Small-town magic

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amym0403 Avatar

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3.5

After her grandmother's death, Anna Kate returns to the small town of Wicklow, AL, the town her mother fled twenty-five years ago after the car accident that killed her boyfriend (and Anna Kate's father) causes his family to question what happened behind the wheel that day. Per her grandmother's will, Anna Kate must stay in Wicklow and run the family's Blackbird Cafe for the summer before Anna Kate will be free to sell the cafe and start medical school.

But once in Wicklow Anna Kate is faced not only with her father's family but with the job her grandmother filled in the community: making the blackbird pies which are regarded very specially by the residents of Wicklow. Along with having to decide where she fills happiest and if selling the cafe and going to medical school is what she truly wants.

I really liked the magical realism aspect of the story, but I loved how Heather Webber keeps it pretty simplistic and doesn't necessarily give an answer or explanation for everything that happens. Not only in regards to the magic but also to the pseudo-mystery surrounding the accident twenty-five years ago. The people involved are no longer around, but the people it effected are still living and still living with the pain and loss.

Anna Kate was a wonderful character. She's kind of thrust into an unknown situation but she handles it with grace and she takes everything thrown at her and adapts. Along the way, though, she begins to question the life she had planned out. The life she kind of promised her mother, who never returned to Wicklow after the accident.

The narrative is split between Anna Kate's story and that of Natalie Linden - Anna Kate's father's sister. She's a newly widowed mother who moves home because she needs help. Unfortunately, her family, mother specifically, is not the easiest person to deal with. Natalie not only has to begin to heal after her husband's death but she has to learn to heal with her family who is still highly impacted by the events of twenty-five years ago.

I loved the relationship that Natalie and Anna Kate form. Yes, they're family, but beyond that they become friends. Friends who see the accident from different sides, yet can understand where each is coming from.

The story just missed the mark a little bit on depth. Besides Anna Kate and Natalie, I just didn't feel the depth to some characters. They didn't come out as completely well-rounded as I would have liked, such as Gideon and Cam the romantic interests for Anna Kate and Natalie respectively. I loved the tentative way the romances started, but I felt like things just didn't work out as fully as I would have liked. I understand that those romances are secondary or tertiary to the main point of the story, but I just would have liked a little more concrete closure on where the relationships go.

All in all, I enjoyed the story. I loved the quirky characters and the small-town setting and seeing the community come together. I loved the way the magical realism presented itself and kind of ran as the beating heart of the theme of the story.