On Flashback Fridays I will share with you
the books I was not able to review
when they were first released that have been screaming at me
from my To-Be-Read bookshelf.

This book has been waiting on my TBR bookshelf for way too long. I was happy that a mini-challenge in the Alphabet Soup Reading Challenge gave me the opportunity to finally read it.

The Peach Keeper: A Novel
Contemporary Women’s Fiction
Setting – North Carolina
Bantam (March 22, 2011)
Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 288 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0553807226
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0553807226
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 304 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0553385607
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0553385601
Kindle ASIN ‏ : ‎ B004HFRJQC

The New York Times bestselling author of The Girl Who Chased the Moon welcomes you to her newest locale: Walls of Water, North Carolina, where the secrets are thicker than the fog from the town’s famous waterfalls, and the stuff of superstition is just as real as you want it to be.

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.

Resonant with insight into the deep and lasting power of friendship, love, and tradition, The Peach Keeper is a portrait of the unshakable bonds that—in good times and bad, from one generation to the next—endure forever.

Dollycas’s Thoughts

The Jacksons and the Osgoods of Walls of Water, North Carolina have a history filled with drama. Financial ruin left the Jackson’s family home in ruin and now the Osgood family is trying to renovate the home into an inn. But bones found when removing an old peach tree open up old wounds and reveal secrets long held by the older generations.

This is the first book I have read by this author. I picked it up several years ago when I saw all the great reviews, but it languished on my To-Be-Read bookshelf until now. While it didn’t blow me away it was still a very good read.

I found the characters to be interesting but wasn’t totally caught up in their lives until later in the story.  Grandmothers, Agatha and Georgie, and the true reason why the Women’s Society Club was formed did grab me along with the way a true friendship was revealed. I understand the reason why the author plotted out the story the way she did but maybe because of my age I was drawn to the older characters.

The younger generation of Paxton, Willa, Colin, and Sebastian had their own set of issues to deal with along with the gala planned to reopen the Blue Ridge Madam. It was the bones that brought Willa and Paxton together in a different way. The mystery that was brought to light made the relationship evolve. The more I read the more these characters grew on me.

In the end, this is a story about family and friendship and the way relationships endure. I am a little confused about the title because for me the book was about so much more.

All in all, The Peach Keeper was an enjoyable read and I am open to reading more by Sarah Addison Allen.

Your Escape Into A Good Book Travel Agent

  About the Author

SARAH ADDISON ALLEN is the New York Times bestselling author of Garden Spells, The Sugar Queen, The Girl Who Chased the Moon, Lost Lake, First Frost and Other Birds. She’s sold millions of copies worldwide and her books have been translated into more than thirty languages. She was born and raised in Asheville, North Carolina.

You can follow Sarah on Facebook/Instagram.

And visit her website: www.sarahaddisonallen.com

Also by this Author

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from the publisher. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. Receiving a complimentary copy in no way reflected my review of this book. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”