With: Bria Quinlan

Starlight
Harbor’s Sweetheart has had enough…
Lyra Grigor
is the easy going, sweet, smile-at-everyone owner of The Sweetest Things.
When an annoying travel site puts Starlight Harbor on their Top Ten Tacky Tiny
Towns list for the fourth year running, she knows it’s time to give the writer
a bit of spicy tart instead of a teaspoon of sugar.
An outsider
who just wants out…
Spence Côte has
no idea what hit his site. Nearly a thousand replies on some little baker’s
comment and everything has blown up. Since the site is up for sale, it couldn’t
have happened at a worse time. Now he has to drive up to the middle of nowhere
coast of Maine and get this resolved. ASAP.
Two worlds
collide…
Between the
puppies dressed as pirates, the old women masquerading as tavern wenches, and
the sweetest little baker he’s ever seen, Spence knows Starlight Harbor might
not just be freakishly adorable….it might be what he’d been looking for.
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One
Lyra
“That man.” Lyra Grigor slammed her tiny, flour covered fist
down on the counter. “That…words, words, words man.”
Her best friend, Vivian, looked up from where she was sipping
her coffee and eating an old-fashioned donut. ”Must be pretty bad to have
gotten the triple words curse replacement.”
Lyra glanced past her to make sure the bakery was empty. She
didn’t want people to think the owner of The Sweetest Things had suddenly
become a crazy web stalker. But this article on the travel blog Roadside Adventures was
really bringing out a thread of ticked
off in her she wasn’t used to.
She was used to being the softhearted mushy one.
“Well, you’re in here this year, too. Made the cut, so to say.”
She glanced down at the tablet and read, “…so quaint it even has a female
mechanic for the four cars in town.”
“Huh.” Vi took another bite of her donut—well, her second
donut—and sat back on her barstool, knowing Lyra didn’t let things go easily
that riled her up.
Lyra glared at the so-called article: “Top Ten Tacky Tiny
Towns.”
It just beat her butter that there was even an article, let
alone that Starlight Harbor, with its gorgeous port and its wonderful
traditions, made the list.
There was nothing tacky about what they did here.
Four years running they’d been on his insulting list.
“I bet he hasn’t even been here. He just heard about our
Christmas schedule, turned that into ‘Christmas every day,’ and puts us up
there with the largest ball of twine or the singing shark.”
That got Vi’s attention. “Where’s the singing shark?”
“Yeah. It got taken off in year two because it was proven to be
a hoax.” She flashed Vivian a triumphant look. “See? This guy can’t even
research articles enough to spot a fraud.”
“Well, there ya go.” Vivian glanced at the pastry case,
considering.
“You know,” Lyra jumped in, “if I didn’t love you, I’d totally
hate you. I see you eyeing that cookie after two donuts.”
She gave her friend the once-over. Vivian’s tall, thin frame
could probably carry a couple more pounds and not look out of place. But she
carried her model body and looks and hair with something close to disdain, the
tough chick keeping all her worries locked out with her kickass boots and her
fitted tanks.
Granted, that was also what she needed to wear to work in her
garage, but still. Vivian didn’t take crap. She’d come back to town with her
son and lived on her own terms since.
Vivian wouldn’t let someone kick around people she loved.
“You know what?” Lyra demanded, getting Vi’s attention from the
sugar in the glass case between them. “I’m not letting him get away with this
again. I stood by for three years thinking he’d let it go. But, every year he
finds tackier and tackier things that are just roadside tourist rip-offs but
keeps Starlight Harbor on there.”
Lyra grabbed her tablet, setting up an account with the stupid
wannabe travel magazine site.
“Someone needs to give this bully a piece of her mind.”
Vi set her coffee cup on the bus tray, grinning indulgently as
she stuffed a dollar in the tip jar that kept appearing on Lyra’s counter no
matter how many times she took it away.
“Go get him, tiger.”
“Yeah, yeah.” She waved Vi off, because she was already typing
madly into the comments section.
I can’t help but notice that for a fourth year in a row you’ve
included Starlight Harbor, Maine, on your list of Tiny Tacky Towns. The only
tacky thing here is taking a beautiful community who honors military families
by creating a place to celebrate the holidays they were separated for based
while serving ungrateful jackasses bullies.
While you may not appreciate these traditions, I would
think that at least the sheer beauty of the Maine coast and a centuries-old
village would be obvious even to a Neanderthal like you.
Perhaps you didn’t do your research, or you just hate Christmas.
I mean, we all know that sharks can’t sing.
Well, most of us do.
Next time, before you attack hardworking people and their quaint
seaside village, you should do your research. Perhaps start with the definition
of the word tacky. I’ve included a link to the word’s page in Merriam-Webster.
That’s a dictionary, for those who don’t know. It tells you what
words mean.
Yours,
Starlight Cupcake
Lyra stared at her words and got angry all over again. How dare
he attack a place where people were dedicated to helping others?
He obviously had no soul.
Thank goodness she didn’t have to deal with people like that. It
was the number one reason she’d had no doubt she’d come back to Starlight
Harbor after she finished getting her degree from Johnson & Wales.
She’d seen what the competition and the general ambitions of the
city had done to her fellow pastry chefs and bakers. The push to get ahead had
quickly made the beauty of baking and the joy it gave others shrink in
importance.
But now, now that she’d said her piece, all was right in her
world again—and she had cookies to decorate for the Historical Society’s trip
to the hospital to tell stories about smugglers and their mascot dogs to the
children.
Life was pretty darn good.
About Bria Quinlan:
RWA RITA award finalist and USA Today Best Seller Bria Quinlan writes Diet-Coke-Snort-Worthy Rom Coms about what it's like to be a girl and deal with crap and still look for love. She also writes books for teens that take hard topics and make you laugh through your tears. Some people call them issue books. Some people call them romantic comedies. Bria calls them what-life-looks-like.
Her stories remind you that life is an adventure not to be ignored. You can contact her at www.briaquinlan.com OR on Twitter @briaquinlan.
Rep'd by Laird Lauren Macleod of the Clan.... Oh, wait. Of Strothman Agency
Her stories remind you that life is an adventure not to be ignored. You can contact her at www.briaquinlan.com OR on Twitter @briaquinlan.
Rep'd by Laird Lauren Macleod of the Clan.... Oh, wait. Of Strothman Agency
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