The one Where it’s Publication day for Hopes and dreams at the Chocolate pot café

Happy publication day to me! Today sees a return to Whitsborough Bay’s Castle Street with the release of Hopes and Dreams at The Chocolate Pot Café.

Regular readers will be familiar with the setting of The Chocolate Pot as it’s mentioned in several of the other Castle Street books and the owner, Tara, already has a book of her own out: Starry Skies Over The Chocolate Pot Café.

Hopes and Dreams at The Chocolate Pot Café can be read as a standalone story – I’ve taken care to construct it that way – but, in my mind, it’s a sequel to Starry Skies.

I originally wrote and released Starry Skies in 2018 when I was an indie author and it was a story I’ve always loved. It’s really dark in parts but also incredibly hopeful. Towards the end, two characters are introduced. While the story I planned to tell in the book is complete and there are no cliffhangers, my plan was always to write a sequel to explore what happened next around those two individuals.

The following year, I secured a publishing contract with the incredible Boldwood Books and they took on my entire backlist alongside new titles. Writing that sequel to Starry Skies needed to go on the backburner. And it stayed there. I slipped it into the schedule on several occasions but we kept needing to push it aside as the priority was to complete various series.

In January last year, A Forever Home at Honey Bee Croft came out, concluding the series set in the Yorkshire Wolds (Hedgehog Hollow and The Bumblebee Barn Collection). Escape to the Lakes and Whitsborough Bay were (and still are) ongoing but I had the capacity to add in another series. Before I introduced a new world and that became a priority, it seemed the perfect opportunity to finally write the Starry Skies sequel.

Hopes and Dreams at The Chocolate Pot Café starts on Boxing Day – picking up where Starry Skies leaves off – and the story unfolds over the next six months. Here’s what to expect...

Welcome to Whitsborough Bay, a place where hopes and dreams really do come true...

Life at the Chocolate Pot Café has never been sweeter for Tara Porter. Nestled on Castle Street in Whitsborough Bay, her café is thriving, her friendships are close, her foster parents are back where they belong—and she’s finally let herself fall in love with artist Jed Ferguson.

For Jed, returning from Australia feels like coming home in every sense. His teenage daughters have settled, his gallery opening is a success, and with Tara by his side, the future looks full of promise.

But the past can’t stay at bay forever.

When Tara’s estranged foster sister reappears, old wounds resurface. And when Jed is reunited with twelve year old Aaron - a boy he once believed was his son - secrets unravel and loyalties are tested.

Now Tara and Jed must decide whether facing the past will shatter everything they’ve built—or hope it gives them the strength and courage to dream again.

Warm, heartfelt and hopeful, Hopes and Dreams at The Chocolate Pot Café is a story of love, forgiveness and second chances.

Hopes and Dreams is setting off on a blog tour, hosted by Rachel Gilbey from Rachel’s Random Resources. An enormous advance thank you to the wonderful bloggers/reviewers who have taken the time to read the book and share their thoughts. I’m looking forward to reading the reviews.

Thank you to everyone who has pre-ordered the book in any format, anyone who makes a purchase today, and anyone who purchases/borrows from a legitimate programme at any future point. I remain forever grateful for your support.

For those who love the audiobooks, that version will be out a month later on 3rd May. The wonderful Emma Swan narrated Starry Skies but wasn’t available to record Hopes and Dreams in time for publication day. I could have gone for a different voice actor but I thought that would spoil the listening experience across both books so I opted for the delay.

How am I spending today? Publication days are usually pretty low key for me but I’m actually off to the Lake District today. It’s a research trip – a chance to get some promotional photos and videos as well as do some research for book 6 in my Escape to the Lakes series. I need to do some work on the edits for the first book in my new series too so I won’t be spending the week relaxing, but the change of scenery will be fabulous. And, of course, the Lakes is my happy place.

That’s it from me for now. I’m really conscious I haven’t written a blog post since my last publication day. It’s been a crazy start to the year and, while I have a list of things I’d have loved to blog about, I just haven’t been able to find the time. Going forwards, my husband is going to help me out with some of my non-writing activities so I hope to rectify that before my next publication day and blog a little more regularly.

In the meantime, I wish you a fabulous Easter.

Big hugs

Jessica xx