what I’m reading: midnight at the blackbird cafe by heather webber.

Anna Kate has never been to the town of Wicklow – her mother fled the town when she was pregnant and made Anna Kate promise to never return there. But when Anna Kate’s beloved Granny Zee dies, she makes her way to the forbidden town to run Zee’s Blackbird Cafe. Anna Kate thinks she’ll only be in the sleepy town for a little bit – she’s got a spot at medical school in Massachusetts waiting for her in the fall. But as she spends more time cooking in the Blackbird Cafe and with the townspeople of Wicklow, she starts to wonder what it is exactly she wants in life.

This was such a charming story. I loved all the characters. The townspeople were all great, full of gossip about who is going to take over the running of the Blackbird Cafe, and especially wondering if they will be able to bake Zee’s beloved blackbird pies. The pies have a following of their own, along with a group of blackbirds that leads to an unusual amount of bird watchers and tourists arriving in Wicklow.

There is some magical realism involving the blackbirds and the pies and a couple of other characters. This book reminded me a lot of Garden Spells (a book I recently read). I actually didn’t expect to like this book so much. I had checked it out from the library and it sat on my Kindle for weeks until I got a notice that it was going to be returned in a couple days. I thought I would start reading it and see if I liked it – I ended up reading it one or two sittings (there may have been some sleeping involved in the middle). I was definitely entranced.

I thought this was a really sweet story about Anna Kate figuring out her path in life. It’s also about family and grief and forgiveness and community. I’ve seen this book described as a cozy small-town book, which I would have to agree. 

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