I live happily in a small Alabama town. All my life I have dreamt of exploring foreign ports, mountaintop vistas, and exotic cities. But even in my dreams I always came home. The rural South has a special magic that is hard to explain. The misty sunlight as you sit on your front porch and watch the sun go down. Wild dogwoods blooming along the backroads. Honeysuckle perfuming the air. Real sweet tea! (You cannot put sugar into cold-brewed tea and get real Southern sweet tea. It just will not happen!)

Author Heather Webber has captured that magic in her book “Midnight at the Blackbird Café.” The book centers on Anna Kate and the small town of Wicklow, Alabama. Twenty-five years ago, Anna Kate’s mother, Eden, fled the town after a devastating loss. She kept running her whole life, tugging her daughter all over the country. Before she died, she made Anna Kate promise she would go to medical school and not return to Wicklow. But Anna Kate’s beloved grandmother, Granny Zee, has passed away and left everything to her granddaughter, including her house, the Blackbird Café, and the responsibility/secret of the blackbird pie.

What is so special about blackbird pies? You see, Wicklow has a special magic. Most nights between midnight and one o’clock, blackbirds flock from the woods and congregate on a mulberry tree behind the café. Rumor has it that eating a piece of a pie made from those fruits (not real blackbirds) will allow a departed loved one to visit you in your dreams that night. The kicker? Only members of Anna Kate’s family can bake the pies. So if Anna Kate sells the café and goes back to college? No more pies, no more blackbirds, no more magic.

So what is Anna Kate to do? Break a promise to her mother? Or allow a generations-old tradition to die?  Will she turn her back on the magic or go back to her orderly life?

This book does not have huge action – no explosions, no plague outbreaks or zombie attacks, no international espionage. The characters are the story. The townsfolk provide humor, quirkiness, and love. You get to know them and their lives. You feel their pain, share in their sorrow, and cheer at their victories. It is an easy read, perfect for your upcoming summer beach list. I highly recommend this book. And I can’t wait to read others by Heather Webber. Gotta love that Southern magic!

Click to tweet: Friday Fiction: Midnight at the Blackbird Cafe by Heather Webber. Southern gothic at its best. #Friday Reads #amreading