Mm, what’s that delicious scent? Could it be … yep! Halloween has kicked off the holiday season in Romancelandia and every book smells of pumpkin spice. Well, that might just be my dirty chai latte, which has a bit more kick …
Fun fact, most pumpkin spice lattes (PSLs) don’t contain pumpkin. The spice mix is what Americans used to flavour pumpkin pie and it’s basically what we call ‘mixed spice’ (i.e. cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves as the base with regional variations added such as ginger, allspice, cumin, pepper and caraway). That said, Starbucks, who invented the PSL in 2003 started adding pureed pumpkin to their mix in 2015, so if you need more veg in your diet that’s an option.
You’ve probably worked out by now that I’m a foodie. I also love cooking and cake decorating, so it felt natural to write a bake-off novel. The idea for a cook vs chef came from the pairing of Maggie Beer and Simon Bryant. In my version, however, the pair are not only rivals, forced to work together, but estranged high-school sweethearts.
The story runs right across the US holiday season, from Halloween through Thanksgiving to Christmas. I guarantee a happy ending, but Hallmark it is not. Twice Baked is high angst and higher heat. Readers have called it a ‘five-alarm fire’ and warned you’ll need to ‘get the fire extinguisher.’
I can’t provide the latter, but for those who drool over the baking descriptions, I wrote a companion recipe book. (Hey, someone had to test bake!) You can pick up your copy via my website.
Twice Baked was the runner-up for this year’s Romance Writers of Australia Ruby Award in the contemporary long category. It follows A Match Made for TV —another production by the infamous Aussie gameshow host, Bex Jameson. Both books feature the same crew, but are standalone reads.
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Twice Baked
Connor Brennan, bad boy turned pastry chef.
First crush, first kiss, first love.
The boy who ruined her reputation and crashed his future, before ghosting her when she needed him most.
Isla Kent, cook and divorced single mom.
High school sweetheart.
The good girl who defied her parents to date him, then married his best friend. Her betrayal broke him.
The chef and the cook.
Paired on a reality TV bake-off, their chemistry still smokes. But when Isla confesses the secret she’s kept from him, will Connor burn their second chance?
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