MIDNIGHT AT THE BLACKBIRD CAFE / 336 p. / Heather Webber

Anna Kate has returned to her recently deceased mother's home of Wicklow, Alabama after her Granny Zee has also passed away.  Anna has now lost her mother and her grandmother and is forging ahead trying to fulfill her mother's wish to have her go to college to become a doctor AND her Granny's wish that Anna Kate takeover the family bakery in Wicklow.
   This is a story of Anna Kate's fractured family and her longing to find the truth behind her father's death before she was born. Anna Kate also needs to find what she wants to do in life. The story is full of Southern charm, kindness, forgiveness and love.

Things To Huge To Fix By Saying Sorry/Susan Vaught/334 pgs

This story has two themes, the civil rights struggle in Jackson, Mississippi and a family’s struggle with an aging grandmother battling dementia and failing health.

Grandma Beans knows her struggle with dementia is making it more important that she pass on to her granddaughter, Dani, her notebooks from her past.  Dani realizes that Grandma Beans has given her the key to the answers to events from the night of the riots at ‘Ole Miss and her grandmother’s personal involvement as a victim.  

This was a gripping story told to keep the reader wanting the answers, too.

Little White Lies/Jennifer Lynn Barnes/390 pages (Mystery)

     Little White Lies is a young adult mystery story that centers on Sawyer Taft, a sassy 18 year old who has been raised by her single mom since her mother's affluent family "tossed her out" when pregnant.  Sawyer is a very put together teen that can pretty much handle whatever life throws at her.  Enter her grandmother with a deal--come and live with her for 9 months and experience a debutantes' year of fashion, dances and fun and grandma will pay for college with a healthy check on the side.  Sawyer accepts.  She isn't sure why her grandmother has made the offer but she knows she is accepting so that she might have a chance to find out who is her father.

     In the months that follow--through scavenger hunts, parties and charity functions--Sawyer learns a lot about her family.  Looking for a father, she finds cousins and friends and a life she is not willing to vacate when her mother asks her to leave.  Mixed in with the father hunt are side mysteries our teens are trying to solve--What is going on with Campbell, why is Walker acting so strange, what really happened the night Nick's brother was hit by a car and wound up in a coma?

     Jennifer Lynn Barnes has done an excellent job of creating fresh and funny characters that keep you guessing and interested throughout the book.  RECOMMENDED.