tight-knit rough-and-ready McCauley brothers. The guys are down to earth—two are plumbers, one’s in finances, and the oldest works construction. But they sure do know how to treat their women, in bed and out.
TRC: The Troublemaker Next Door is the first book in this series. Can you please give us a brief description of this story?
Marie: Sure! When Flynn McCauley meets Maddie Gardner, sparks fly. She hates men. He’s not into relationships. She lost her job. He fixed her sink—but that’s not all he wants to fix. When a ride home turns into a lot more, Maddie and Flynn decide to keep things strictly casual. Strictly sexual. They won’t date. And they end up not dating…a lot. But soon Flynn wants more from the wary redhead. If he can just keep her distracted long enough to burrow under her skin, Flynn might convince Maddie they have a shot at real happiness. That’s if Maddie can overcome her past to take a chance on the future.
TRC: You write various genres, such as Romance, Erotic Romance, Military, & Paranormal. Do you have a preference? Do you find it difficult to switch between these genres, when writing your stories?
Marie: Because I write a lot, I need to vary what I write so I don’t get bored or stuck. I enjoy my romance on the spicy side, but I’m very open to all genres. I particularly like paranormal stories because I’m a control freak. *grin* I like making up my own rules and setting boundaries for my characters. I find it difficult to break up a series though. Writing them all in a row helps with consistency. But if the series is particularly long (my McCauley are 4 books—short, my Cougar Falls are 8 books and counting—not so short) it helps to take a break. I prefer going from genre to genre rather than say, contemporary series to contemporary series. I’m fresher when I switch it up.
TRC: Though it is more open in this day and age, some authors use pen names when writing Erotic novels. Do you ever receive negative feedback?
Marie: I decided to use a pen name from the beginning, because one, it seemed pretty cool, and two, I was writing professionally while living in the South, the Bible Belt. Not huge fans of erotic romance, let me tell you. I had negative feedback from woman I thought was a friend. Needless to say, she’s a friend no longer. But surprisingly, most people where I live now are very accepting.
TRC: What are you working on now?
Marie: I’m currently finishing up a paranormal novella called Jackal’s Measure, as part of a multi-author anthology called Dark Fates. It was a fun change-up from my year of contemporary romance, dealing with mythology, and in particular, Egyptian mythology. In Jackal’s Measure, a guard of Anubis must deal with the evil Set and save a human woman who’s interfering in Ludos Deorum—the Games of the Gods. Fun stuff!
TRC: What do you like to do when you are not writing?
Marie: Sleep? LOL I love hiking outdoors, especially since it’s often sunny where I live. I walk everywhere I can. I also like to read, watch movies, and occasionally garden. I had a tomato plant last all summer last year. I didn’t kill it and ate homegrown tomatoes. A win-win!
TRC: Many author bounce ideas and information between each other and their family and spouses. With whom do you bounce ideas?
Marie: The voices in my head. Seriously. I have so many ideas about stories I can’t get to that I have a huge folder on my computer filled with pending ideas. I do have friends I go to when I need help with research on careers or technical specifics. But my muse is my only go-to guy for ideas.
TRC: Would you like to add anything else?
Marie: Thanks so much for having me at The Reading Café. It was a pleasure to be here, and I’m so happy to share my brand new series, the McCauley Brothers, with you. I fell in love with the guys while writing, and I’m beyond excited to see The Troublemaker Next Door at my local bookstore. 🙂
LIGHTNING ROUND
Favorite Food—chocolate
Favorite Dessert—crème brûlée
Favorite TV show—Supernatural (through season 5), then Big Bang Theory
Favorite Book: A Wrinkle in Time by Madeline L’Engle
Dark or Milk Chocolate—milk
Favorite Literary Character (male & female) not your own: I have so many favorites, I decided to go old school with this one. Corum, from Michael Moorcock’s The Swords Trilogy, and Dana, from Octavia Butler’s Kindred (fascinating book)
Dog or Cat—I used to say cat, but I live in a dog town. So I’m going with dog.
TRC: Marie, thank you very much for taking the time to answer our questions. The Reading Café wishes you good luck with The Troublemaker Next Door.
Marie: Thank you!!
If you would like to learn more about Marie, you can find her at the following links:
Website / Facebook / Twitter / Goodreads
