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A CERTAIN KIND OF STARLIGHT
Heather Webber
Tor Publishing Group | Forge Books
Publication Date: July 23rd, 2024
320 Pages
Goodreads | Amazon | Bookshop.org
Genres: Women’s Fiction | Fantasy | Magical Realism
This is my second book by this author and I tried to like her books but have realized she just isn’t for me. I loved the premise but the execution fell flat and I found I had the same issues as I did with At the Coffee Shop of Curiosities, it is more chick-lit than magical realism. Too much Hallmark movie and not enough magic. This should have been right up my alley, a southern bakery location and a plot with a bit of magic. I found it to be more along the lines of a soap opera. I hate tropes with lack of communication and big secrets, it frustrates the hell out of me. Like just grow up, keep a secret if you promise to and get on with your life. You’re a grown-ass woman stop saying you’ll let it out by accident.
There are too many characters and we don’t focus on just one or two long enough to get to know them. We meet everybody in the whole damn town and their brother. I just didn’t click with any of the characters, even the two main ones. Everything was spread too thin and felt watered down. The entire thing bored me to tears. The pacing was just so damn slow and I know that’s how they do things in the south but I dreaded picking this book up and it took me a long time to finish. The characters seemed two-dimensional, flat if you will. The ending felt very rushed and all too tidy for my liking.
I did appreciate that romance was not at the forefront of the plot and I loved how each chapter started with a baking hack and a bit of wisdom from Verbena. The recipes and discussions of making the cakes made me hungry and I swear I gained ten pounds just reading about them. If you like sickly sweet, heartwarming stories with a lot of characters, this book may be for you.
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the Advance Readers Copy.
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