The Inspiration Behind Laurie Gilmore's Latest Cosy, Autumn Book, The Pumpkin Spice Café

If you're looking for an autumn read that will make you feel cosy and warm, The Pumpkin Spice Café by Laurie Gilmore is the one for you. The newly released novel has taken BookTok by storm, selling over 2,500 copies just on TikTok Shop.

The book follows city girl, Jeanie, who has just moved to Dream Harbour to take over her aunt's café, The Pumpkin Spice Café. She needs to step away from the craziness of the city, so she moves to this small town to do some soul searching and to slow her life down a little.

This is where she bumps into Logan, Dream Harbour's very attractive, grumpy farmer, who everyone in the town has a soft spot for. The book then follows their relationship, Jeanie settling into this small town. whilst also giving us everything that we could possibly need in an autumn read, such as pumpkin lined streets, fall festivals, pumpkin spice lattes, and cosy vibes!

I had the opportunity to have a conversation with Laurie (pen-name for Melissa McTernan), to chat about all things romance books, her writing journey and more! See the interview below.

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Do you prefer writing small town, cosy romance books, or fantasy romance books? Do

you find one genre easier to write than the other?

The Pumpkin Spice Cafe was my first small town romance and I kinda loved writing it. I

don’t think writing is ever actually easy, but in fantasy there is definitely more to keep

track of and more external plot to deal with. On the other hand, in small town/cosy you

really need to make the internal conflict believable since there is less external stuff to

keep the characters apart. So…I don’t know! It’s all kinda hard in some ways but I did

have a lot of fun with Pumpkin Spice. I’m excited to write more in this world!

Are there any authors that inspire your work, or do your ideas come to you naturally?

How do you know when an idea is strong enough to turn it into a book?

There are so many authors that inspire me. I learned to write romance by reading a ton

of romance and just being a little romance sponge. I will read something and then decide

I want to try that and put my own spin on it. To me, the best part about writing romance

is that we’re all taking beloved tropes and that guaranteed HEA and making it our own.

My biggest inspirations for this series were The Lovelight Farms series by BK Borison,

pretty much everything by Kate Clayborn, Emily Henry’s Book Lovers, and Cat

Sebastian is the master of grumpy/sunshine, so definitely her too. I don’t know if I ever know that an idea is strong enough to turn into a book but I’m not really a planner so if I have a spark of an idea and characters that I like, I just start writing. It usually turns into something!

The Pumpkin Spice Café has taken TikTok by storm! Where did you find inspiration for

Dream Harbour and the members of the community?

I am honestly shocked how well The PS Cafe has done on TikTok! I shouldn’t have

underestimated the autumn lovers out there! My editor actually came to me with this

series and asked if I wanted to write a small town series with Gilmore Girl vibes and I

obviously immediately said yes. I knew as soon as she brought it to me that I needed a

sexy man wearing flannel and plenty of quirky side characters. And then I just kind of ran

with it from there. This book is really just an amalgamation of things that make me happy

and I love that it is making so many other people happy too!

The Bluebell Bookstore is coming out in 2024 which everyone is already so excited

for, are you able to tell us what to expect in this book, and how many books will be in

the Dream Harbour series?

Yes, I am working on this one right now! So this book (the title is under construction so it

may change) will definitely be Hazel and Noah’s book and will centre around the

bookstore. Basically, it is an opposites attract between bookish Hazel and adventurous

Noah in which he teaches her how to have fun (in all the best ways) and helps her get

‘unstuck’ before her thirtieth birthday. It has treasure hunt-y vibes because they are following clues left at the bookstore and it takes place in that transitional late

summer/early fall time when everything is changing.

I don’t actually know how many books will be in the series when all is said and done (a

lot of that will be up to the publisher) but I’m happy to keep writing in Dream Harbour as

long as people want to read them!

Out of all the characters in all of your books, which do you relate the most to and why?

I put a lot of myself in all my characters so there’s little bits of me scattered through all

my books, but I guess I’m probably a Jeanie-Hazel mix. I definitely assume I’m going to

get murdered a lot like Jeanie does and she has a bit of imposter syndrome like me. And

Hazel’s idea of a perfect day is to be curled up with a book and a cup of tea which is also

me.

What’s the shortest amount of time a book has taken you to write, and which one was

it?

I’ve got it down to about three months per book (not including edits) right now, but I think

Pumpkin Spice might have been the quickest. That one just flowed out of me!

Is there a genre that you’d love to write a book in but haven’t yet?

Not right now! I’m firmly in my romance era at the moment.

What do you struggle most with as an author?

Just remembering that I know how to do it. Every book feels like starting over and I

always have a moment of panic, like do I know how to write a book?! It turns out, I do,

but I do need to keep reminding myself! (See, there’s that imposter syndrome!).

Quick fire "Who's Most Likely To" featuring the Dream Harbour characters:

• Which character is most likely to leave Dream Harbour? Noah (but he would bring Hazel with him).
  

• Which character is the most likely to become the town Therapist? Hazel (she’s quiet and observant and sees right to everyone’s issues).
  

• Which character is most likely to be the next town Mayor? Isabel from the Book Club.
  

• Which character is most likely to lock themselves out of their own home? Mayor Kelly.
  

• Which character is most likely to become a celebrity and what would they be famous for? Logan but by accident. Probably for being a hot farmer who loves animals after some other town resident (probably Annie) posts about him on social media.

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What a great author! Thank you to Laurie (Melissa!) for very kindly answering my questions. Make sure you grab yourself a copy of The Pumpkin Spice Café if you love all things small town romance, hints of mystery, grumpy x sunshine, Gilmore Girls vibes and flirty banter.

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