Rival Hearts
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***Synopsis***
In the first book in the series, Grady Castillo returns to Little Falls on the cusp of Maggie Sullivan being re-elected mayor uncontested. The two of them have a complicated history, and Grady blames her for his brother’s harsh jail sentence. Unable to let her win, Grady decides to run against her. But those old feelings just won’t stay buried.
This series follows the Sullivan siblings with a special side character getting a book in the fourth story.
What is the sub-genre and trope? Did your characters lead you to this genre or
was that decided before the story began?
This is a small town romance with an enemies to lovers, second chance trope. I had an idea for the story and characters before this one started. I really love a second chance romance with angst and pining and the whole “what if” or “if only” dangling in front of the characters.
Are you more character or plot driven?
I’m a little bit of both, but probably slightly more plot than character. My stories tend to have the pace of a plot driven story over one that’s more character driven.
With many main and secondary characters, how do you keep them separated in your mind? Do you have a story/vision board above your workspace?
I don’t have any vision boards or story boards in sight. I keep it all locked in my brain.
I do tend to make notes at the bottom of my document, and I have a running document with character details, town details, family details, etc, so that I can keep locations, people, and descriptions as clean as possible.
Most of the time, the characters “speak” for themselves, so it’s less keeping them straight and more about keeping out of their way.
I know from previous interviews that characters take on a life of their own. Were any of the characters in this series determined to take their own direction instead of where you initially wanted them to go?
The second book in this series—Mia and Tyler’s story—took some turns when I was writing it that weren’t planned but felt really organic and important for the characters’ growth and for it to seem believable that they’re in a good place by the end of that book.
Are any of the male POVs based on anyone you know?
A lot of them are a mishmash of men I know. I wouldn’t want to claim that any of them are directly based off one person. Some of my male characters aren’t based off anyone I know.
But I will say that I tend to gravitate toward caring, empathetic men in real life, and so my male characters tend to sway that way too.
Are any of the female POVs based on anyone you know?
None of my female characters are anyone I know.
I would say that Mia, the female main character from the second book in the series, is very outside anyone I’ve ever met in person. She’s very much a figment of my imagination, whereas many of my female characters feel a bit more like they have pieces of me in them.
Was there any one character/scene that was harder to write about than the other?
There’s a lot of discussion around parental death across the series (and it’s a reoccurring theme in a lot of my books). I started taking my writing more seriously after my mom died, and I think it’s heavily informed the types of stories I tell and the wounds my characters carry.
What is your favorite book in the series?
I love all of them. But, for me, the second and third books in this series have a slightly larger chunk of my heart. Mia and Tyler (book 2) and Emily and Trent (book 3) are gut wrenching in the best way.
I know that we aren’t supposed to have “favorites” as far as our children, but seriously, who’s your favorite character and why?
I honestly don’t have a favorite character. BUT, I do have two characters that were challenging to write, and so I look back on them with fondness.
Mia, from the second book in this series, and Posey from the first book in my royals series, aren’t that similar to me as people, and so I had to remind myself a lot that their reactions to things didn’t have to be how I’d react.
In both instances, it was a good stretch for me as a writer.
Series question - Who is your favorite couple and why did you decide on their dynamics?
Mia and Tyler OR Emily and Trent.
In both instances, the characters put a lot of trust in each other in the scenarios they’re dealt, and I think it leads to a lot of growth.
For Mia and Tyler, I wanted to take Tyler out of his small town and plop him into something he’s never experienced, and I wanted Mia to have the opportunity to see her life through a genuine outsider’s eyes. She’s in a bubble when he meets her, and it’s not a healthy one.
As for Emily and Trent, they start as people who’ve inhabited the same social circles but only recently became very close friends. And they struggle to see how this closeness is evolving into what they both want and need from a relationship. I liked how much they care for and look after each other, even before they understand what those two things really mean.
How do you get inside these characters’ heads to find their perfect HEA?
It’s pretty organic, usually. Once a character comes to me, if the story is solid, it’s a quick write. Easy, even. I know how it’ll end before I start writing, so I try to drop things along the way that’ll make that ending satisfying.
What scene in this book sticks out the most for you? Why?
In Rival Hearts, I really love the flood. There’s tension and danger and longing from both characters. We see why they didn’t work, but also why they could work again.
Series - Were any of the books harder to write than others?
I struggled a little more with the final book in the series than the other three. I think it was just doing that character’s experience justice when it was outside of my own frame of reference.
This question is if you write in MULTIPLE POVs not just the hero and heroine - I love the multiple POVs in a book. It’s not just the hero and heroine, but we get inside the heads of multiple characters throughout this series. I feel that it gives the story further depth. Do you think you will write another book or series following this multiple POV outline?
I only write male/female POV in my romances.
How long did it take you to write this book/series?
I wrote the first, second, and fourth books in the series in about a year.
The third book I didn’t write for a few years. I struggled a little with the initial idea for Emily, but once it came to me, I wrote the entire book in six weeks, so once the fire was lit, it burned hot and fast.
How did you come up with the title for your book and series?
I played around with a few title variations, but since I wanted them all to be similar—BLANK Hearts, I tried to come up with words before “hearts” that reflected some aspect of their journey together.
If you met these characters in real life would you get along?
Maggie, Emily, and I would get along. I’m not sure about Mia and Alyssa.
I’d love Tyler and probably Trent. I’m not sure I’d understand Pasha, and I’d probably have had conflicted feelings about Grady.
Series question – Did you know in advance that you were going to write this as a series or did one of the characters in book one demand their own story?
I knew I was going to write about the three siblings. Pasha’s book—the fourth in the series, was a bit of a surprise. Early readers loved him, and so I gave him his own HEA.
If your book/series were made into a movie, which actors do you see as playing your characters?
For Rival Hearts, Holland Roden as Maggie, and William Levy as Grady.
Can you give us a hint as to what we can expect next? Whether a new book and series or a sequel to an existing series? Can you share a small tease?
Since this is the first book in the series, the next book is Mending Hearts, and it releases in February. I LOVE Mia and Tyler. My beta reader called their story gripping and said she struggled to put it down. There’s a real evolution, particularly to Mia, as the story progresses that I think is really satisfying.
When not writing, Wendy enjoys spending time in or around the water. She lives in Ontario, Canada with two beautiful daughters, two cute pooches, and one handsome husband (who is grateful she doesn’t need two of those).
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My little brother’s girlfriend was always supposed to be mine.
The first time I met good girl Maggie Sullivan, she was my brother’s guest at Sunday dinner. That should have been enough to keep me away. It wasn’t.
The night I lost my tightly held control—she kissed me back and it was everything I could have ever imagined.
Until our lives changed forever as my family went down in flames.
I left and never planned to come back to our small town.
Now, years later, everyone knows my songs. The ones I wrote about her. The scars that never healed, bleeding out on stage.
Fame and its late nights get tiring, so I’ve returned to Little Falls to right my wrongs.
With only twenty-four hours until perfect, little Maggie Sullivan is reelected mayor uncontested, I decide to throw a wrench into her plans.
Except I’m the one getting screwed again because all these years later, she’s still the only woman I want.
Reasons I shouldn’t walk through Tyler Sullivan’s door:
- When we met my dress was literally ripped, until he fixed it
- We haven’t seen each other since he left my hotel room, with said dress on the floor
- He’s much too old for me
- I’m pregnant with his baby—and I don’t know if I’m meant to be a mother
If you saw how sexy Tyler looks in a tailored suit with a lollipop held between his fingers, you’d understand how I got into this situation.
But my life is filled with flashing lights, sold out stadiums, and sound checks. Being a popstar is not suited for love or babies.
Yet he looks at me like everything might actually be alright.
He’s handy, kind, and wants to raise our baby (with or without me).
If I let him, he might just mend my broken heart.
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