Heather Webber’s Midnight at the Blackbird Cafe is a captivating blend of magical realism, heartwarming romance, and small-town Southern charm.
Midnight at the Blackbird Café by Heather Webber
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
FTC disclosure: I would like to thank Macmillan/Forge Books for providing me with an advance reader copy via Wunderkind PR.
This was a heartwarming read and I’d recommend it to anyone, especially for who enjoy books that you want to take your time with and ponder, those who enjoy a bit of magical realism, a plot taking place around a charming cafe set in the American south, and those who enjoy reads by Sarah Addison Allen.
It would also make an excellent book club read.
If you are drawn to the lovely title, the lovely cover, and are expecting a sweet and meaningful story to match, you won’t be disappointed. This one lingered with me, especially the quote “There were times, like right now, when it felt as though I’d been grieving my whole life long. Probably because I had been.”
I really enjoyed the author, Heather Webber’s writing style as it drew out the beautiful atmosphere and real emotion of the characters. There was great insight into each character’s emotion as they dealt with loss, their life choices, and each other’s outcome.
There was a middle-fourth to fifth of the book where the premise started to be a bit drawn out and being much much more descriptive in style. Not meandering in the sense because the focus remained, but sort of caught up in descriptive details rather than more about the depth of what was to come and sort of double-backed in that which was already established. However it certainly picked up again and soon I was even more intrigued by the level of mystery and connectivity among the characters as events led up to find the truth.
Discussion of life including business, penmanship, southern cooking, gossip, tragedy, building of friendship and family bonds, and just enjoying conversation and each other’s company as well as the precious things in life helped to keep the story grounded, while the birds brought a certain depth and validity to humanistic expression. The quote, for example “We survive on sweet tea and complaining, plain and simple. Mostly the sweet tea, if I’m tellin’ it to you straight.”
There were excerpts to guide the story along as well which I thought was helpful and confirming.
Also the perfect read for this summer!
