Review and Author Interview: The Beacon Street Bookshop by Carla Laureano

My rating: 4 stars / I really liked it

Synopsis

Ever since Olivia Quinn lost her husband to a freak plane crash, she’s been focused on one thing—making a stable life for her teen stepdaughter, Taylor, of whom she’s the sole guardian. But when she loses her job as a children’s book editor because she refuses to relocate from Colorado to New York, all her hard-won stability is shattered. Then the opportunity arises to open Liv’s dream bookshop in Haven Ridge, offering not only the solution to her financial problems, but a chance to bond with her stepdaughter and become a real family for the first time. Soon, the wild idea transforms into a thriving nonprofit, thanks to the generosity and enthusiasm of the town—and a handsome contractor who stirs feelings in Liv she'd thought might be gone forever. But just as she begins to lean into the new life she’s made for herself, a figure from her late husband’s past puts the life she’s been building with Taylor in jeopardy. And Liv must face the possibility that following her heart might just cost her a daughter.

My Review

I absolutely love the themes of restoration and revitalization in Haven Ridge! The small Colorado town has been "cursed" since a scandal rocked the community and it was handled badly. Families moved away, businesses and stores emptied. But with a new zeal for hope mixed with some faith and goodwill, the younger generation is slowly returning- breathing new life and enterprise into the town that is forgettable to many, but not to those with important memories there. 

 

Liv and her teenage stepdaughter Taylor have a complicated relationship, and their growth throughout the book was inspiring as they communicate more and create lasting bonds. Their healing dynamic is challenged with changes they are facing as new people come into their lives, but the bookshop is their shared endeavor and creates opportunities for them to be consistent and present with each other, despite the personal and emotional struggles. Liv and Charlie have great chemistry and I enjoyed their special moments together as their romance developed. I can't wait to read the next book in the series!

Disclosure statement: A complimentary copy of this book was provided from a tour group, publisher, publicist, or author, including NetGalley, OR was borrowed from the library, including OverDrive, OR borrowed from Kindle Unlimited, OR purchased. A review was not required and all views and opinions expressed are unbiased and my own.

Don't miss the previous books in the Haven Ridge series . . .

* The e-book of The Brick House Cafe is free to subscribers at carlalaureano.com

 

 

About the Author

Carla Laureano is the two-time RITA® award-winning author of sixteen books, spanning the genres of contemporary romance and Celtic fantasy. A graduate of Pepperdine University, she worked in sales and marketing for more than a decade before leaving corporate life behind to write full-time. In 2022, she founded Sophisticated Fiction to provide editorial, critique, and coaching services to authors of all levels. She currently lives in Denver, Colorado with her husband, two sons, and an opinionated tortoiseshell cat named Willow.

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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 Beacon Street Bookshop about?

I introduced Liv Quinn in The Broken Hearts Bakery as the catalyst that got Gemma back to Haven Ridge, and we got a little window into her struggles of being a young window and guardian of a teenage stepdaughter. We also saw she was facing a pretty big work decision—stay in Haven Ridge or move back to New York in order to keep her job. It probably surprises no one that she decided to stay in Haven Ridge, but this story is about how she deals with all the change in her life—not the least being how to incorporate romance back into it while raising her late husband’s daughter.

I love this story because it’s angsty and heartfelt, but it’s still got some delicious new-love tingles throughout. This is definitely the most romantic book of the series so far.


The Beacon Street Bookshop has some serious themes. Why did you choose to write about them in this book?

I’m in a similar phase in life to Liv—I have two teenage boys, a recent high school graduate who is continuing his education and starting his career, and one who is just entering the high school years. There are lots of feelings attached to this phase of parenting, not the least of which is figuring out where to draw the line between letting them have their independence and still remaining a strong influence in their lives. I channeled some of that uncertainty into Liv, made more difficult by the fact that she hadn’t raised Taylor since birth and has a bit of a complex about being the stepmom.


What was the easiest scene in The Beacon Street Bookshop to write?

I’ve had the meet cute between Liv and Charlie in my head since the beginning of the series, so I couldn’t wait to get it down on paper. “Love” at first sight is super fun to write, especially when the parties involved are completely determined not to acknowledge it.


What was the hardest scene in The Beacon Street Bookshop to write?

Believe it or not, the final chapter before the epilogue! And I don’t think it was all that successful initially, because my beta readers said it fell a little flat. So I had to rewrite that last chapter and the epilogue several times until I felt like I’d given readers (and the characters) enough closure to end the book. But I love the way it turned out in the end. Liv and Charlie’s happy ending feels really satisfying now.


What is your favorite scene involving Liv and Charlie?

There’s a particular scene where Liv is served up a gut punch and her first instinct is to ask Charlie to stay with her. Until then she’d been sort of resisting what he meant to her, but he’s the one that she wants for support when the chips are down.


Which character was the hardest to write?

Probably Taylor. She’s very mercurial, so I was constantly walking the line between her being sympathetic and irritating (like a real teenager, at times). I’m not going to say that I drew from some of the more difficult moments of my parenting journey, but let’s just say that I sympathize with Liv over Taylor’s bouts of snottiness.


Which character was the easiest to write?

Liv felt very natural to write, which is a surprise because she’s less like me than some of the other characters in the series. But I’ve always liked her combination of determination and self-doubt, which is something I think we can all relate to.


What would readers never guess about the writing of the book?

This is a much-abbreviated version of the first draft! I always find the second full-length books in a series a bit difficult to write because I have to incorporate everything that’s happened before as well as set up the books to come… and that was reflected in the fact that the book was about fifty pages too long! It took a very painful process of cutting and rearranging to get this into its final format. (Aspiring authors who aren’t happy with their first drafts take heart!)


Where did you get the idea for this book?

I knew that I was going to get Liv together with a down-on-his-luck contractor who was the polar opposite from her late husband as soon as I conceived of the empty accessory unit above her garage and the work-in-progress kitchen…long before the other books were written! But as I started to develop the Haven Ridge series, I decided to lean into all the businesses and features about small town life that gave me warm fuzzies. And small independent bookstores are one of the things I love best (along with bakeries) so it was natural to make Liv part of the book world and have her open a bookshop.


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 Cafe) and fit with the actual history of the area was my first priority. From there, it was getting the architectural and topographical details right. Fortunately, my experience in publishing made writing Liv pretty easy, but I did have to email the very kind and helpful people at the Chaffee County Building Department about how contractor licenses worked in the area.


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 two 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 Larkspur House. It will be the story of Will Parker, who we got to meet briefly in The Beacon Street Bookshop, his sister, Erin, and a brand-new heroine that we haven’t yet met! Plus lots of historic-mansion vibes and a century-old mystery. I think readers who enjoyed Provenance are going to like this one!