1--What is the title of your latest release?
THE MARRIAGE VENDETTA
2--What’s the “elevator pitch” for your new book?
When resentful stay-at-home mom Eliza is sent a suggestive photo of her husband Richard with another woman, she’s just about ready to file for divorce. As a last resort, she visits a marriage therapist, Ms. Early, who Eliza quickly learns is a bit… alternative in her approach.
As their sessions unfold, Ms. Early spurs Eliza on to commit a series of bizarre, vengeful acts against Richard, all in the name of “retraining” him. But when therapy takes a risky turn, suspicions grow and alliances shift… How far is Eliza willing to go to save her marriage?
3--How did you decide where your book was going to take place?
THE MARRIAGE VENDETTA is a (loose) modern retelling of the doomed relationship between the playwright Richard Brinsley Sheridan and his wife Eliza. I had considered setting the book in Bath in England where the real Eliza grew up, and where she first met Richard.
In the end, I changed my mind and decided to set it in Dublin because I’ve lived here more than half my life now and love this city so much. I also wanted to give the book a distinctly dark, Irish sense of humor.
4--Would you hang out with your protagonist in real life?
100%! Eliza is definitely flawed, but I love her gallows wit and self-deprecating take on life. She uses humor as armor, and even when her marriage is falling apart before her eyes she tries to put a bravely funny spin on it. This doesn’t go down well with her renegade therapist, who urges her to a take a much more ‘proactive’ (borderline illegal) approach to solving her marital problems.
Eliza is a mother on the edge, and I’ve definitely been there – we could hang out on the edge together!
5--What are three words that describe your protagonist?
Witty. Frazzled. Rage-y (if that’s a word!).
6--What’s something you learned while writing this book?
The process of writing this book taught me so much. Most importantly, it made me re-evaluate my own rigid definition of a happy ending. When I first started writing THE MARRIAGE VENDETTA, I had envisioned a traditional happy ending for fictional Eliza, but I’m delighted that she rejected my plan and opted instead for something much braver and more original. It’s an ending that I hope would have made the real Eliza Linley happy.
7--Do you edit as you draft or wait until you are totally done?
Every week, I submit my finished pages to my writing group, and we critique each other’s work. It’s extremely helpful to get their feedback. If I agree with their suggestions, I edit those pages and then push ahead again. Once I have a full manuscript, I polish it over and over until I feel I can’t make it any better. With THE MARRIAGE VENDETTA, I also paid for a manuscript assessment by a very experienced former editor, and I revised it based on her insights.
I then redrafted the book again based on my literary agent’s advice, and did a further three rounds of edits for my editor. This may seem like a lot of rewriting, but the pacing and plot improved so much with each draft, resulting – hopefully! – in a much more satisfying read.
8--What’s your favorite foodie indulgence?
Cake and cappuccinos while writing in the Parisian-style café in the seaside village near where I live. Bliss!
9--Describe your writing space/office?
I had so much fun recently using a little of my book advance to create a writing space for myself. The room is painted a dusty pink with lots and lots of white bookshelves. I have a big mood board with photos and quotes to inspire my next book, and a corkboard that I use for plotting. And – luxury of luxuries! – there’s a day bed where my little bichon Benji snoozes while I write.
I always have a scented candle on my desk – I light it and turn on the same song whenever I sit down to write. I find that the same scent and music helps me to get back into the writing ‘zone’ more quickly – I need all the brain tricks I can get!
10--Who is an author you admire?
The Irish author Roisín O’Donnell. I think Roisín’s remarkable debut novel Nesting – which depicts a mother trying to deal with the nightmarish reality of coercive control - should be required reading for every member of Ireland’s family law system (and indeed in other countries too).
11--Is there a book that changed your life?
Yes. The Second Sex by Simone de Beauvoir. I return to it every time I need my head straightened out. So, quite regularly!
12--Tell us about when you got “the call.” (when you found out your book was going to be published)/Or, for indie authors, when you decided to self-publish.
I was in a very loud pizza restaurant with my children when my wonderful literary agent Kesia Lupo phoned me. I couldn’t hear her very well because of the noise, but I heard enough to know that a publisher had made a firm offer on The Marriage Vendetta. The reality hit: I was finally going to be a published author.
I was ecstatic because I’d been trying to get published for well over a decade and had experienced so many crushing rejections. It was lovely to be able to celebrate the moment with my kids – there were ice-cream sundaes all round that day!
13--What’s your favorite genre to read?
Female rage
14--What’s your favorite movie?
Nightbitch, adapted from the remarkable Rachel Yoder novel. Amy Adams plays an artist/stay-at-home mom who’s struggling with the loss of identity and isolation of new motherhood. As her fury grows, she begins to morph into the animalistic Nightbitch, letting her feral side run wild. What’s not to love?
15--What is your favorite season?
Definitely fall. I’m a Gilmore Girl at heart – my bucket list includes a trip to Connecticut when the leaves are turning, I can soak up that Stars Hollow vibe. For me, fall weather feels like permission to do my favorite thing without feeling lazy or guilty: specifically, cozying up with coffee and a good book.
16--How do you like to celebrate your birthday?
For some reason, celebrating my own birthday always makes me a bit uncomfortable, but this year will be different. My birthday falls on the day after THE MARRIAGE VENDETTA comes out in the US on June 10th, so I’ll be throwing a little family Champagne party to celebrate my book baby’s American release!
17--What’s a recent tv show/movie/book/podcast you highly recommend?
The blindingly intelligent, fearless feminist writer Zawn Villines has a podcast that I love called Liberating Motherhood. I also highly recommend Zawn’s newsletter, which is about the cultural messages that oppress mothers, and why it’s not your fault that you spend every Mother’s Day angry.
18--What’s your favorite type of cuisine?
Anything I don’t have to cook myself!
If I had to choose, it would be French food. One of my very favorite things to do is to sit outside a restaurant called Chez Max near Dublin Castle, with moules frites, a glass of prosecco and a book. All the staff are French, the atmosphere is totally authentic, and the food is wonderful.
Lately I’ve been fantasizing about going on a writing retreat to Paris, really just so I can have an excuse to sit around in bistros reading, lingering over long lunches and ‘thinking’ about my next book.
19--What do you do when you have free time?
Whenever I have free time (without my kids), I escape over the Dublin mountains to Wicklow, a stunningly beautiful county known as the garden of Ireland. I always stay in the same place: a gorgeous little spa hotel surrounded by nature. I go there to write, rest and –if this doesn’t sound too pretentious— refill my creative well. The hotel is generally filled with exhausted mothers in robes lying about on loungers, offering up silent prayers of thanks for a few days of not having to cook (or maybe I’m projecting!).
It’s such a special place that it inspired the setting for my next book (see below).
20--What can readers expect from you next?
I’m working on a novel called The Village, set in a secretive radical feminist community designed specifically to support mothers and children. It asks the question: what would women be willing to do to protect a female-centric utopia? (Spoiler alert: a lot!)
A Novel
A darkly funny feminist debut about a resentful stay-at-home wife and her vindictive marriage therapist
Revenge is in session.
Eliza Sheridan is at her wits' end with her husband, Richard. Not only did he uproot her and their daughter Mara's lives for his career, but he also hasn’t honored the one thing he promised before moving to Dublin: that he’d make more time for his wife and daughter.
So when Eliza receives an anonymous photo of Richard with another woman, she's just about ready to file for divorce. As a last resort, she pays a visit to a marriage therapist, Ms. Early, who Eliza quickly learns is a bit…alternative in her approach. As their sessions unfold, Ms. Early spurs her on to commit a series of vengeful acts against Richard—each more bizarre than the last—all in the name of “re-training” her husband. But when therapy takes a risky turn, suspicions grow and alliances shift... How far is Eliza willing to go to save her marriage?
Suspense | Humor [Park Row, On Sale: June 10, 2025, Trade Paperback / e-Book , ISBN: 9780778387565 / eISBN: 9780369762740]
Having grown up in a small town in the middle of Ireland, Caroline got notions and moved toDublin where she swanned around Trinity College for a few years. She got a degree in something called management science and still isn’t sure what exactly that is.After trying to make it as a corporate stooge, Caroline found herself in the world of journalism where she was able to secretly work on her novels while she was supposed to be writing stock market reports.
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