Caden is a Nice: The boy next door, sculpted to physical perfection. Dylan is a Bad: The brooding, dark-souled guy, and dangerously handsome. The girl they are competing for is important to the organization, and each boy will pursue her. Will she choose a Nice or the Bad?

Both Caden and Dylan are living in the outside world for the first time. They are well-trained and at the top of their games. They have to be – whoever the girl doesn’t choose will die.

What the boys don’t expect are feelings that are outside of their training. Feelings that could kill them both.

Hello Cale! We are super excited to have you in our FFBC tours.

Favorite Book?

Ahh too many to choose, but of all time, it’d probably have to be one of the Harry Potter books (probably Deathly Hallows)

Favorite TV show?

Veronica Mars.

Favorite movie?

This changes all the time! At the moment, it’s a tie between The Perks of Being a Wallflower and Brokeback Mountain.

Favorite Song?

Mr. Brightside.

Favorite Food?

Pasta!

Name 3 fictional places you would move to in a heartbeat.

Easy – Hogwarts/Wizarding World or anywhere from Pokémon. I can’t think of a third, I don’t think anything could compete with how much I want to go to those places. I wouldn’t mind visiting Middle Earth, but I wouldn’t want to live there.

What were your favorite books growing up? (I was a Fear Street girl!)

Oh that’s awesome about Fear Street! I loved Goosebumps and Harry Potter. Also when I was a little older I became very obsessed with the Cirque Du Freak books.

Favorite Quote?

This is kinda weird, but I like “Why Not Me?” by Mindy Kaling. It’s a mentality I think about a lot. It’s basically: why *shouldn’t* it be me that gets that awesome thing? It encourages me to be a go-getter and I love that about it.

What are your fandoms?

The biggest two are Harry Potter and Pokémon. I also am pretty into gaming in a general sense! And if YA in general counts, I’d say I’m a fanboy of that.

What were your 3 favorite books from the last year?

So tough to answer! I’ve read so many amazing books. It’s not a book but SAGA blew me away. HISTORY IS ALL YOU LEFT ME was so moving and beautiful, and I had so much fun with GAUNTLET by Holly Jennings. These wouldn’t be top three (I couldn’t rank, I love so many books for different reasons) but they’re stand-outs for sure! Also, I keep a Goodreads list of the books I’ve read, and I would recommend any of these.

Could you tell our Book Addicts a little bit about THE LOVE INTEREST?

Sure thing! THE LOVE INTEREST is about a guy called Caden, who has been trained his whole life to be the love interest of a special girl, named Juliet. He works for a company that dispatches spies known as Love Interests to get close to targets and steal their secrets. When the book starts, Caden, and a Bad boy called Dyl, who is also competing for Juliet, are sent in. And then Caden and Dyl start hanging out, and Caden gets a crush on him, and things get really messy from there.

What 3 hashtags would you most associate with your book? (Could be a word or phrase or anything that would instantly make you think of THE LOVE INTEREST.)

Ooh good question! I’m not great at hashtags, but how about #gay, #funny and #angst.

If you could hang out with any character from your book, who would it be? And what would you guys do?

Ahh I would love to meet all of them! And what I’d do with them would be so different depending on who it would be. With Caden I’d just like to talk. I’d like Juliet to show me her laboratory. And with Dyl, I’d like to go for a drive in his car.

How did you come up with the story? Did you find inspiration in any other sto-ry/movie/show and how has this affected your writing?

It’s so hard for me to explain this, because the idea for THE LOVE INTEREST seriously did just come to me as the thought: “how cool would it be If there was a training academy for the love interests from YA books”. That sounded super fun to write, so I just started writing it and quickly became super into it. And I found so much inspiration from other places! I think VEROINCA MARS was a big influence, as was COMMUNITY, and YA books like THE HUNGER GAMES.

Tell us your favorite quote from THE LOVE INTEREST.

Ahh my favorite quote is a huge spoiler! Near the end, Caden basically sums up the whole book in four words and it’s easily my favorite quote. But I am really proud of this joke from early on: “For a Nice, the aim of the game is lean. I need to look friendly and cute, but when I take my shirt off I need to be ripped. Just in an approachable way that doesn’t look like I work out much. Like these muscles happened accidentally, the result of playing outside with a golden Labrador or good genes or something like that.”

Is there a specific scene that you had the most fun to write? Or which part was the most difficult to get through?

I love any scene where I get Caden and Dyl together. Like, so much. And nothing about writing TLI was difficult! Caden talking about his feelings toward his sexuality was emotional, but not hard, if that makes sense. That said, I was so worried about letting people read it! It felt very personal.

If you had to pick one song to be the Theme Song for THE LOVE INTEREST – Which one would you pick?

This is a tough one, but I’d say HOLD ON by Twin Atlantic!

Are there any recommendations you could give your readers to be in the “perfect mood” to read THE LOVE INTEREST (specific music, snacks…)?

I LOVE THIS QUESTION. And I’d say a Starbucks frappuccino, for sure. It just feels like a frappuccino kind of book to me.

What’s next for you?

Nothing I can talk about yet, I’m afraid! I really hope to have more news soon! But I think it’s safe to say that it’ll be a speculative romance with a gay hero.

Thank you so much for everything, Cale!

Thanks so much for having me!