It was supposed to be a quick trip to close the café and settle her grandmother’s estate, but despite her best intentions to avoid forming ties or even getting to know her father’s side of the family, Anna Kate finds herself inexplicably drawn to the quirky Southern town her mother ran away from so many years ago, and the mysterious blackbird pie everybody can’t stop talking about.
As the truth about her past slowly becomes clear, Anna Kate will need to decide if this lone blackbird will finally be able to take her broken wings and fly.
Comment: I had this book in the pile since 2019, probably because of the magical realism label. I've read other books with this in the past and some were great, which means I keep up the hopes of regaining similar reactions!
In this story, set in the south, we meet heroine Anna Kate, a young woman who is back to Wicklow after the death of her beloved grandmother Zee. Anna Kate is looking for to go to medical school, a dream her late mother had for her, but there is something about Wicklow and about her inherited cafe and the blackbirds which only come at night, that draws her in. While debating what to do, Anna Kate keeps up with her grandmother's routines and cooking at the cafe, something everyone is eager for, especially since there is a pie which makes people dream about messages loved ones send them. Still, in such a close community, there it isn't possible to avoid some people, including the family on her father's side, whom she never met...until now. What will Anna Kate decide to do if she ends up falling in love with all the people she comes to care about...?
This is my first attempt at a book by this author, although her name has popped up often in my GR feed, which only enhanced my curiosity over what the story would be like. I think I now have a pretty good idea about this author's style - I really think some authors are too distinctive - and my conclusion is that while this story, and others very likely, was great and sweet, it was also rather boring and slow.
The story starts off right away as Anna Kate is dealing with kitchen issues. There wasn't any kind of setting up and it felt as if I was dumped right in the middle of things. This usually doesn't bother me but this time it did affect my focus and I struggled to get on track with what was happening. I also think this had to do with the author's style, which isn't as polished and subtle as I envisioned for this type of story. The mystery hints, the magical realism issues which are addressed or suggested are just too plain and presented in ways that didn't make me feel the anticipation of what would happen. I think the author's style if fine but perhaps not the best for this type of plot.
From the start we know the pies Anna Kate's grandmother did were special. Everyone knows it and talks about them. Perhaps if the "is it magical or isn't" were to remain a mystery would have highlighted the situations in which, indeed, people could believe magic was present; the way things happen, it's more a matter of how long will it take for the plot to move on and not that the magic will exist. In the big scheme of things, I think the presentation of the plot and the development wasn't executed as well as it could, or as mysteriously.
The story is told from the POV of Anna Kate and Natalie, who happens to be a family member of hers. I didn't mind these two as main characters but, again, this proved to be quite the distraction and to me didn't add much to the overall story. Sadly, to me, the characters are all one dimensional and very poorly developed. There were also some romantic elements, for both women meet someone who seems suited for them, but even this element was a bit too simple and the way I see it, the romance itself was non existent.
The main focus of the story is on letting go of past resentments and anger over things that cannot be changed. This aspect was certainly developed and offered many interesting scenes and food for thought over what the characters do/say in their interactions, but I think it was a little simplistic to have the attention only on this and in what happened in the past which still affects Anna Kate and Natalie and the rest of their common family. I think all these things with a better polish and execution or even some editing could have improved the book.
The magic of the pies and the blackbirds and all the hints at something out of the ordinary were interesting and cute most of the time, but not subtle enough for me to feel eagerness to know what would happen next or why specific situations would matter for the characters afterwards. As I often want in books, I wish there had been some more tension and longing in what the characters were dealing with so that when something important happens, the "message" would be clear. The way things were, there wasn't much inferring to do, things were just too average after all.
I'm sorry this one was such a dud. Better luck with the next one.
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