What a gorgeous festive read! I loved the world of Maple Falls when I read The Cinnamon Spice Inn so I was excited to jump back into it. I was thinking I wouldn’t enjoy this one as much as I tend to prefer autumnal books over Christmas ones, but I may have changed my mind with this book.
The Spiced Cocoa Cafe by Harper Graham is publishing today!
By the way, it’s only £1.99 on Amazon, or free on Kindle Unlimited!
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Cassidy is the new girl in town, setting up a new chocolate shop just in time for the Christmas rush, determined to best the most established businesses in town with her Christmas decor. Liam runs the farm shop opposite her, and is best described as her opposite too, a Grinch, despite his usual year-round sunny disposition. The two have their own hidden pasts around Christmas which have sent them in different directions around the holidays, but this year, these bring them together.
This was so gorgeously written. Just like the first in the series, it invokes such strong visual images and scents – I could smell the spiced hot cocoa while reading!
Yes, I did drag my family out for a walk in the woods just so I could make spiced hot chocolate after reading this, despite it being an unseasonably warm day and not Christmassy at all – I was living my best Christmas life, just a couple of months too early!
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The characters are lovely, really nicely written and very true to life. There was great chemistry between these two, and I love that the wider world is being built out for future books too. I love guessing where the stories will go with the other characters in this type of series. There are some real gems, such as Kit, the chef at the Cinnamon Spice Inn who was introduced in the last book and continues to be a fun side character in this one.
It also had a fun little mystery with the “Gingerbread Jerk” who was quietly destroying the Christmas decor – a nice, low-stakes way to bring the characters together.
Overall, it’s a super duper cosy book with plenty of Christmas vibes. Pure Christmas comfort in one book! If Stars Hollow had a Christmas twin, it would be Maple Falls, and I’m officially obsessed. I’m now very tempted to get my Christmas decor up, despite still pulling out my Halloween ones!
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In my opinion, these books are the new Laurie Gilmore Dream Harbor. If you enjoy those, you’ll love these too. I might even love them a little bit more (sshh!).
Thank you to Netgalley, the author and the publishers for a review copy of this book.
This sounds like a great read for this season! I’ll ready my hot cocoa!