A Moment With… Laura Briggs

Published March 18, 2026 | By Laura

I’m so pleased to be welcoming Laura Briggs back to Novel Kicks and the blog tour for her latest novel, 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!

To talk to us about her book and her love for Autumn, it’s over to Laura.

I’m thrilled for this opportunity to share about my cozy new autumn romance Sugar and Spice at the Pumpkin Corner Café with everyone at Novel Kicks today!

Autumn has always seemed like a magical season to me, with hay rides, hot apple cider, and, of course, heartwarming seasonal movies from Hallmark Channel and Great American Family brimming with fall feels. When I set out to write my latest romance story, I wanted it to capture that atmosphere in a way that transported readers to the cozy, idyllic town of their dreams where there are fall festivities on every corner and trays of autumn-infused treats are always on hand to munch on as you contemplate life’s surprising twists and turns.

Willow Grove, the town where my story’s heroine Blaire returns to run her aunt’s beloved little cafe is a bit like Stars Hollow from Gilmore Girls, with quirky townsfolk, charming, old-fashioned businesses on every corner, and a town fall festival that has everyone talking. I definitely had some inspiration from favorite movies, TV shows, and books for the kind of tone I wanted Blaire and Evan’s story to capture. Losing yourself in the atmosphere is one of the most fun parts of the writing process, especially for projects like this, where it’s all about the escapist factor. We all dream about the perfect holiday visit to a picture-perfect setting and hopefully Blaire’s cozy corner of the world will deliver that for fans of books like The Cinnamon Spice Inn or those of us who dream about owning Meg Ryan’s bookstore in You’ve Got Mail (because, really who hasn’t!). Maybe that’s why Blaire’s café has a book nook actually, since there’s nothing cozier than books and pumpkin pastries together in one spot, is there?

Of course, there’s also romance in the air, but Blaire’s HEA is anything but simple as she reencounters her childhood sweetheart Evan in unexpected circumstances. Defenses go up even as sparks fly, but the memory of a first love and first kiss is almost impossible to forget. It’s the sort of story that’s perfect for those who like their romances sweet and their desserts sweeter— it even has a bit of grumpy x sunshine for those who love their tropes.

If Sugar and Spice at the Pumpkin Corner Café sounds like the perfect addition to your tbr list, I hope you’ll be sure to check it out at your favorite eBook retailer. And if you’d like to know which movies and TV shows were among the top influences for the stories tone, you can check out my latest Instragram reel about it at.

About Laura Briggs –

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.