Gingerbread and Grudges: A Rival Bakers, Enemies to Lovers, Small-Town Christmas Romance

By Ruth Andrews

She has three generations of gingerbread and a landlord who wants to double her rent. He has a chef's coat, a grudge against his own name, and a bakery going up right across the square.
Clara Ashworth has spent her whole life behind the counter of the Sugarplum Bakery, the shop her grandmother built by hand. When the town council's letter arrives threatening to double her lease, she needs Maple Hollow's biggest event of the year, the Gingerbread Festival, more than she's ever needed anything.
Then Jack Merrick comes home. Big-city polish, a brand-new storefront directly across from hers, and a habit of showing up exactly when she least wants him to.
The town council makes it worse: this year, the two rival bakers must co-chair the festival together. Weekly meetings. A shared table of sugar-fingered children. And a slowly unraveling truth about why Jack really came back to the one street that broke his family once already.
What starts as spite starts to taste a lot like something sweeter, until one impulsive mistake threatens to burn it all down before the festival even begins.
A deeply warm, small-town holiday romance about rivalry, redemption, and learning that the people who challenge you the most might be the ones worth choosing.
A standalone with a guaranteed happy ending. Book One of The Maple Hollow Bake Shop Series.
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• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: B0HFBQSMQF
• ISBN13: 9798192725153
• Release Date: August 2026
• Publisher: Independently Published
• Length: 116 Pages
• Weight: 0.32 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.2" x 5.5" x 8.5"