The Peach Keeper

Affirmative! I liked it just as everyone else seems to!

Publisher Blurb: 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.

This is my third Sarah Addison Allen novel, and I ate it up in a hurry just like the others. This one has made the rounds in the blogosphere, so I don't think I have anything revolutionary to add. I will say, this is not my favorite of her novels. I liked the overall premise, I liked the characters, but somehow I didn't feel quite as close to them or as involved in their lives as I have Addison Allen's characters in the other books.

Of the bunch, Willa Jackson was most definitely my favorite, though I felt her role as the "Joker" was a little contrived and weird. However, if I were to be friends with any of the characters, I'd probably get along with her the best.

This novel is a little darker than Addison Allen's previous works -- more ghosts, less magic for the heck of it. Maybe that's another thing that made this novel a little less enjoyable than the other two under my belt: it just didn't sparkle quite as much.

Small criticisms aside, it was a great book to keep me happily reading and de-slumped. Another winner from Addison Allen, if not perfect.

I'm counting this one toward the Once Upon a Time V challenge for it's fantastical elements.