A Certain Kind of Starlight | ARC Review

A Certain Kind of Starlight Published by Forge Books by Heather Webber
on July 23, 2024
Genres: Contemporary, Fantasy, Magical Realism, Women's Fiction
Pages: 320
Source: Netgalley
Format: ARC, eBook
Find the Author: Website, Twitter, Facebook, Goodreads, Instagram
Also by this author: Midnight at the Blackbird Café, South of the Buttonwood Tree
Find the Book: Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Goodreads

ISBN: 1250867290
Rating:

In the face of hardship, two women learn how to rise up again under the bright side of the stars.
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 is–and has been for a while–one of my absolute favorite, go-to authors. And for good reason.

As a lover of romance, I can say that her books aren’t overly-romantic. That should speak to how much they captivate me. Webber doesn’t need all the romance for her stories to hold my attention.

A Certain Kind of Starlight is told from the viewpoints of Tessa Jane and Addie; estranged sisters who have their love of their quirky Aunt Bean in common. Growing up, they weren’t close because Tessa Jane was the result of an affair between their shared father, and Tessa Jane’s mother, Henrietta.

While there’s not a ton of romance in this, it is a love story. Just a love story between sisters, between aunt and nieces, mothers and daughters, and even friends.

As with Webber’s other novels, she uses magical realism–usually in the form of magic animals–to help tell this story. And I’m so in love with her style.

Every part of this story was beautiful… And just know that with Webber, there’s always a happy ending–albeit sometimes bittersweet–there’s beauty found in the ordinary, and true appreciation of what it means to be family.

I loved this book to pieces. I haven’t read a book by Heather Webber that wasn’t just simply… AMAZING.

A Certain Kind of Starlight comes out July 23rd.

 

 

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