Thank you so much to Angel’s Book Nook for this chance to share an extract from Sugar and Spice at the Pumpkin Corner Café! It’s a cozy new romance where pastry chef Blaire unexpectedly inherits her aunt’s beloved café in the small town of Willow Grove. Her childhood sweetheart Evan is also back in town, but their first meeting is fraught with tension due to a misunderstanding. In the special extract below, Evan’s no-nonsense Gran sets the record straight and gives her grandson something to think about when it comes to the next time he crosses paths with Blaire.

“What’s up?” Evan closed up his tool box. “Something wrong?”

“I know that you’re a good man, even if you have a little bit of a temper,” she said. “You can be more stubborn than your granddad and dad together, but you have a good heart and a fair mind, and you don’t leave any mistakes unfixed when you make one. I’ve always been proud of that.”

This speech was making him feel a little concerned — like someone was dying, or a rumor was going around about him that he hadn’t heard. “What’s this about?” he asked. “Did I do something wrong?”

“Not exactly. But I need you to do something right,” she said. “I heard something today at the assisted living center. It’s not something to spread around town, but I think you need to know.”

It can’t be true.

As he shifted the pickup truck into first gear on the outskirts of town, this was his unbelieving thought. He knew it had to be true, though, because his Gran had heard it with her own ears; otherwise, he’d say it was just gossip. But it explained a lot of things, especially why his pumpkin order hadn’t been necessary, because if Blaire didn’t have her aunt’s recipe, she would have panicked when she thought of all those pumpkins piling up without a purpose.

She wouldn’t have told him about it, that much he knew was certain. But if she had come by and explained, I would’ve understood. We wouldn’t have made her keep that contract. He hoped she didn’t think he was a jerk who would treat her like that.

If it was a real secret, she didn’t have to worry, he’d keep it buried for her.

He parked in the only available spot on main, just behind a little economy model car outside the everything store. The pastry café’s Halloween-printed flags were caught in the pull of the wind, whipping around.

He grabbed the old brass door handle, but it didn’t budge. The shop was locked, with a note above its ‘closed’ sign. Temporary New Hours — Monday through Saturday, one to four.

“It’s closed,” said someone behind him, a delicate little elderly woman carrying a shopping bag from the fabric store. “They don’t have a full staff, apparently.”

“What happened?”

“She’s gone back to the city, Rachel’s niece,” she replied. “She only comes to town three days a week, leaves on Sundays. Lynn told me, she’s good friends with her.”

“Do you know what days she’s here?”

“Fridays and Saturdays, I think.” She pressed the button on her keychain remote, and the little economy car’s locks clicked. “I hope that helps you.”

He’d have to wait until the week’s end to apologize. That made him restless. He didn’t like waiting for things like that. It made him feel like he was putting off things, slacking off responsibility. Like he didn’t care if he took care of it.

He parked outside the barn. Nobody else was inside, since Trey was hauling a trailer load of harvested apples to meet one of their customers, a cider press that made local vinegar and apple ciders from organic produce.

He wanted something he could work on alone and uninterrupted when his head was full of conflict. Sanding down boards for the walls should do it — back in the city, he had spent these moments trying to fix a faulty electric pencil sharpener, or twisted the sides of the Rubik’s Cube until he had one color’s tiles completed.

He didn’t have anything important to do tomorrow. Loading the next apple delivery could be done anytime in the afternoon, and he could crunch those numbers for the books at night.

Skipping breakfast in the morning, he filled up a thermos with coffee and went outside before Meg served scrambled eggs and toast at the table, opening the door of his truck.

He heard a whistle. “You cleaned up,” called Maggie, as a joke. “Big date?” She was sitting on the corral fence, currying Shotzie’s mane before school.

Instead of an old pair of jeans and a work shirt, he was wearing nice casual clothes, with a blazer, the type he wore for casual Friday at the office or drinks with clients at some soft work weekend meeting. It wouldn’t be a good idea to show up looking like a farmhand at an upscale business.

He pretended not to get the joke. “Got a meeting in the city,” he answered. “See you later. Be good at school today.” Being stern was a good way to change the conversation’s tone.

“Gran said if you dressed like that, you’d break hearts,” Maggie reminded him.

“If that’s the best joke you’ve got, don’t quit your day job, that’s my advice,” he answered. He felt his face turning hot, but since he was sliding into the driver’s seat, she wouldn’t see. That line was a joke too popular in his family these days, with him not dating anybody at present.

“Weak zinger from you, Uncle Evan,” said Maggie, pretending to be insulted. He shut the truck’s door and started the ignition. He took a deep breath into his chest as he shifted gears.

Get this done. Do it for Gran, he thought, as if it wasn’t for him.

*****

Sugar and Spice at the Pumpkin Corner Café

The perfect new cozy-up-with-a-pumpkin-spice-latte read that’s meant for fans of Laurie Gilmore and Rebecca Raisin!

Professional pastry chef Blaire Reese is blindsided when her beloved Aunt Rachel dies, leaving her the Sugar and Spice Pastry Cafe in Willow Grove. Returning to her hometown, Blaire discovers her beloved family business is in trouble, and—to make things worse—its most-cherished recipe is missing.

Her first love and former summer crush, Evan Hadley, is also back in town, having traded a corporate career to help manage his family’s Heath Acre Farm, famous for its autumn Hay Daze corn maze. Grown up – and with rugged good looks – he’s only charming when he wants to be. Like when he’s not tangling with someone over business matters, the way he is with Blaire after she cancels a large order for organic pumpkins.

Her sunshine is disappearing under his grumpy storm clouds, until he accidentally learns the truth about her situation. Now, he offers to help save her aunt’s legacy and her family’s pastry cafe. As they work together in secret, the ingredients for a very different recipe develop— one simmering with romance—but an unexpected turn of events melts their growing attraction into a mess.

Will Blaire save the beloved cafe and find the lost recipe that means so much to the pastry café’s customers? And can she save this last chance at love with the first boy she ever kissed?

Sugar and Spice at the Pumpkin Corner Café invites readers to dive into its cozy autumn escape this fall—for fans of grumpy x sunshine, small town romance, Gilmore Girls, pumpkin lattes, sugar and spice and everything else that’s nice about this magical season!

Purchase Link
Amazon

 

Laura Briggs is the author of several feel-good romance reads, including the Top 100 Amazon UK seller ‘A Wedding in Cornwall’. She has a fondness for vintage style dresses (especially ones with polka dots), and reads everything from Jane Austen to modern day mysteries. When she’s not writing, she enjoys spending time with family and friends, caring for her pets, gardening, and seeing the occasional movie or play.

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