Christmas at Carly's Cupcakes

Christmas at Carly's Cupcakes is Jessica Redland's festive novel set on Castle Street in the seaside town of Whitsborough Bay. Carly Travis's bakery is thriving, but her Christmas is shaped by two people. Her younger sister Bethany is struggling in the aftermath of a traumatic incident at work, and Carly brings her into the shop hoping the routine, and the wedding ahead of her, will help her find solid ground again.

The second is Liam, her best friend since school, now in the army and due home on leave. Carly has loved him quietly for years and has never found the nerve to say so. It is a slow-burn friends-to-lovers story wrapped in fairy lights, cake, and the small-business rhythms of a British high street at Christmas.

Redland writes the town as a network of neighbouring shops and long friendships, and the novel sits alongside her other Castle Street books without requiring them.