South of the Buttonwood Treeby Heather Webber
Rating: ★★★★
isbn: 9781250198563
Publication Date: July 21, 2020
Pages: 335
Genre: Fiction, Magical Realism
Publisher: Forge
Blue Bishop has a knack for finding lost things. While growing up in charming small-town Buttonwood, Alabama, she's happened across lost wallets, jewelry, pets, her wandering neighbor, and sometimes, trouble. No one is more surprised than Blue, however, when she comes across an abandoned newborn baby in the woods, just south of a very special buttonwood tree.
Sarah Grace Landreneau Fulton is at a crossroads. She has always tried so hard to do the right thing, but her own mother would disown her if she ever learned half of Sarah Grace's secrets.
The unexpected discovery of the newborn baby girl will alter Blue's and Sarah Grace's lives forever. Both women must fight for what they truly want in life and for who they love. In doing so, they uncover long-held secrets that reveal exactly who they really are--and what they're willing to sacrifice in the name of family.
Of all the Heather Webber books in the Magical Realism genre, this is the one I put off reading because it appears to centre on an abandoned newborn, which failed to appeal to me. It turns out that the newborn is really a catalyst for the rest of the story, one that ends up touching on a lot of themes like family, poverty, death and, of course, love. There are a couple of romances here but they’re so far on the back burner as to not even be on the stove.
The structure of the book is the typical for Webber of dual POVs, but there’s an added little bit at the start of each chapter from the POV of the judge that’s overseeing the custody case of the found infant. They’re rarely a page long, but each one is a conversation between the judge and someone from the community wanting to get their opinion of the custody case in the judge’s ear. I thought this was a successful device for letting the reader gain insight into the townsfolk of Buttonwood, good or bad, but it also allowed a tiny bit of wry humor into the story as the judge is often cornered in unexpected places and his patience is sorely tried.
All in all, I enjoyed it – better than I expected to. I love the magical realism of being able to find lost objects, or houses that talk to you, or trees that give advice on buttons.
I’m going to use this one for Halloween Bingo 2022 on the Genre: Supernatural square. It’s also a gimme for Magical Realism.