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 
A Moment With… Rachel Debrave
It’s so wonderful to be welcoming Rachel Debrave to Novel Kicks and the blog tour for her book, Too Much to Hope For.
Scarlett Hope has found a surprising rhythm at Haddon House. Just months into life with Laird Edward Cameron-Reid, their chemistry is electric, and the future feels full of promise – but something inside her is stirring. She’s traded city charm for estate calm yet still feels caught between worlds.
Then Harry shows up. A famous music producer – and a blast from Scarlett’s past – he’s in town to film with a renowned band. His arrival is magnetic, disruptive, and the last thing she ever expected. Scarlett loves Edward, but Harry’s presence reawakens the version of herself she thought she’d left behind.
When Edward’s daughter announces she’s pregnant and moves in full-time, the pressure only grows. And when Scarlett meets Sophie, a young woman struggling to make a home for her unborn child, one small act of kindness turns into something far bigger – a project that might just change everything. But as tragedy strikes, Scarlett faces a deeper choice – not between two men, but between who she was and who she’s becoming.
Too Much to Hope For is a high spice, emotionally layered story of love, legacy, and identity – about staying rooted in love while growing into something more. Perfect for readers who loved the emotional fire of A New Hope in the Highlands, the small-town heart of Things We Never Got Over, and the soul-deep reckoning of After I Do.
Without further ado, it’s over to Rachel.
When Chemistry Isn’t Enough – Writing Spice Without Losing The Story.
Readers and writers talk a lot about “spice” at the moment. How much is too much. Whether it’s necessary. Whether it adds anything at all. As both a reader and a writer of romance, I find the conversation fascinating – and occasionally a little heated.
Because for me, the question isn’t really about how explicit something is. It’s about whether it matters.
I love chemistry. There’s nothing quite like that first charged exchange between two characters who just click. The dialogue sharpens. The air shifts. You can feel the pull before either of them admits it.
But chemistry on its own is easy.
What’s harder – and far more interesting – is asking what that chemistry is doing.
There’s a lot of conversation about ‘spice’ versus ‘smut’. I find it fascinating – and sometimes a little puritanical and/or judgemental – on either side of the fence. Some readers want closed-door romance. Others want very explicit, on-the-page intimacy. Neither is wrong, and let’s not yuk someone’s yum (as the cool kids are calling it!). But for me, the real question isn’t how graphic something is – it’s whether it means something.
by Book Review: Daisy Does It Herself by Gracie Player
I am pleased to be welcoming Gracie Player to Novel Kicks. She’s here with the blog tour for her novel, Daisy Does it Herself.
Sometimes, the Last Place You Intended to Go is Exactly Where You Need to Be.
When 26-year-old Daisy’s life in London comes crashing down around her, the only thing she can think of is getting away – far away. That’s how she found herself stumbling off a train in England’s picturesque Peak District – 150 miles from home, with no idea why she’d gone there and even less idea how she intended to get home.
As Daisy explores the gorgeous village of Upper Finlay, she glimpses the possibility of a different life. The Derbyshire Dales offer up new friends, new opportunities, and a distractingly dishy object of attraction in the form of local bookstore owner Alex (and his bumbling Great Dane.) When Daisy discovers Alex’s business is in trouble she steps in to save the day.
But London’s Calling – literally. The life Daisy ran away from is calling her back. Why then, is she so reluctant to heed its call?
Daisy’s got a decision to make: Will she play it safe, and return to what she knew? Or is she brave enough to take a leap of faith and create a bold, new life for herself in the last place she’d ever expected?
Daisy Does it Herself is a sweet, uplifting romantic comedy about the power of self-confidence, friendship and of course love! Fans of warm and witty romantic comedies with a guaranteed happily-ever-after will be entranced.
*****
In one day, Daisy finds herself out of a job and out of a home. To make it worse, she walks in on her boyfriend kissing another woman. She leaves, just wanting to get away.
In her attempt to escape London, she finds herself on a train and eventually in Upper Finlay in Derbyshire.
Taken in by Alex, the handsome and friendly owner of the local bookshop, Daisy slowly starts to potentially see another life for herself. Will she go back to the familiar or jump into the unknown?
by Blog Tour: The Summer Holidays Survival Guide by Jon Rance
The brilliant Jon Rance is back with his new novel, The Summer Holidays Survival Guide (perfectly timed for the approaching summer holidays.)
Two parents. Three children. One senile grandad. Six weeks. How bad could it possibly be?
For teacher, Ben Robinson, the school summer holidays mean one thing – spending six weeks with his kids. This year, however, he also has his father and one very angry wife to contend with. The name of the game is simple: survive.
Ben embarks on a summer of self-discovery that includes, amongst other things, becoming besotted by a beautiful Australian backpacker, an accidental Brexit march and a road rage attack. There’s also the matter of saving his marriage, which is proving harder than he imagined, mainly due to an unfortunate pyramid scheme and one quite large bottom.
But when Ben learns his father has a secret, it takes the whole family on a trip to Scotland that will make or break their summer – and perhaps Ben’s life.
On the last day of his blog tour, Jon has joined me today to talk about his evolution as a writer. Welcome Jon. Over to you.
Hello! A huge thank you to Novel Kicks for having me on their blog. It’s exciting to be here! So, my new book, The Summer Holidays Survival Guide, is out and just 99p for a limited time! Today, the last stop on my blog tour, I’m going to be talking about my evolution as a writer. Let’s get started!
For those of you who don’t know me, The Summer Holidays Survival Guide, is my seventh novel. It all started way back in the heady days of 2011! We had our daughter in 2009 and our son was on the way, and I was a stay-at-home dad. I chose to be a stay-at-home father so I could write. I’d written a couple of unpublished novels, but then I suddenly got my big break. My self-published novel, The Thirtysomething Life, unexpectedly shot up the charts and broke into the Kindle top ten. I was as shocked as anyone. On the back of that success, I got a two-book publishing deal with Hodder and Stoughton and then an agent. My novels are usually comedies that deal with issues like marriage, family, parenting, falling in love, growing up or as it says on my website – author of contemporary novels about life, love, and all the icky bits in-between. I think, to be fair, it’s usually the icky bits in-between I’m most interested in.
So, now you know a bit about me, let’s talk evolution. My first novel, This Thirtysomething Life, was a diary about one man, Harry Spencer, early thirties, trying to get through the pregnancy and birth of his first child. My latest book, The Summer Holidays Survival Guide, is the diary of one man, Ben Robinson, 44, trying to get through the summer holidays with his family. Evolution? Well, yes. I wrote my new book because I realised last summer, as I was on a six-week holiday with my own family through England and Scotland, how far we’ve all come and how much has changed. I wrote, The Summer Holiday Survival Guide, as an update on my first book. It’s what happens down the line when the kids are older, the parents are older, and all the complications that come with that. It was as much a reflection on my own life as anything else.
by A Moment With: Bella Osborne
Avon, April 2018
A big lovely hug and a warm hello to Bella Osborne who is back on Novel Kicks today with the blog tour for her latest instalment of the Ottercombe Bay series, Raising the Bar.
Escape to the Devon coast, with Part Three of a brand-new four-part serial from the author of Willow Cottage.
Daisy Wickens has returned to Ottercombe Bay, the picturesque Devon town where her mother died when she was a girl. She plans to leave as soon as her great uncle’s funeral is over, but Great Uncle Reg had other ideas. He’s left Daisy a significant inheritance – an old building in a state of disrepair, which could offer exciting possibilities, but to get it she must stay in Ottercombe Bay for twelve whole months.
With the help of a cast of quirky locals, a few gin cocktails and a black pug with plenty of attitude, Daisy might just turn this into something special. But can she ever hope to be happy among the ghosts of her past?
Bella is chatting today about using Pinterest for research when starting a novel. Over to you, Bella.
Thanks for having me on the blog today. I’m a project manager by profession so I’m a big planner when it comes to pretty much everything I do, so it’s no surprise that I plan my writing. I love the planning stage when a new idea pops up and characters start to form in my mind. I spend quite a long time with them working out who they are, their life history, what their drivers are and what makes them tick. While I’m in the early stages (before I get out the post it notes) I set up a board on Pinterest and start pinning things on it. Not everything will stay but as a visual person it really helps to see pictures of things to help bring them to life.
While I was planning Ottercombe Bay I set up a board on Pinterest, here’s the link – https://www.pinterest.co.uk/bellaosborne9/ottercombe-bay/
I like to picture my main characters and Marlon Teixeira is a model that captures the look of Max perfectly. I struggled more with Daisy. There are a few pictures of Shakira because her hair is similar to Daisy’s but otherwise she’s quite different to Shakira. I am a Rufus Sewell fan so it was no surprise that an image of him popped up when I conjured up the character of Pasco, Max’s dad. But it was very much the rough around the edges, lovable rogue look that Rufus does rather than the neat and well turned out version. I love looking at the pictures of Marlon and Rufus next to each other – I can definitely see a similarity or perhaps I see the Max and Pasco connection that I want to be there?
by Book Club
