A Moment With… Laura Briggs
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!
by 
Book Extracts: Some Love Lasts & Getting to Yes By Tim Hunniecutt
I am so pleased to be welcoming Tim Hunniecutt as we shine a light on two of his novels, Some Love Lasts and Getting to Yes.
A rescue in the midst of chaos and a first glance that changes everything anchor Some Love Lasts and Getting to Yes. Through both stories, Tim Hunniecutt explores how youth, courage, and vulnerability intersect in defining moments.
Some Love Lasts –
Fourteen-year-old Madi arrives at her grandparents’ beach condo expecting calm days and quiet evenings. Instead, she becomes drawn to Matthew, the older boy next door whose lifeguard bravery and steady demeanor command attention. When he focuses on her, she experiences a new awareness of herself.
Their connection deepens as summer unfolds, shifting from fascination into a powerful bond. When a hurricane tears through the coastline, Matthew risks everything in a rescue that imprints itself on Madi’s heart. The memory shapes her understanding of love long after the season ends. Years later, their reunion in college raises questions about whether their shared past still holds meaning.
First up, we have an extract from Chapter One of Some Love Lasts.
The First Save
Though it was still early morning, warm humidity saturated the air. Billowing white clouds with dark spots drifted across the sky. The foaming waves gently crashed on the sand. Tiny sandpipers darted in and out. Seagulls squawked while circling.
Her eight-year-old sister edged into the water until it covered her feet. “It’s really warm.”
Madi joined her, and Roe grasped her hand firmly as they ventured farther until it reached their chests. Madi crouched and helped her sister float. “Yeah, it’s so warm, like being in a bathtub.”
She allowed her sister to do what she wanted as they were the only ones on the beach. Grandpa sat on one of the chairs, watching them from the shore. Her sister practiced swimming while Madi held her hat.
Roe tried to ride the waves as they broke, but they barely rippled, and she moved little if at all. She stood upright. “I’m bored.”
by Book Review: Death For Sale By Erik S. Meyers
It’s holiday time in Berry Springs, where many come together to enjoy good food, drink, and the company of friends.
Unfortunately, death is among the mix as people get mysteriously ill at the town’s Thanksgiving dinner. Deaths follow, and Sally must race to discover the truth before more people die off.
Coupled with worry for her aging parents, she is overwhelmed with the pressure and emotions, but she’ll push through to solve the crimes and restore peace to the town.
*****
Sally Witherspoon is enjoying her life in the Arkansas Ozarks. She’s dedicated to her biker bar and loves being a part of the community in Berry Springs. However, when the Thanksgiving festivities brings unexplained deaths, she is once again plunged into an investigation. Is it just a case of bad food poisoning hitting the older residents of the town or is something more sinister at play.
This was my introduction to Erik S. Meyer’s Sally Witherspoon Mystery series. Death For Sale is book 3 with Death in the Ozarks and Murder on the Mississippi being books 1 and 2 respectively. However, I felt that whilst reading the first two in the series would have enriched my experience with this novel, it didn’t place me at a disadvantage in terms of knowledge. It can stand alone.
by NK Chats To… M.D. Dixon
Hello. Thank you so much for bringing the blog tour for IKONA to Novel Kicks. What’s a detail, theme, or clue in your book that most readers might miss on the first read—but you secretly hope someone notices?
I hope someone notices that whilst the present-day chapters and future chapters are chronologically ordered forward in time, the chapters set in the past (early 20th century Siberia) move backwards in time, so that the earliest chapter timeline-wise for the past chapters reaches a climax at the latest period time-wise for the other chapters. Truthfully, there are many other details that might be missed but which astute readers will catch: recurring motifs, the recursive nature of the story, how Gutov’s chapter 26 is also IKONA’s chapter 26, for example.
When did this story or idea “click” into place for you—was there a single moment you knew you had to write it?
This story first came to me in 2012. I planned the structure and journeys for years before I sat down to write it. I knew from the moment I got the first few pages and the title that it would be my most mature work. It is my fourth novel, but my first published novel. It was a persistent inner voice which never left me no matter how many twists and turns my life took in the interim. I wrote it in 2022.
Which character or real-life person surprised you the most while writing this book, and why?
Finley Minor’s journey evolved in a way I didn’t expect. No spoilers so I will just say that his arc deeply moved me, and I was unprepared for my own emotional reaction.
If your book had a soundtrack, what three songs would be on it and what scenes or moments would they pair with?
by Book Extract: A Dowager is Done In By Helen Golden
I’m delighted to be welcoming Helen Golden back to Novel Kicks and the blog tour for her latest book in The Duchess of Stortford series, A Dowager is Done In.
A mysterious summons. A fatal hot chocolate. And a duchess who never expected mourning to be this dreadfully dull.
Hampshire, 1891. Six months into widowhood, Alice, Duchess of Stortford, is restless. Black gowns and seclusion in the country have their limits, so when Clarissa, Dowager Countess of Romley, sends a personal summons asking for her discreet assistance with a troubling matter at Lawrence House, Alice seizes the excuse for a change of scene.
But what begins as a family gathering to welcome home the Dowager’s once-disgraced son ends in shock. Clarissa is discovered dead, her passing swiftly dismissed as a heart attack. Alice knows better. The Dowager had been afraid — and had trusted her to uncover the truth. Someone silenced her, but why? Was it to do with the announcement she made over dinner, or something even more dangerous?
Now everyone in the house is a suspect: the resentful heir, the returning prodigal, the mysterious guest with a too-familiar face. With her sharp-witted maid Maud, steadfast footman George, and her reluctant ally Lord Rushton at her side, Alice must act quickly. If the Dowager was murdered to keep her secrets buried, the killer will not hesitate to strike again.
The Dowager is dead. The clock is ticking. And the duchess is about to discover that country house parties can be murder.
Full of clever twists and a heroine who won’t give up until she finds out the truth, A Dowager is Done-in is the perfect escape for fans of historical mysteries wrapped in wit and warmth.
Helen has shared an extract from A Dowager is Done In with us today so you know what you have to do… grab that coffee, a biscuit, the comfortable chair and enjoy.
*****beginning of extract*****
Manning Hall, November 1891. It’s six-months since Alice, Duchess of Stortford’s husband, Vance, died. She’s learning to manage things at Manning Hall, and she’s even started the school project she discussed with Vance before his death. The only thing is—she’s finding mourning is boring! But when a letter arrives from Clarissa, Dowager Countess of Romley, hinting at a troubling matter at her home in Hampshire, Lawrence House, and asking for Alice’s help, she should just say no shouldn’t she? And, of course, Aunt Cora has a strong view about Alice’s responsibilities…
*****
Fee clapped her hands. “How thrilling! She wants you especially.”
“Highly irregular,” Baxter muttered.
“Well, you cannot possibly go,” Aunt Cora declared, crossing her arms. “You’re only six months into your mourning period. A house party would be entirely inappropriate.”
“It’s hardly a house party, Aunt Cora,” Fee protested. “More of a family gathering. Alice is family through my marriage to Duncan.”
by Book Club
