Midnight at the Blackbird Cafe

 Midnight at the Blackbird Cafe by Heather Webber   336 pages

Anna Kate has come home to Wicklow, Alabama. Not really home for her, but it is where her Granny Zee lived all her life and where she owned and operated The Blackbird Café. Now that Granny Zee has died, it’s up to Anna Kate to run the café for three months before she can sell it, close it, or do what she wants with it.  Luckily, it’s summertime, and Anna Kate doesn’t have to head back to Boston where she will enter medical school.

The townspeople are very interested in Anna Kate. Seems like the majority of those who frequent the café never even knew Zee had a granddaughter until Anna Kate showed up. Anna Kate’s mother left town shortly after a car accident that killed her boyfriend, son of a prominent family, and never looked back.

The café is one of the center pieces…a place to grab a bite, as well as the magic that can be found in the blackbird pies. Anna Kate jumps right in and learns the restaurant business and takes over the pie-baking. There’s a secret to the blackbird pies.

If a person eats a piece of the café’s blackbird pie, she/he will receive a message from a departed loved one.  It work. Many of the local townspeople are there when the café opens for breakfast to make sure the pies don’t sell out before they can get a piece.

The a flock of birders start showing up to see and hear the blackbirds that live in the mulberry tree behind the café. They only come out at midnight, singing their haunting melody and bridging the gap between this world and the next.  As rumors of the rare blackbird sightings spread among bird lovers acros the world, Wicklow becomes more and more of a tourist destination.

The Anna Kate has to come face-to-face with one of the town’s most prominent families, the Lindens. Seems she looks exactly like their late son, AJ, who was killed in the aforementioned accident. Having moved around most of her life, seldom staying in one place more than two years, Anna Kate can’t decide if she wants a relationship with her new-found family or not.

Anna Kate has a lot of decisions to make in the next three months.  Readers of this sweet little  stor will love to follow along as Anna Kate charts new territories in almost every aspect of her life.  I was never sure how Anna Kate knew so much about Wicklow since she had never visited the tiny town. That’s why “Midnight at the Blackbird Café” receives 4 out of 5 stars in Julie’s world.