Tuesday 4 October 2011

Book Review: The Peach Keeper



Book Title: The Peach Keeper
Author: Sarah Addison Allen
Publisher: Bantam
Pages: 288
Cost; $25.00
How I Got it:  Library 
Description:

It’s the dubious distinction of thirty-year-old Willa Jackson to hail from a fine old Southern family of means that met with financial ruin generations ago. The Blue Ridge Madam—built by Willa’s great-great-grandfather during Walls of Water’s heyday, and once the town’s grandest home—has stood for years as a lonely monument to misfortune and scandal. And Willa herself has long strived to build a life beyond the brooding Jackson family shadow. No easy task in a town shaped by years of tradition and the well-marked boundaries of the haves and have-nots. 

But Willa has lately learned that an old classmate—socialite do-gooder Paxton Osgood—of the very prominent Osgood family, has restored the Blue Ridge Madam to her former glory, with plans to open a top-flight inn. Maybe, at last, the troubled past can be laid to rest while something new and wonderful rises from its ashes. But what rises instead is a skeleton, found buried beneath the property’s lone peach tree, and certain to drag up dire consequences along with it. 

For the bones—those of charismatic traveling salesman Tucker Devlin, who worked his dark charms on Walls of Water seventy-five years ago—are not all that lay hidden out of sight and mind. Long-kept secrets surrounding the troubling remains have also come to light, seemingly heralded by a spate of sudden strange occurrences throughout the town. 

Now, thrust together in an unlikely friendship, united by a full-blooded mystery, Willa and Paxton must confront the dangerous passions and tragic betrayals that once bound their families—and uncover truths of the long-dead that have transcended time and defied the grave to touch the hearts and souls of the living---from Goodreads.com


My take on the book:
Some Secrets will always out. This is the story of how one community and a few families deal with the fallout of this secret resurfacing.  This time the magic wasn't modern but was more a left over from the previous generation and  wasn't really something these families had within them, but something and someone from out of town brought with them. This book overall was very different from the other three she has written, this was darker than the other novels. this book really looks at what it means to be a good friend, & how the concept of friendship has changed within the generations.

I enjoyed that the characters in this novel were a lot more 'ordinary' compared to the other novels, yet, magic was still within the novel, within the town, and even within some of the families.. The love stories that formed were much quicker and in more detail than the other stories.  i personally enjoyed the story because of it's exploration of friendship, how it can take a lifetime to built, or sometimes,w hen you meet someone that single moment that lets you know that person will always impact your life.

The major characters who thought they had 'grown-up' and changed and learned that sometimes you don't have to completely abandon who you are to actually grow up. I really enjoyed the story of Paxton and Willa's friendship, Willa's relationship with her father, and what she really thought that happened compared to what really happened, and how knowing the true facts actually freed her to live the life she truly wanted. I was so surprised and happy as heck to see a former book character or two actually make an appearance in this book, and I sooo wanted to know more about them and their lives, but it was not to be.

I finished this book with a lightness in my heart because I could so see the ending Sarah wanted us to have and it was good. I am however stalking her webpage to find out when her next one comes out and I can't wait!!!!

Enjoy this novel as well as the others my loves


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