by senior reviewer Debbie Wiley Four and twenty blackbirds, baked in a pie. When the pie was opened, the birds began to sing- wasn’t that a dainty dish to set before the king?  I have a love/hate relationship with birds that started with Mother Goose and the Song of Sixpence nursery rhyme. Sure, there are birds I dearly love, like the graceful Sandhill cranes and the majestic owls, but it is the mystery of those blackbirds that has left me with a healthy dose of fear for birds. I know I’m not alone as look at Edgar Allan Poe’s The Raven, or Alfred Hitchcock’s The Birds (shudders). Several authors recently have challenged me to rethink how I feel about some of these maligned birds and I’d like to share their wonderful books with you. Heather Webber tackles the Song of Sixpence directly with a bit of magical realism in MIDNIGHT AT THE BLACKBIRD CAFE. Anna Kate Callow has arrived in Wicklow, Alabama, to bury her beloved Granny Zee. Unbeknownst to her, she inherits her grandmother’s entire estate, including the Midnight Cafe under one condition- she has to remain in Wicklow and run the cafe for a specific amount of time. Anna Kate has preconceptions about Wicklow….

Years ago when my daughter was born, a family friend sent a congratulatory card. It had the image of a sweet-faced baby wrapped in a pink blanket nestled in a tiny cradle. Underneath it read Who says there’s no such thing as love at first sight? It was a card that resonated with me so much that I framed it and hung it in her room. And now, almost fifteen years later, it’s still in there. Love at first sight is never truer than when you meet your child for the first time. It’s an instant kind of love, rather shocking with its fierceness. Kind of a slap upside the head—and the heart. There is no preparing for it, and there is no going back. It is a forever kind of love. It makes even the most hardened cynic realize true love does exist… At least between a parent and child. But what about romantic love?  Do you believe in love at first sight? Is there such a thing as soul mates? Underneath the humor, the murder, and the family secrets, these questions are at the heart of TRULY, MADLY, the first of my Lucy Valentine novels. Lucy is the…