A Certain Kind of Starlight

A Certain Kind of Starlight

by Heather Webber
Genres: Fiction / Magical Realism
Length: 11:05
Narrator: Hallie Ricardo, Stephanie Willis
Published on July 23, 2024
Pages: 272
Format: Audiobook Source: Library

Everyone knows that Addie Fullbright can’t keep a secret. Yet, twelve years ago, as her best friend lay dying, she entrusted Addie with the biggest secret of all. One so shattering that Addie felt she had to leave her hometown of Starlight, Alabama, to keep from revealing a devastating truth to someone she cares for deeply. Now she’s living a lonely life, keeping everyone at a distance, not only to protect the secret but also her heart from the pain of losing someone else. But when her beloved aunt, the woman who helped raise her, gets a shocking diagnosis and asks her to come back to Starlight to help run the family bakery, Addie knows it’s finally time to go home again.

Tessa Jane Wingrove-Fullbright feels like she’s failing. She’s always been able to see the lighter side of life but lately darkness has descended. Her world is suddenly in shambles after a painful breakup, her favorite aunt’s unexpected health troubles, and because crushing expectations from the Wingrove side of her family are forcing her to keep secrets and make painful choices. When she’s called back to Starlight to help her aunt, she’s barely holding herself together and fears she’ll never find her way back to who she used to be.

Under the bright side of the stars, Addie and Tessa Jane come to see that magic can be found in trusting yourself, that falling apart is simply a chance to rise up again, stronger than ever, and that the heart usually knows the best path through the darkness.

I ended up listening to the audiobooks of this book and Starling House at the same time. They both feature starlings as protectors of the magical land at the center of the story. That was weird and sometimes slightly confusing. But the books could not be more different otherwise.

This book has some very dark themes but is infused with love and light for an overall cozy feel.  Some of the dark topics discussed are parental death, domestic violence, and animal abuse/neglect. (The dog doesn’t get hurt badly and ends up being fine but there is some history of horse death discussed.)

The book starts with Addie and Tessa Jane being estranged mainly because people in their lives have told them that they need to dislike each other because of a lot of past family drama.  Now they are brought together to support a relative that they both love.  They need to learn to coexist to make this work. 

They each also have conflicts with other people in this small town.  If they are going to move back to the area, they need to work through those relationships too.  

In a few months, on Tessa Jane’s 25th birthday, a trust that they are named in will mature and they have to make a unanimous decision about what to do with family land that holds a mystical field that their town is named for.  If they can’t work together the land will be sold –  most likely to a developer, who is Tessa Jane’s grandfather. 

There is a lot going on in this book.  But it all revolves around learning to love the people (and animals) who you decide are family while learning to trust your instincts about the world around you.  There are also a lot of cakes and sugar cookies being made.  This book made me want to bake sugar cookies and I don’t really even like them.  

Heather Webber’s books combine magical realism with southern small towns and lots of food.  I didn’t like this one as much as The Lights of Sugarberry Cove but it is a close second.