Publication Date: July 23, 2024
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.
Heather Webber’s homespun novel A Certain Kind of Starlight pulls families together and then brings forth challenges to test the bonds. The theme alone is identifiable to everyone who is fortunate to be surrounded by family, yet admittedly finding times where those binds are a bit painful to bear.
Aunt Bean is ill and calls her granddaughters home to help as her long-held bakery is now getting a new state-of-the-art relocation. There is some hidden hope that these granddaughters will find the bond they never captured as children. The girls love their Aunt Bean, as does everyone in the town. Well, maybe not everyone. A vindictive old man will try to lay a stake to her magical land. You see, Aunt Bean lives where a giant star created a crater. It gives her family special insight. Aunt Bean represents that family member who gets away with complete straightforward honesty, with a big helping of sugar coating that others can’t quite respond to any other way but with acceptance.
My favorite part of the book is the intro to each chapter. It gives a very practical baking hint and adds a life lesson that will define the chapter. I am planning a little art project for my kitchen with these quotes. I loved them that much! An unfortunate distraction for me was the long tangled family trees, and like many a small town, the neighbors were treated as family too, which added to my struggle to keep the character relationships straight. In retrospect, I should have jotted down the characters as each was revealed.
A little starlight magic, a straight-talking Southern matriarch, and some helpful baking tips stirred together make A Certain Kind of Starlight a sweet read.
HEATHER WEBBER is the national bestselling author of more than thirty novels and has been twice nominated for an Agatha Award. She loves to spend time with her family, read, drink too much coffee and tea, birdwatch, crochet, watch cooking competition and home improvement shows, and bake. Heather lives in southwestern Ohio and is hard at work on her next book.
