The Demopolis Public Library will host the first After Hours Book Club meeting on Thursday, Jan. 23 from 5:30 to 6:30 p.m. It will be an open house with refreshments and copies of the first book, “Midnight at the Blackbird Café” by Heather Webber, available to borrow from the library.

Patrons unable to attend the open house may reserve a book and will have until Jan. 31 to check the book out from the library and participate in the book club. The book will be read over the course of a month with another meeting and discussion between book club members after completion.

“I think it needs to be something that a public library offers for people who love reading to get together and read the same book,” Director Kathy Owings said of the book club. She noted that the library previously had another book club several years ago.

During the open house, participants and library staff will schedule the next meeting date.

Owings and Sandra Dickie, the library’s genealogy/children’s library assistant, both read the book and found the setting and characters enjoyable enough to make it the inaugural book.

“There’s so many interesting characters in it … we thought it’d be a perfect book to start with,” Owings said.

Set in the small town of Wicklow, Alabama, “Midnight at the Blackbird Café” sees Anna Kate return to the town following the death of her grandmother, Granny Zee, in order to settle the estate and close her grandmother’s Blackbird Café.

Despite her attempts to make it a quick trip and not form any ties to the town or her father’s side of the family, Anna Kate is drawn to Wicklow as she begins to discover more about her past. “Midnight at the Blackbird Café” features magical realism, romance and small-town charm.

Webber, also known by her pseudonym Heather Blake, has written over 25 books in the genres of romance, mystery and paranormal mystery. She lives in Ohio where she is working on her next book.

(This article originally appeared in the Wednesday, January 22 issue of the Demopolis Times.)