At The Coffee Shop of Curiosities by Heather Webber, audiobook, 12h 10m
From Audible: A mysterious letter. An offer taken. And the chance to move forward.
When Ava Harrison receives a letter containing an unusual job listing one month after the sudden death of her ex-boyfriend, she thinks she’s being haunted. The listing—a job as a live-in caretaker for a peculiar old man and his cranky cat in Driftwood, Alabama—is the perfect chance to start a new life. A normal life. Ava has always been too fearful to even travel, so no one’s more surprised than she is when she throws caution to the wind and drives to the distant beachside town.
On the surface, Maggie Mae Brightwell is a bundle of energy as she runs Magpie’s, Driftwood’s coffee and curiosity shop, where there’s magic to be found in pairing the old with the new. But lurking under her cheerful exterior is a painful truth—keeping busy is the best way to distract herself from the lingering loss of her mama and her worries about her aging father. No one knows better than she does that you can’t pour from an empty cup, but holding on to the past is the only thing keeping the hope alive that her mama will return home one day. Ava and Maggie soon find they’re kindred spirits, as they’re both haunted—not by spirits, but by regret. They must learn to let go of the past to move on—because sometimes the waves of change bring you to the place where you most belong.
BOOK REVIEW: This was such a cute and sweet story. I did listen to this one because my mom said the narrators were wonderful to listen to and I agree except that the narrating was too slow for me, which is rare. I listened to most of the book at 1.2x speed and then towards the end bumped it up to 1.5x speed. Can I blame my fascination with Gilmore Girls and how fast they talk for the fact that I have to speed some books up and not others? Anyway, Ava and Maggie both have unique gifts. Ava has some heightened senses that make the world she lives in both fantastic and terrifying. Maggie has the ability to see an object, any object, and know if that thing has a person to match with it. She adds it to her curiosity corner and when the right person comes in, she knows what to give them.
This has all the vibes of a small town that I absolutely love. All the characters were described with such whimsy that it was so much fun to imagine them. The personality of a dog, the attitude of a cat, the old man who claims his house is haunted, along with a group of local women who walk the town square who have a chicken for a mascot! Yeah...a chicken! If you enjoy small town charm, give this a read (or a listen).
5/5 Stars
2024 Reading Challenge: 33/50 complete
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