Rating: 3.5/5 Stars ⭐️⭐️⭐️✨
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I went in mostly blind into A Certain Kind of Starlight. All I knew is that I was absolutely obsessed with the cover and I figured the book would be more along the lines of magical realism. I think I expected a little too much from this story, while this was a great story, it fell a little bit flat for me.
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Addie and Tessa Jane, half-sister return home to Starlight to help their aunt, with a recently diagnosed heart condition, run the family bakery. There is a feud between Tessa Jane and Addie’s family which leads this to be very much so a family drama..
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The writing was spot on. I think everything about this book was beautifully written; I love the themes that were represented in this one. I was not a huge fan of the number of characters, a lot of them seemed to be one dimensional which made it hard for me to figure out exactly who was who an who was dating who at times. I did fall in love with Addie, Tessa Jane and Aunt Bean. I love all of the words of wisdom that Aunt Bean had for the two girls. I love the journey that the two sisters went through in order to heal from their past and to forgive one another and begin to have a bond.
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While this is more of a slow burn, family drama; I really appreciated the twist that was thrown into the story. It was a pretty jaw dropping one that I was not expecting. And the ending, oh the ending, that was just the most beautiful and sentimental endings.
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I listened to this one via audiobook. Hallie Richardo and Stephanie Willis were great together! They complimented one another and really made me feel like I knew Addie and Tessa Jane. If you want to pick this one up the audio was fantastic.
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Overall, I think that fans of chick lit / Family sagas will love this one. A Certain Kind of Starlight was just released on 7/23, be sure to check it out! Huge thank you to @netgalley NetGalley, Heather Webber and @macmillan.audio for the ALC in exchange for my honest review.

Sometimes when I read a book with magical realism, I think the magical element makes the plot more beautiful, more meaningful, and adds a sense of mystique beyond fiction, with a foot in fantasy, just enough to feel believable. Then there are magical realism books that seem to take a perfectly complete story and inject unexplained weirdness from outside of our earthly experience and knowledge, and it doesn't add to or feel right in the story. The latter was the case for me with this book.

The narration was well done but the voices of Addie and Tessa Jane were too similar and I couldn't keep them straight until about a third or half way through the book.

It was a story about a fractured family, a small town, secrets, inheritance, and a battle over land. Oh, and there's a star in the yard protected by a flock of birds.

This was slow, and the step-sisters seemed immature, making it kind of annoying. Communication breakdowns writ large. For a book that is all character-driven and about decisions, people struggled to make reasonable decisions and it took forever for their arcs to finally happen. It was all family tension for 90% of the book and the very end included confrontations, solutions, and closure. The struggle to get there wasn't just for the characters but the reader as well.

The star would have been an interesting element if it had been in any way explained, or even of reasonable interest from the outside world to know and understand this freak occurrence. But no, just a greedy grandfather wanting to monetize it. It pushed a lot of my buttons and I didn't like the characters much, so it was hard to care about what they did. In the end, I thought it would have made a better YA book about histrionic women.

This was a lovely book with just the right amount of magical realism. I found the storyline very heartwarming and relatable. I would recommend this book to someone who likes a little cozy mystery mixed in with a small town vibe.

A Certain Kind of Starlight
author: Heather Webber
narrators: Hallie Ricardo; Stephanie Willis
Macmillan Audio

Set in the small town of Starlight, Alabama, A Certain Kind of Starlight is magical and charming.
The book is about coming home, family relationships, and finding light through darkness.
Narrators Ricardo and Willis bring deliver wonderful performances to add to the appeal of this heartwarming book.

I received an advance listening copy through NetGalley through the 2024 Macmillan Audio Influencer Program. My review is my own.

Addie and Tessa Jane are half sisters with a distant relationship. When their aunt, Bean, has health issues, she asks Addie and Tessa Jane to come back to their hometown to help her run the bakery. Starlight, Alabama is a special town built on family connections and magic that helps bring the sisters back together.

I’m a sucker for small town tropes, so I enjoyed this. I loved the narrators of the audiobook. They embodied the characters well and added to the Southern feel of the novel. This book gave me slight Gilmore Girls vibes with the small town setting and how the characters look out for each other and help people in the community. But there are a ton of characters and family ties and secrets that are hard to keep track of, especially in the beginning. It was like a convoluted soap opera at times that took away from the heart of the novel. Overall, though, the story is heartwarming, and loved the emphasis on family. Aunt Bean was such a great character. There is an understated magical realism element which I enjoyed because I am not much of a fantasy fan in any capacity, but I’ve seen lots of reviews of people saying they wanted more magical realism. This is definitely more contemporary fiction than fantasy. Thanks to NetGalley, Macmillan Audio, and Heather Webber for this free ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Looking for a heartwarming comforting relaxation read that reminds you of the hope and magic in this world - A Certain Kind If Starlight by Heather Webber is for you.
A book about secrets, families and their dysfunctions, found family as well as birth family, small towns and the interplay of childhood trauma and coming of age, a pinch of romance and some gently used magical realism.

Distant half-sisters Tessa Jane and Addie are called back to Starlight, Alabama when their aunt Bean learns she has a life altering heart condition. The sisters need to learn to work together and care for one another and the community that shaped them when they were younger. They each had important reasons for leaving, can they abandon the lives they have built and more importantly can they band together and forge sisterly bonds or at least be friends ?

I listened to the audio for this book and Hallie Ricardo and Stephanie Willis expertly embrace the characters they are narrating and have a way of capturing your attention and infusing the southern charm without it becoming cloying even though there are a lot of “Bless Your Heart”s and “Oh Lordy”s.
This was a joy to listen to.

This book had more loops and twists and turns than a usual Heather Webber book but it had all the best characteristics of her magical realism. Starlings follow this family, and protect the family and their property which has an aurora that comes out at night over a meteor crater on the property. When the Starlings are near, something is going to need attention soon. Between the extra intuitive animals, lots of town history, family dramas, and wacky weather, there is never a dull moment with this family, both blood and found.

#arc
#netgalley
#acertainkindofstarlight

3 stars- it was okay!

Thank you Netgalley, Macmillan Audio, and Fore Books for the #ARC audiobook in exchange for an honest review! #MacAudio2024

You know those books that light a fire in your heart and fill you with inspiration and hope? This is that wrapped up in a Hallmark type book that is full of family drama, secrets, and cheesiness. I have not read anything else by this author but I would pick up something in the future! I liked the emotion it carried and the thought provoking scenes.

So what did i enjoy?
- the description of the small town. It felt welcoming and I could visualize the buildings, the baking, the town charm, and everything in between.
- I loved all the snippits of food mentioned! It made me hungry and excited for all the desserts!
- The characters are relatable. Especially the relationships between the women.
- Magical realism

So what did not work fro me?
- I understand that baking has been a really important part of the story and some of the families..... but to not want to be a part of a family because you cannot bake or bake the same was soooo dramatic. I found that kinda stupid. There are so many more problems to worry about and I just found that tone deaf.
- This felt quite repetitive at times.
- Too much intertwined messes that kinda lost me. It was too big of a puzzle and I did not care for how big it was.

Read if you like:
- Hallmark movies
- Magical Realism
- family drama
- Small town vibes

A Certain Kind of Starlight AUDIO by Heather Webber is a kind and gentle book, despite the turmoil within. It is a cacophony of hidden parentage, baking, and a mysterious glow that has always come from the crater left by a falling star (comet?). Some in town want it left alone, others want it seriously commercialized. Thankfully the owner had thought ahead and left it in trust to his two daughters when they each became twenty-five. Addie and Tessa Jane had never been close. Addie’s mother had poured too much poison in her daughter’s ear. Tessa Jane had a different mother, a loving one. It was her grandfather that spouted poison, and wanted the land. He believed Tessa Jane would let him have it when the time came. He was wrong. They both had their Aunt Verbena, Bean, as she was known. A cake baker of some renown. Now she was dying and they had come home to be with her. Lots of backstory here that can be discovered by reading the book.

Excellent characters, all of them, especially Bean. She was guiding these two young women she loved to finding themselves, which she did, with some outside help. A well-written book with a complicated plot, filled with lovable characters, makes this the ideal summer read. Is is a romance? A little. One that was postponed for twelve years. The plot is intricate and interesting, but not splashy or spectacular. Just gentle. A comforting listen. One I enjoyed tremendously. Thanks Heather Webber for another great book!

The readers were Hallie Ricardo and Stephanie Willis who kept the story gentle. They both did a credible job with a variety of characters. It was an extremely enjoyable listen, thanks to these two.

I was invited to listen to A Certain Kind of Starlight by MacMillan Audio. All thoughts and opinions are mine. #Netgalley #MacMillanAudio #HeatherWebber #ACertainKindOfStarlight

Heather Webber’s A Certain Kind of Starlight utterly captured my heart. Like At the Coffee Shop of Curiosities, Webber’s novels feel like a warm hug.

And A Certain Kind of Starlight is no exception!

Webber’s novels have the same addictive and immersive feel as a delicious romance. But what sets Webber’s books apart is her focus on familial love and learning to love oneself, rather than traditional romantic storylines.

In this dual-protagonist story, Addie and Tessa Jane each journey toward self-acceptance amidst family secrets and personal challenges. The girls’ stories resonated deeply with me. Watching them uncover hidden truths but grow stronger with each revelation was both inspiring and comforting. The characters’ relationships and growth feel genuine. So much so that you can’t help but reflect on your own family and the bonds that shape every one of us.

Webber is a master of crafting novels steeped in Southern charm. Her talent for bringing a small town to life with rich, authentic details makes the setting almost a character in itself. Starlight is vibrant and full of warmth, making it easy to get lost in the world. Webber’s storytelling is both engaging and heartfelt, effortlessly drawing you into the lives of her characters.

If you don’t immediately yearn to belong to a town like Starlight, you may not have a heart!

I listened to the audiobook of A Certain Kind of Starlight, thanks to NetGalley and Macmillan Audio. Hallie Ricardo and Stephanie Willis narrate this book, each taking on one of the protagonist’s point of view. Their performances were wonderful, bringing to life the story and the feeling of belonging to a tight-knit Southern community.

What I loved most about A Certain Kind of Starlight is how it made me feel. Webber’s novels give me hope. Yes, they emphasize the importance of self-love and familial bonds, but they also reassure me family is more than blood relations.

Moreover, Webber’s stories tell me it’s never too late to repair relationships damaged by actions or circumstances. Her tales are a beautiful reminder that understanding and accepting ourselves and our loved ones is a journey worth taking.

If you’re looking for a touching, feel-good read that celebrates the complexities of family and the journey toward self-acceptance, I highly recommend A Certain Kind of Starlight.

I really really enjoyed this story. Both narrators did wonderful jobs. The story was engaging and I didn’t want it to end! A Certain Kind of Starlight is the story of two sisters and their aunt, who has heart failure. As they navigate life, they find a new relationship with each other and hope for the future. Very well written. I would love to read more!

Thank you MacMillan and Tor Books for the review copies! I am a big fan of Heather Webber, life needs a little southern charm and magical realism, Webber's books are my smile every summer. I love how she weaves in family and small town/return to home vibes with self growth, themes on healing and letting go (in a healthy way) and self/family acceptance. I desperately want to visit the bakery, have a sugar bird, and be embraced by the loving aunts in A Certain Kind of Starlight.

Audiobook notes: Excellent narration and production, both voice actors capture Webber's southern style and her delicate charm, the actors let the hopes and dreams, secret worries, come through in their acting and performance of the story.

Book notes: I always get immersed in the small town charm Webber delivers, the details that make her places come alive, and her characters feel like me/people I know, a universal sense of connection to the self growth and family charms.

Addie returns home to her small hometown in rural Alabama after hearing her aunt was ill. Tessa Jane is going through her own difficulties and also comes to help her aunt, known for her baked goods. Together Tessa Jane and Addie not only help their aunt but also are able to find healing for themselves as their small town secrets come to surface with unexpected consequences.

I saw this one compared to a Hallmark movie in a review and to me, that seems like an accurate description. It’s a small town with several women trying to find their way and fight obstacles placed in their way by buried secrets. There were a lot of characters to keep track of and lots of side plots. That was extra challenging with an audiobook, even though the narration was very good. I also enjoyed how every chapter started with a baking tip. It added some fun to the story.

Thank you to @macmillan.audio and @netgalley for a complimentary audio version of this novel.

My thanks to NetGalley and Macmillan Audio for an ARC of this audiobook.

Starlight figures strongly in this novel, giving a touch of magical realism to what is essentially a family story with some background romance brewing. The starlight in question isn’t just what shines down from the heavens. It has to do with a longstanding Fullbright family legend about a falling star that left a ‘star wound’ on vacant land belonging to them. The starlight magically remained in the ground, occasionally emanating a strange aurora borealis type of light, drawing family members, townsfolk and tourists to its spiritual aura. Those seeking clarity went on a ‘star walk’ that usually shone light on their shadow sides and showed them better ways to live. Also involved is a flock of preternatural starlings that protect the ‘star fields’ but also the deserving among the Fullbrights, their friends, and even their pets.

The main action focuses on two troubled and estranged half sisters, Tessa Jane and Addie, who share the same deceased father. Tessa Jane’s mother is the daughter of the nasty, rich, powerful old man, Withrow Fullbright, who undermines them both and tries to manipulate them into serving his money-grubbing agenda. At stake is the property bequeathed to Tessa Jane by her grandmother. He wants to put up a new tourist attraction, paving over the family’s cherished star fields.

Much of the action in this small southern town takes place in and around Miss Verbena Fullbright, Aunt Bean, the typical southern matriarch. She has run the renowned Starlight bakery, also a local legend, for many years, turning out inimitable cakes with a seemingly magical touch. As the story opens, her dream renovations are being made, and, now with a newly diagnosed heart condition, she asks her beloved nieces to re-launch her long-planned newly renovated bakery, the finishing touches are being made to her brand new bakery, to move in for a few weeks to help out.

The young women, following their mothers’ lead, have stayed away from each other for a decade. They are not openly hostile, but wary of each other, blaming each other for their family’s dissolution, their own insecurities, and the heavy secrets they carry. With their aunts frequently comical mediation, and the occasional dose of special ‘starlight,’ not to mention starling warnings, they find themselves.

There is a lot to like about this novel, including plenty of endearing pets of all persuasions. The young women are kind-hearted, if conflicted. Aunt Bean is brash and ever ready to help the deserving and bring the undeserving to their comeuppance. Every chapter begins with Aunt Bean’s baking tips, then jumps into the narrative of either Tessa Jane or Addie. The cast is so big, however, that it’s very hard to know who is in love with whom, related to whom, has been impregnated by whom, dumped by whom, and so on. It’s at times a musical chairs scenario. I had particular difficulty telling the young women apart, even in their alternating POVs. There is a lot of repetition because they each spend a lot of time on the secrets that involve them both but the other has her own side. The ‘starlight’ flickers on and off. The narrators, Hallie Ricardo and Stephanie Willis, did a great job considering how many characters they voiced, but at times I had to go back to find out who was talking. I suspect these are problems with listening to the book rather than reading it, though you’d have to miss the lovely southern accents in that case.

This story has a lot of characters, which I found to be a little bit overwhelming at first, but once I became comfortable with the characters I really started to enjoy this story! There were some heavier topics touched on, but it was able to still remain lighthearted and whimsical which was nice. I thought the pacing was good, and enjoyed how we slowly learned everyone’s secrets.
 
I really enjoyed the small town family traditions, the bakery run by women and all of the random pets that kept accumulating, but my favorite part of this book was Tessa Jane and Addie’s relationship. They had a complicated relationship with regret on one side and hurt on the other; I loved their reconciliation story and seeing them become sisters in more than just name. It was a really beautiful story of coming home, forgiveness and acceptance.
 
BIG thanks to @macmillan.audio for the ALC! I found the narration to be very enjoyable. My only complaint was that sometimes it was hard to differentiate between the POV’s and without a physical copy of the book I wasn’t able to flip back to the beginning of each chapter to quickly figure it out. A Certain Kind of Starlight is out today (7/23)! HAPPY PUB DAY!!🎉
 
Swipe for synopsis➡️

Read if you like:
🔮Magical realism
🧑‍🧑‍🧒‍🧒Family drama
🏘️Small town
🐶Animals
🧁Baking

Book Title: A Certain Kind of Starlight
Author: Heather Webber
Format: 🎧
Narrators: Hallie Ricardo and Stephanie Willis
Publisher: Macmillan Audio
Genre: Magic Realism, Women’s Fiction
Pub Date was: July 23. 2024
My Rating: 4.Stars
Pages: 320
I just loved this story.
I have read other Heather Webber stories and was please the same narrators were performing the characters in this story as they are both great!

In this story Aunt Bean asks her nieces Addie and Tessa Jane Fulbright to come home to Starlight, Alabama as she hasn’t been feeling well. She does go to doctors and is diagnoses with heart issues.
Aunt Bean owns the Starling Cake Company. A fun thing about the land is that it houses a meteor Crater. At night the crater gives off a special starlight Aurora.

Story is a magical character based story.
I love the character – well everyone but mean grandfather but he certainly added dram to the story.
I love the ending and did not want the story to end.

One reviewer recommends this story to any reader who needs a reminder that there is still a little magic left in the world.
Aww yes!

Want to thank NetGalley and Macmillan Audio for this GREAT audiobook.
Publishing Release Date was Tuesday July 23, 2024.

Thank you NetGalley for the advanced audiobook! A Certain Kind Of Starlight by Heather Webber is a story about family, forgiveness and love. When Addie comes back home, she can’t help but wonder why she left in the first place. She feels so welcomed and useful and she is finally able to connect with her half-sister Tessa Jane. However, in a small town where everyone knows everything about their neighbours, she learns secrets that will change the course of her life. I liked the narrators Hallie Ricardo and Stephanie Williams. They also narrated Heather Webber’s last novel and I found the familiar narration quite enjoyable. Overall, a nice, enjoyable listen that I would recommend to others.

Full honesty- it took me a minute to figure out who was who at the start of this book, but who can deny a magical realism book set in a bakery? This story was warm, thoughtful, and have energy similar to The Secret Life of Bees, I really enjoyed it and can't wait to recommend it to friends as well!

Thank you to Net Galley and MacMillan Audio for granting me access to an audio ARC of this story! The narration was really well done and brought this story to life. In fact, it helped me to keep track of the long list of characters which allowed me to sink into the story!

This is the fourth Heather Webber book I've read. My sense upon finishing was that it didn't feel as smooth as her other books that I love. Two things make this perception inconsequential: I highlighted the heck out of it, and I'm rating it well above average. The bottom line is that Webber has never let me down—each of my five readings (I reread Midnight at the Blackbird Café in March; now six, with a second reading of Starlight ending July 13) has been a delight! Sometimes I've felt like I'd been on an emotional rollercoaster—every time, though, all is well that ends well.

It took quite a while to keep the family (and neighbor) trees straight, which might have been an early challenge to my impression of the book. I anticipated Ree's secret (advertised in the publisher's blurb) way ahead of its reveal, but Webber surprised me in other ways (brava!). The book is full of family traditions, strong matriarchs, Southern expressions and wisdom, and helpful baking tips. I especially enjoyed Aunt Bean's “from the kitchen of” entries at the beginning of each chapter, which allowed her to share her elder-wisdom in an interesting way besides in conversation with other characters. Aunt Bean and her bakery employees, the Sugarbirds, often stole the show, but Addie and Tessa Jane were good main characters—flawed, but growing. There were other lovable supporting characters and several very effective villains. To top it off, a bunch of non-human animal characters play important parts.

If you are a Heather Webber fan—or if you're just in the mood for a character-driven, found and biological family, Southern dose of magical realism—get yourself on your library hold list pronto and/or preorder the book in your favorite format(s). I've done both.

EDITED [July 13]:

I was thrilled to read an audio ARC as well. The book is narrated by Hallie Ricardo and Stephanie Willis, who also narrated the audio editions of two of my previous Webber reads (plus others). Willis was also one of the narrators of Midnight at the Blackbird Café. I like Ricardo's and Willis's work—their voices are perfect for Webber's wide range of characters, lovable or not.

The slight reservation I felt after reading the e-book ARC was gone with my second reading. I don't know for sure whether it was the repeat reading or the wonderful narration that made the difference—maybe both! In any event, I have bumped up my rating slightly.

During my second reading, something Tessa Jane says in Chapter 20 was so hilarious to me that I went back to the e-book and highlighted the section. Let me know when you (think you) get there, and we can revel together!

This unbiased review is based on ARCs supplied by the publishers—Tor Publishing Group, Forge Books (print/e-book) and Macmillan Audio from Tor Forge. Publication is expected July 23.

I love magical realism, especially when it's done in a small town in the south. I love the lore behind the Starlings and the starlight, and the sisters' story was both heartbreaking and heartwarming.