The Holiday Bake-off

by Lindsay Detwiler

Delight in the most delicious Christmas story of the season with this charming holiday romance, perfect for fans of Susan Mallery, Rachel Hanna, and Debbie Macomber.

Nothing can stop Lucy Carter from pursuing her dream career—not even the breakup she absolutely did not have on her calendar. And just when she’s ready to stage a one-woman pity party, her grandmother calls with news that sends everything sideways: She needs Lucy at the bakery…during the busiest season of the year.

Lucy is many things—determined, resourceful, excellent at ordering pastries—but a baker? Not so much. Still, for her grandmother, she’ll whisk, fold, and sugar-dust her way through anything. Probably.

Enter Will Westerly, the bakery’s annoyingly gifted, infuriatingly handsome new hire who treats recipes like sacred texts and seems personally offended by Lucy’s “creative” approach to measuring cups. He’s the last person she wants as a mentor—and the first person she notices every single time he smiles.

With the annual Christmas bake-off looming and her confidence hanging by a thread of royal icing, Lucy has to figure out not just how to make a winning dessert, but what she’s really craving in life. And as flour plumes, sparks spark, and cupcakes rise, one thing becomes deliciously clear: Healing a broken heart is messy.

Get ready for a magical Christmas journey that will have you tasting the sweetness of the sugar bowl and craving the warmth of peppermint cocoa. If you’re in the mood for a heartwarming romance, this is the perfect read for you!

Genres: Christmas, Romance

356 pages, Kindle Edition

First published October 18, 2024

About the author

Love celebrating genuine, sweet love stories with a touch of spice? Join Lindsay's VIP Fan Club here and get a Free copy of Without You: https://dl.bookfunnel.com/p808sy2hmn

Lindsay Detwiler is a romance author and a former high school English teacher. She is also the USA Today Bestselling author of The Widow Next Door with HarperCollins UK.

Lindsay's goal with her writing is to show the power of love and the beauty of life while also instilling a true sense of realism in her work. With her novels coming from a place of honesty, she wants her fiction to resonate with readers as candid, poetic, and powerful.

Inked Hearts, released in 2017 with Hot Tree Publishing, was named a Romance Times Top Pick. Additionally, Remember When, released in April of 2017, was named a Route One Reads Romance Pick by the Pennsylvania Center for the Book. She is also a USA Today Bestselling author with HarperCollins UK under the penname L.A.Detwiler.

Lindsay currently lives in her hometown of Hollidaysburg, Pennsylvania, with her husband, Chad (her junior high sweetheart); their six rescued cats; and their Great Dane, Edmund.

In addition to being a huge bookworm, Lindsay's also a fan of cruelty-free makeup, coffee, chocolate, Outlander, and shopping.

Be sure to connect with Lindsay: Instagram: @lindsayanndetwiler

Facebook:http://www.facebook.com/lindsayanndet...

Blog: www.lindsaydetwiler.com

TikTok: @ladetwiler

Reviews

[Literary Redhead · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved getting lost in this sweet clean small town romance set in a bakery! It's a perfect read for the holidays--and beyond--when you need a respite from real life.

🎄 I adored the slow burn relationships between romance writer Lucy and handsome baker Will, and between her grandmother, who owns the bakery, and caring neighbor Herb. And at its heart is the Star Creek Bakery, with its annual holiday bake-off and the most delicious cupcakes imaginable.

🎄Grief, illness, heartbreak, family, healing, and second chances add depth to this engaging story which also lifted my spirits and gave me hope. Contemporary romance lovers, bakers, and fans of bake-off shows: Be prepared to devour this as readily as the bakery's famed strawberry ganache cupcakes. Happy Holidays!

Grateful to author Lindsay Detwiler and Harpeth Road for the review copy. Opinions are mine.

#theholidaybakeoff #lindsaydetwiler #harpethroad #contemporaryromance #smalltownromance #bakeries #cupcakes #bakeoffs #holidayromance

[Heidi Lynn’s BookReviews · Rating 4 out of 5]

First, I want to thank Lindsay DetWiler and Harpeth Road Press for providing me with this book so I may bring you this review.

Anyone with a sweet tooth will LOVE Lindsay Detwiler’s The Holiday Bake-Off!! It is full of yummy tasty sinfully goodies that will make your mouth water! However, not so good for me, who lost 28lbs since June and reached her weight loss goal of 120lbs! Now I am wanting a sinfully naughty treat! Needless to say this was a very sweet read lol.

Instantly, Lindsay had me laughing when Lucy’s Gram asked if she met a cute boy to write in her next romance novel yet! The comical thing about it is she was still dating her boyfriend Jed! I guess Gram didn’t care for him much lol.

My heart broke hearing that her Gram had a stroke and later seeing it in the way Lindsay described her physical attributes.

I loved hearing the story of how Grandma met Grandpa all those years ago.

For 30 years there has been a standing tradition in Star Creek of a Holiday Bake-Off that everyone who everyone loves to attend!! Luckily Lucy offered to fill in for Gram this year and help with the event!

My heart hurt how she lost her Mom at such a young age the way that she did.

I loved that Lucy dreamed of living in New York and becoming a writer and actually wrote some books.

The Holiday Bake-Off by Lindsay DetWiler is a very well written book that is a perfect book for this time of year.

[Caroline|Page~Turners · Rating 5 out of 5]

Lucy Carter is happy with her life until her boyfriend unexpectedly breaks up with her because he has met someone else. How could this happen so close to Christmas? While she is sifting through her feelings and wondering where to go from here, she receives a phone call from her Grandmother asking her to return to the small-town of Star Creek. She has suffered a stroke and needs Lucy to help keep her bakery going through the Christmas season. Lucy doesn’t waste any time accepting the invitation. Every year at the Christmas festival, the bakery competes in the Christmas Bake-Off. Lucy must rely on Will Westerly, the bakery’s expert baker. Lucy and Will spend hours in the bakery making delicious holiday treats. Thanks to Will, Lucy’s heart begins to mend and she is loving her time at the bakery in Star Creek. There is such a wonderful attraction between the two of them that may just make this the magical Christmas she needed.

The Holiday Bake-Off, written by author Lindsay Detwiler, is an amazing story of family, new friends and overcoming heartbreak. I love, love, loved this story from cover to cover. I loved every character in this book from Lucy, to Will to Grandma, and their heartwarming personalities had me feeling like they were family. As I stepped into the bakery, I could smell Christmas. With the scents of gingerbread, peppermint and chocolate wafting through the air, I never wanted to leave. The sweet romance was perfect and this small-town Christmas heartwarming story, launched me into the holiday season. Detwiler is a new to me author that propelled herself to the top of my auto-buy author list. This unputdownable book is one I highly recommend. I loved it!

[Colleen (The Book Lover Blog) · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Holiday Bake-Off is a book filled with warmth and charm.

Romance novelist, Lucy, hurriedly returns to Star Creek to visit her Grandma, who's landed in the hospital after experiencing a stroke. With her Grandma needing time to rest and recuperate, Lucy volunteers to take charge of helping with prepartions for the annual holiday bake-off. It's then that she meets the handsome baker Will Westerly. As they spend time together planning, they develop a friendship that soon grows into something more.

I felt the relationship between Lucy and Will progressed at an appropriate pace. They took time to get to know one another, laughing, having good conversation. Their romantic journey had no closed or open door intimate scenes, which is ok. However, I do wish there was more passion and that the depth of their love as they fell was more palpable.

I adored the small-town community feel of the story, and the townspeople and main characters' family members were delightful additions.

Set at Christmas time, The Holiday Bake-Off is the perfect feel-good book to cuddle up with during the festive season.

______

*Complimentary ARC for review provided by Harpeth Road Press. All opinions expressed here are honest and entirely my own.

**TW/CW: stroke; hospitalization (present); mention of parental death (past)

Genre-
Romance
Holiday Romance (Christmas)

Spice Meter- No explicit content. Brief kissing only.

Tropes-
Small Town
Holiday Bake-Off

[Anne · Rating 5 out of 5]

Lucy had to rush to her grandma’s side after receiving a call from her that she was hospitalized. Lucy finds out she had a minor stroke. Lucy decides to stay and help her Grandmother out with her bakery while she is recovering. This includes organizing the annual holiday bake-off.

When she arrives at the bakery, she meets Will, her grandmother’s baker. He is kind, helpful and supportive, which causes her to be attracted to him. At the same time, her publisher calls her to remind her of her deadline. She hasn’t had much luck with it.

After going through so much loss, most recently with a bad breakup, she needed a change in pace. Will this be the needed change she is looking for? Will the bake-off go off without a hitch? Can she meet the deadline for her book?

A heartfelt book that not only draws you in from the start, but brings out all kinds of emotions. It quickly turns into a fun and entertaining holiday read with a happy ending! A great book to kick off your holiday reading and inspiration for your holiday baking! So many delicious cookies and cupcakes are mentioned in this book!

Thanks to Harpeth Road Press for the gifted copy!

[Rebecca · Rating 4 out of 5]

A love interest who runs a bakery? This one's new to me, and it's a good changeup from the usual cozy romances.
Lucy, newly single romance novelist, returns home to help out her grandmother who is in the hospital. Grandma, however, has hired a young man to take over her bakery while she's incapacitated...and, it seems, to set up with her granddaughter. He's closed and withdrawn until the baking gets started. Lucy and Will are thrown together organizing the yearly holiday bake-off that grandma's bakery sponsors. Gradually, they get to know each other, but he's holding something back that keeps him from 100% opening up to her.
I absolutely loved the romance novel stereotypes that get poked fun at in this novel: i.e. Lucy writing in her own novels about riding in horse-drawn carriages as romantic, yet she's never done it herself. Maybe Will can do something about that!
Perfect Christmas gift for a Hallmark movie fan.

[Tammy Lunsford - Escape to Books By Tammy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Sweetness just oozes from the pages of this book. There is nothing better than a Christmas book which centers around baking tasty treats, and this one has it in spades.

Lucy Carter has just been dumped by her boyfriend when she receives a call that she needs to come help at her grandmother's bakery in Star Creek. She will have to work with her grandmother's baker, Will Westerly, which at first seems like an impossible task.

This was holiday reading at its finest. Family and community play a big part in this book which just adds even more charm to an already charming and festive book. The yearly holiday bake-off is the chef's kiss to tie this sweet book up with a giant Christmas bow, and make it the perfect book to start the Christmas book reading season.

Thank you to Harpeth Road for this ARC. I am leaving this review voluntarily.

[Elizabeth · Rating 4 out of 5]

"The Holiday Bake-Off" was like watching a Hallmark movie unfold on the pages. When Lucy receives a phone call, she rushes to her grandmother's side in small town Star Creek. During her time at home, Lucy helps to coordinate a holiday bake off that her grandmother's bakery runs each year. Lucy had me rooting for her the whole way! I also adored Grandma, Will and Herb who added to this story as Lucy navigated her next steps. While the story is about the upcoming Holiday Bake-Off, there was a small amount of the competition but a whole lot of heart, support, and family. I loved the small tidbits of advice that were sprinkled in the book and did not want the story to end! Thank you to Harpeth Road for an advanced copy! All thoughts and opinions are my own!

[John McCoy · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the perfect Christmas love story! I imagined it as if I was watching a Hallmark movie with scenes going through my head while reading. Lindsay’s writing is very picturesque with bright and vivid details. I was entertained the whole time with this book!! Kudos for keeping up the excitement of every situation; and I think hearing everything from Lucy’s perspective really helped to tell the story. Would love to see a sequel!
❤️💚🎄🧁

[Madison Bain · Rating 3 out of 5]

Thank you, Harpeth Road Press for the ARC!

I liked this book a lot more than I was expecting. It’s cheery with all the perfect holiday vibes. Like your favorite Hallmark Christmas movie! Lucy was an enjoyable main character, and I loved the cute picturesque town. It’s was a little cheesy, but that’s to be expected. I enjoyed the sweet and wholesome romance too.

[Jackie · Rating 5 out of 5]

A really fun read with characters who become friends.

An amazingly fun read with laughs, tears and some really touching moments! Characters you become friends with and a wonderful Great Dane you want to take home with you!
Looking forward to catching up on all the authors past works, while waiting for the next addition.

[Krista Johnson · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a Hallmark movie in book form but so much better!! I had a roller coaster of emotions curious how the characters would or would not end up with each other. Wow!! Such a good book and difficult to put down!

[Doris · Rating 5 out of 5]

Christmas and Cupcakes and a great story within a story!

I loved this book! I want to go to this town and be at the Holiday Cupcake Bake Off. I highly recommend it to everyone who wants a fabulous Christmas read.

[Marylin · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a cute book.
I love all the cupcake names; they all sound yummy.
The relationship between the two main characters was interesting and fun.

[Gennarae Tarallo · Rating 5 out of 5]

loved this book

Baking and romance. Two of my favorite things in a book or a movie! Wish there was more for me to read!

[Valerie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very Cute!
Had a great cast of supporting characters that I loved!
Lucy, annoyed me!
And thats why this doesn't get a higher rating!

[Dew · Rating 1 out of 5]

What a disappointment.

The FMC has fond memories of growing up at her grandparents’ bakery where she did not learn a single thing about working at the bakery. In 20 years. The author made it a specific point that the FMC quite literally does not know the difference between a tablespoon and a teaspoon. She also cannot hold a water glass (likely because her hands are too small). Or work the cash register(again, her hands are very small and her brain is made entirely of red hair and a breakup). Or put one of those cute little signs in front of the cupcakes because she can’t really identify cupcakes from other baked goods or a hole in the ground. It’s okay, though, she’s got the can’t do attitude of a wet sandwich. Thankfully there is a super hot baker who is able to single-handedly do quite literally everything by himself - which begs the question, why is the FMC there? What purpose does she serve in this story or at all?

This, of course, is a mythical book-bakery where all the baking, sales, cleaning, accounting, ordering, repairs, advertising, etc is done by a single person in less than 8 hours a day. In these kinds of bakeries, the baker rolls in casually around 7:45am to open by 8 because they’re able to make cookies, cakes, pies, pastries, and everything else from scratch as they go. Need more cupcakes? The sole employee will just pop into the back for a moment to whip up a fresh batch because no one will walk in and rob the cash register while there is literally no one out front for the time it takes to whip up a commercial batch of batter, portion out the batter into cups, bake them off, cool them, make up a commercial batch of fresh buttercream, and decorate the cupcakes for sale. I mean,seriously, how long can it take…is a question that I would really like authors to ask before they write these kinds of books. Please. Make 6 different flavours of cookies and 6 different flavours of cupcakes and see if it takes more than 30 minutes. Because it does. Baking is a full-time job. Cake decorating is a full-time job. A single person cannot do it all by themselves AND run the storefront AND have a thriving social life with oodles of free time.

In this book, Grandma broke her hip and had a heart attack and had a stroke as the inciting incident - the author kind of touches on all of it as mix-and-match maladies - and there’s a baking competition that the entire town relies on for income. Of course, the FMC is utterly useless for helping with any of it. However, because the baking competition is so important and obviously the Grandma is effortlessly able to do the competition while simultaneously running her bakery, in 50 years Grandma has never had more than 2 employees to keep her business running and never showed her granddaughter anything, so it makes perfect sense that the FMC is there to frown and act sad and drop things, burn things, and get in the way.

[Marian Sherry]

Romance writer, Lucy Carter, is busy chasing her dreams until her boyfriend drops the bomb and tells her he’s leaving her for someone else. To make matters worse, she gets a phone call from her ailing grandmother asking her to return to the small town of Star Creek to help out with her beloved bakery. The bakery competes in the Christmas bake-off every year at the annual Christmas festival. Lucy is ready to help, but is she up for the task? Lucy heads to Star Creek and as the bake-off quickly approaches, finds that she might have learned a little faster if the bakery’s newest employee and expert baker, Will Westerly, hadn’t been so tough to deal with.

A delicious holiday themed novel that is perfect to get you in the holiday spirit! I adored the relationship between Lucy and her grandmother. With a cast of feel-good characters and small-town charm, The Holiday Bake-Off is a must read for the holiday season.

Many thanks to Lindsay Detwiler and Harpeth Road Press for the advanced copy.