Exclusive Interview
Laurie Gilmore on ‘The Gingerbread Bakery’s Delicious Slow Burn Romance & What’s Next for Dream Harbor
We smell snow. Well, not literally, but Laurie Gilmore’s newest entry in her Dream Harbor series, The Gingerbread Bakery, already has us wishing it were Christmas.
The fifth book in her small town romance series finally sees longtime business owners and rivals Annie and Mac address the rumors that they’re clearly mad about each other, and not mad at each other. Okay, maybe it’s a little bit of both… The second-chance romance story between Annie and Mac features lots of forced proximity and also heavily involves the rest of the Dream Harbor citizens we’ve met in the first four books. Why? Well, Annie and Mac are both involved in Jeannie and Logan’s wedding party.
That’s right, the central couple from Gilmore’s BookTok sensation, The Pumpkin Spice Cafe, are getting hitched. And it’s a town-wide celebration, so buckle up, Dreamers. Below, Gilmore talks about crafting The Gingerbread Bakery and offers some teases ahead for her sixth Dream Harbor book, The Daisy Chain Flower Shop.
You are on tour right now with The Gingerbread Bakery. What has the reaction been like from readers?
Laurie Gilmore: We’ve done two nights so far, but it’s been amazing. I had my biggest crowd ever, 300 people, and there was a waitlist, so that was wild. My readers are just the sweetest, nicest people. They’re always so friendly and enthusiastic. And even after they wait in a long line, they’re still smiling.
I know fans have been dying to see an Annie and Mac-focused story since your first book in the Dream Harbor series. What are some of the elements in this one that make it special for you?
Gilmore: It’s kind of friends-to-lovers to enemies-to-lovers — there’s a double layer there. And, I love a story that has a dual timeline. Anytime there’s flashbacks, I’m a big fan. So I was really excited to do that with this one. It was really fun to be able to write teenage Annie and Mac, too. I also grew up on a very steady diet of teen movies, so it’s fun to write a teenage love story because teenagers are so intense, and it just works really well for romance because romance is intense.
After so many years of writing Annie and Mac in the background with this tension, was it hard to get them to a point where they actually liked each other?
Gilmore: They’re basically a second chance romance, right? Which I think is tricky because they have to be mad at each other for a good enough reason. There has to be a good reason that they’ve been apart and they’ve been angry. But then, it has to be something that’s also forgivable because if it’s just this unforgivable thing, then it’s like, why would you forgive him?
So I think it helps that their breakup happened when they were so young. They didn’t know what they were doing. And now, they’re not young anymore. They’re grown up, and you know, Mac says it a few times, that he knows what he wants now. They’re different people than when they were together the first time. Mac loved her this whole time, and he’s been paying attention. He still knows everything about her, and he still wants to be her friend. And like, that’s what it’s all about. He is there, whether she wants him there or not. And I think Annie, she’s very stubborn and she had her pride hurt, so she has to get over that, but she gets there.
Did you have any actors in mind when you were writing Annie and Mac?
Gilmore: So, not while I was writing them, but [my publishers] did really lovely character art of them, so I had to send over pictures of what I thought they might look like. So I sent a young Colin Farrell for Mac. I was like, “This, but without the cigarette.” [Laughs] And then for Annie, I sent over Saoirse Ronan.
Warning: Spoilers ahead for The Gingerbread Bakery.
Can we talk about your favorite scene in the book?
Gilmore: Well, I always write in chronological order, but the scene that came to me before it was time was Mac kneeling in the kitchen. That came fully-formed in my head, and I was like, “That’s happening.” While I was writing it, I was like, “This is going to be good.” [Laughs]
Their first kiss as adults is pretty late in the story, too, which you do address because they have plenty of steamy scenes before they even kiss. What was your thought process behind holding off the kiss until nearly the end?
Gilmore: Oh my gosh, well, because they had such a contentious relationship this whole time, I wanted some sex scenes where they were still at each other a little bit. Like, they still weren’t fully forgiven or convinced that, especially for Annie, that this should happen. But all that tension was there. So we had to let out some of that tension. But I really wanted to save the kiss for when they were finally ready to be like, “Okay, turns out we’re in love with each other.”
It only took the most romantic wedding ever for that to happen.
Gilmore: Weddings have that effect on people!
The whole Dream Harbor universe started with Jeannie and Logan. What was it like to get to write their wedding after all this time?
Gilmore: It was so fun. I had a Pinterest board of holiday weddings — I want to get married at Christmas now. But as I was writing it, I was getting choked up. My babies are getting married. Also, there’s no town meeting in this one, which, there’s always a town meeting. So, I replaced the town meeting with the wedding. It was really fun to put everyone there [instead] and have them all giving toasts and just being generally weird Dream Harbor people. [Laughs]
We also got a peek at the beginning of Daisy and Elliot’s romance at the wedding, who are your next focus for The Daisy Chain Flower Shop, releasing on May 19, 2026. Can you tell us a bit about those two?
Gilmore: Daisy is our flower shop owner. She’s a Dream Harbor native, and the residents of Dream Harbor think that maybe she’s cursed because the past few weddings that she has done the flowers for have ended badly. The relationships have ended. She has a bit of a past with her own broken relationships. So, the town is like, “You can do the flowers for funerals, but no more weddings,” which is a problem for Daisy because weddings bring in the bucks.
Elliot is our shy architect. He’s working on a renovation over at the inn, and he’s got a little crush on Daisy. I love the “he falls first” trope, so of course, he already has a crush on our girl Daisy, but basically, they decide to fake date. That way, the town can see that Daisy is not cursed, and she’s perfectly capable of not breaking up a relationship, including her own and Elliot’s. Elliot’s got his own past heartbreak, and his family is always worried about him, so he gets a fake girlfriend to convince his family that he’s fine. And obviously, it’ll go fine for them…
Who does Daisy interact with the most from Dream Harbor?
Gilmore: Daisy and Iris are pretty close pals, because Iris works from time to time at the flower shop, so I will say Iris is popping up quite a bit. And Iris and Archer’s baby. Iris is adjusting to new motherhood. Everyone’s around popping in and out, but definitely so far she’s chatting with Iris the most, I would say.
Is there anything else that you want to say about the future of Dream Harbor? Do you have anything mapped out beyond Daisy Chain?
Gilmore: Not at the moment. I’ll just say, I don’t feel done with Dream Harbor. I’d like to stay a while longer.
The Gingerbread Bakery (Dream Harbor #5), Available Now
