Happy release day to Carla Laureano. The first novel in her new Haven Ridge series, The Broken Hearts Bakery is now available. This series promises all things you love about a Carla Laureano book. Find all about it below.
Fifteen years ago, the town of Haven Ridge failed its most important mandate—to be a sanctuary for heartbroken citizens in need. Now it’s getting a second chance to set things right …
When Gemma left her hometown of Haven Ridge, Colorado, years ago in a cloud of controversy, she swore she would never return. And she’s kept that promise, instead building her reputation as one of LA’s preeminent family law attorneys. But when her lifelong best friend begs her to come stay with her teen stepdaughter, Taylor, while she’s on a business trip, Gemma doesn’t have the heart to refuse. She’ll simply keep a low profile, do her honorary aunt duties, and be gone before anyone knows the difference.
But Haven Ridge seems to have a mind of its own, dragging Gemma unwillingly back into the community she’s tried so hard to leave behind, and she soon finds herself caught up with new friends and old rivalries. When Taylor is the object of an ugly bit of teen bullying that brings back far too many unwelcome memories, Gemma does the only thing she knows how to do: ply her honorary niece with baked goods and words of affirmation. Soon, her temporary digs are ground zero for teenage girls seeking sugar and consolation for shockingly adult problems—which the girls soon dub The Broken Hearts Bakery.
Complicating matters is an unexpected reunion with Gemma’s high school sweetheart, Stephen, who is determined to change her mind about him, the town, and the nature of love itself. Because as it turns out, her niece isn’t the only one nursing a broken heart…
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Carla Laureano could never decide what she wanted to be when she grew up, so she decided to become a novelist–and she must be kinda okay at it because she’s won two RWA RITA® Awards. When she’s not writing, she can be found cooking and trying to read through her TBR shelf, which she estimates will be finished in 2054. She currently lives in Denver, Colorado with her husband, two teen sons, and an opinionated cat named Willow.
Connect with Carla online at her website (http://www.carlalaureano.com) or on any of these social media platforms:
Facebook.com/CarlaLaureanoAuthor
Instagram.com/carlalaureanoauthor
Pinterest.com/laureano_carla
Bookbub.com/authors/carla-laureano
Goodreads.com/author/show/7075143.Carla_Laureano
Q&A with Carla Laureano
What is the Haven Ridge series about?
The Haven Ridge series is a small-town romance series with a magical realism twist: the town has gotten away from its founding mission to provide a haven for people who needed a fresh start and a community, and as such, it’s slowly dwindling away. The prequel novella, The Brick House Cafe, goes into the history of the town and its goal to rebuild itself by drawing back the people it needs and who in turn need it. Each full length shows how the town draws people together and how the people in it contribute to the new life of the town!
What is The Broken Hearts Bakery about?
When Gemma left her hometown of Haven Ridge, Colorado, years ago in a cloud of controversy, she swore she would never return. And she’s kept that promise, instead building her reputation as one of LA’s preeminent family law attorneys. But when her lifelong best friend begs her to come stay with her teen stepdaughter, Taylor, while she’s on a business trip, Gemma doesn’t have the heart to refuse. She’ll simply keep a low profile, do her honorary aunt duties, and be gone before anyone knows the difference.
But Haven Ridge seems to have a mind of its own, dragging Gemma unwillingly back into the community she’s tried so hard to leave behind, and she soon finds herself caught up with new friends and old rivalries. When Taylor is the object of an ugly bit of teen bullying that brings back far too many unwelcome memories, Gemma does the only thing she knows how to do: ply her honorary niece with baked goods and words of affirmation. Soon, her temporary digs are ground zero for teenage girls seeking sugar and consolation for shockingly adult problems—which the girls soon dub The Broken Hearts Bakery.
Complicating matters is an unexpected reunion with Gemma’s high school sweetheart, Stephen, who is determined to change her mind about him, the town, and the nature of love itself. Because as it turns out, her niece isn’t the only one nursing a broken heart…
The Broken Hearts Bakery deals some heavy subjects. Why did you choose those to write about?
I’ve witnessed several friends extricate themselves from abusive marriages over the last couple of years and I’ve seen how difficult it was for them to find attorneys who believed them and would take their cases—which is in part how the character of Gemma came about. Likewise, I’m the moms to two teens and hearing the kinds of issues they and their friends are dealing with can be heartbreaking. Over the course of writing, those two things wove together into one of the central messages: that everyone has the right to feel safe and to make their own choices without threat or coercion.
Did anything surprise you as you were writing the book?
I started out with a couple of different subplots for different side characters, and I wasn’t really sure how I was going to make them all work together, so I was surprised that they actually did dovetail together under a single message/theme by the time I was done.
Where did you get the idea for this book?
The title came first, and I thought it up several years ago. I had absolutely no intention to write any more food-related books, but the phrase just kind of popped into my head and wouldn’t let me go. There have actually been a couple of different iterations of this book with different plots and Gemma and Stephen underwent a major transformation over time—it took me a while to find the right story to tell.
What kind of research did you do to write this series?
The majority of my research involved the setting: Haven Ridge is set rather vaguely in a real area of southern Colorado, between Salida and Buena Vista. It has a colorful and interesting history, so coming up with a founding story that was plausible (as detailed in the prequel novella, The Brick House Café) and fit with the actual history of the area was my first priority. From there, it was getting the architectural and topographical details right. And then there’s the usual character-based stuff, like the handful of legal details that came into play in Gemma’s point-of-view! (By total coincidence, one of my beta readers is a law professor, which was super helpful.)
Most of your books are set in Colorado. Is Haven Ridge based on a real place, or is it made up?
Haven Ridge is completely made up, but it’s heavily based on Salida, Colorado, which is in the same area. Given the fact that they were founded about the same time and sit in the same general area, it made sense to model the architecture and hot springs on the real place.
What can we expect next from you?
I’m planning for the Haven Ridge series to run for at least four books, not including the prequel, so you can expect three more after this one! I’m hoping to finish up the series with a Christmas novel, which will be the first one I’ve ever written.
What can you tell us about the next book in the Haven Ridge series?
The next book in the series is The Beacon Street Bookshop, and it will be the story of Gemma’s best friend, Liv, who has been widowed young and is not in any way looking for love again. I’ve been wanting to write a second-chance-after-tragedy story and a bookshop story for ages, so I’m very excited to get to write this one!
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