Guest: Sarah Mayberry Tames the Bad Boy

Hi friends! We’ve got awesome author Sarah Mayberry visiting with us today! Whee! (You’ll have to forgive me on the timing – I ended up being the Thanksgiving cleaning bitch, so it took quite some time.) If you’ve never read Ms. Mayberry’s books before let me tell you that you are in for a treat!
So you definitely don’t want to read my babbles – so without further ado… Sarah!

Taming the bad boy

It’s not much of a secret that most of us love a bad boy. There’s something about bringing a powerful, decadent man to his knees that is pretty damn appealing! I’ve written a few bad boys in my time – troubled, taciturn men struggling with alcohol and bad memories, or unrepentant playboys who hide their fears beneath a round of partying. The hero of my latest book, Suddenly You, is a different kind of bad boy. Harry is that delightful, playful, sexy-as-all-get-out guy you see at the bar playing pool with his buddies. He’s got a great body, makes people laugh, and has no trouble at all charming women out of their underwear. Harry loves women – but he doesn’t do commitment. Why would he, when he has a smorgasbord on offer? And why would he take anything about life seriously when it’s really just one big party?

As you can probably tell by all of the above, Harry has a lot of growing up to do. He’s fortunate enough to come from a solid working class family. He’s been loved all his life and never had to face real adversity. He hasn’t had to think about what he values or why. He’s been content to simply cruise along, enjoying himself. It takes Pippa to make him question his devil-may-care lifestyle. As a single mum, her plate is more than full and she doesn’t have time for a good-time guy like Harry. She’s paddling very hard to keep her head above water so she can care for her baby daughter, Alice.

So when sparks begin to fly between these two, there are lots of reasons why they shouldn’t fall into bed. Harry and Pippa don’t let that stop them, though. And every step of the way, they tell themselves and each other that it’s not serious…even when it is.

I don’t want to give too much away, but Harry steps up to the plate in more ways the one. He understands that the party is over, and that there are more important things that beers with the boys and late nights playing pool. Things like comforting Alice when she’s cranky and helping Pippa cope with the many challenges in her life. The problem is, Pippa has bought into Harry’s party-boy routine. She believed him when he said he wasn’t good long-term material. So he’s got a real battle on his hands to try to convince her that this is real for him and that she and Alice are what he wants.

I had an absolute ball writing this book. Harry was so much fun to write, and Pippa was so down to earth and good intentioned – if a little prideful sometimes. I loved pitting them against each other and watching things unfold. I really loved bringing big, bad, strong Harry to his knees!

I’d love to hear what you think the appeal of the bad boy hero is. Do you think, like me, that it’s seeing him brought to his knees by the love of a good woman? Or is it something else?

I’ll be giving away 3 copies of Suddenly You today, so comment to be in the running. Looking forward to chatting with you!

Did you see that?! Three commenters will win Suddenly You! Sarah Mayberry is one of my favorites authors! And I recommend her to anyone who is first trying out category romances. <3

26 thoughts on “Guest: Sarah Mayberry Tames the Bad Boy

  1. JoAnne

    Don’t think I’ve read her books yet. They sound like a fun read. Thanks for sharing.
    Hope everyone had a Happy Thanksgiving.
    jbcweiss AT sbcglobal DOT net

    Reply
  2. JoAnne

    Oops – didn’t answer the question
    Bad boy heroes are often times just waiting to be tamed by the love of a good woman!

    Reply
  3. flchen1

    Oh my. One of my favorite authors of all time 🙂 Hi, Sarah! Hi, Lime! So lovely to see you! I’m feeling a little dazed from our Thanksgiving feasting, so forgive the spaciness 😉 I do like bad boy heroes who have the potential for at least partial redemption 😀 It’s getting to walk on the wild side a bit, or considering whether you might provide enough motivation for some reform (but not too much!)

    Reply
    1. sarah mayberry (@MayberrySarah)

      Hi Fedora. Happy Thanksgiving! I must confess that as an Australian I have all kinds of curiosity about what a Thanksgiving feast looks and tastes like. Down here in Australia, Christmas Day is the big pig out day, complete with a hot turkey dinner even if it’s a sweltering 40 degree summer day!

      Reply
      1. flchen1

        Sarah, if you are ever in this area around Thanksgiving, please join us for our celebrating 🙂 DH roasted the turkey and ham, and we supplemented with mashed potatoes, sticky rice stuffing, green bean casserole, baked sweet potatoes, salad, corn… Our family brought a huge cheesecake and there was apple pie and chocolate chip cookies… it was hard not to slide directly into food coma 😉

        And LOL–sounds like turkey is definitely the Christmas meat of choice? Sometimes we prefer prime rib at Christmas… 😉

        Reply
  4. Mary Preston

    I always enjoy a Sarah Mayberry read. It’s been a while, shame on me.

    I love seeing how far the bad boy can go, before he comes to his senses & basically ‘grows up’.

    Reply
  5. Sonya Heaney

    As someone who has read this book, I can say why I loved *this* bad boy: he didn’t realise he was doing anything wrong until he saw how badly his best friend had screwed up the heroine’s life. And once he realised how blind he’d been, he was too good a person to do nothing. He realised it was time to change his ways.
    Writing bad boys is hard, I think. They’re especially popular at the moment, but a lot of authors forget that he has to be good at his core. Too many are “hot” guys who run around punching people, and that doesn’t appeal to me!
    Harry… he was just wonderful. I liked a certain part towards the end when he was aware of exactly how dangerous he looked. He looked like a bad boy, but underneath it all was a genuinely good man.

    Reply
  6. Liz

    Hi Sarah! I really enjoy your take on bad boys! I agree that watching a bad boy “come around” and see the light can be awe inspiring, and I also agree with your comment that it can backfire. Even though romances would lead us to believe that almost everyone can find redemption with love and kisses, life’s not always like that. Of course, that’s why we read fantasy! I certainly do enjoy reading about badboys, though, and Harry sounds right up my alley!

    Reply
  7. ClaudiaGC

    I love bad boys in books (not in real life, though. I think I would run. lol)! Maybe the appeal is at first you don’t really know what he is up to because they seem unpredictable and secondly that really only the heroine can tame him. It is a coincidence that I’m reminded of Prince Harry here, right? 😀
    I’ve already heard some buzz about this book on Twitter and the story sounds great! Can’t wait to read it!

    Reply
    1. sarah mayberry (@MayberrySarah)

      Claudia, I swear the Prince Harry thing was an accident. Well, unless my subconscious mind was conspiring against me! It wasn’t until my editor pointed out the Harry/Pippa thing that I realised what I’d done. But by then I couldn’t imagine them any other way…

      Reply
  8. Erin

    This book sounds fab! I loved Her Best Worst Mistake. Bad boys are appealing to me because there is a hint of danger, a sense of excitement and unpredictability about them. It makes for a greater payoff for the reader when the bad boy falls for his perfect woman!

    Reply
    1. sarah mayberry (@MayberrySarah)

      Hi Erin. So glad you enjoyed Her Best Worst Mistake. Martin and Violet were a lot of fun to write, and I have to admit they inspired me to lighten my palette a little with subsequent books. Writing banter is one of my favourite things in the world.

      Reply
  9. juliabroadbooks

    I agree that, for me at least, the appeal in a bad boy is watching him fall for the right woman. Reading how that challenges him, changes him makes for a very satisfying story!

    Love the Harry and Pippa names!

    Reply
    1. sarah mayberry (@MayberrySarah)

      As I mentioned above, Julie, the Harry and Pippa thing was totally an accident (I think!). By the time my ed had mentioned it, I couldn’t imagine them any other way, so I decided to simply write the book with those names and then change Pippa’s name at the end with a “replace all”. Didn’t happen. She’s a Pippa. That’s just who she is!

      Reply
  10. Cathy P

    I dated some bad boys many years ago, hoping I could change them. Wrong! You can’t change people to suit you unless THEY want to change themselves. I love to read about them being redeemed by a good woman though.

    Reply
  11. Joanne Dannon

    Sounds like a great read 🙂 I like the bad boy being reformed but for it to be “real” you need to have seen an insight of goodness beneath that tough exterior. Can’t wait to read “Suddenly You” 🙂

    Reply

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