Review: The Peach Keeper by Sarah Addison Allen

Genre: Southern Fiction
Series: No
Copyright: 2011
Publisher:  Bantam Books
Buy: Amazon
Reviews of other books by Sarah Addison Allen: Garden Spells, First Frost, The Sugar Queen, Lost, Lake, and The Girl Who Chased the Moon

Summary:
Willa Jackson, Colin Osgood, Paxton Osgood, and Sebastian Rogers all went to high school together, in Walls of Water North Carolina and yet they can't seem to live down their past which is exactly what they would like to do. " The Joker, the Stick Man, the Princess, and the Freak" (p. 209). 

The Madam had been built in the 1800s by Willa's great-great-grandfather, the founder of the now defunct Jackson Logging Company. ... The irony was that the Jacksons, once the finest family in town, the reason for the town's existence in the first place, lost all their money when the logging stopped. ... [Willa] got out of her Wrangler and climbed onto the hood, leaning back against the windshield. ... The only thing left to the renovation was the landscaping, which apparently had gotten under way just that day. That excited Willa. ... Most of the activity, however, seemed centered on the area around the only tree on the flat top of the hill, where the house sat. (p. 11-12)

Willa's family has a history at the Madam but she is the only one who had not been inside the run down house as a teenager. She only views it from a distance. Thus when she is caught looking that it by Colin she is embarrassed and hurries off in the hope that he didn't recognize her. Colin is left with the invitation to the gala event being held at the Madam. He goes to return it to her and in a jet-legged state ends up falling asleep on her couch. In high school Willa was the school Joker and she had pinned her pranks on Colin not on purpose to start with but because everyone thought he had done them. Colin is drawn to Willa because of her wild side, but she is not the person she was in high school.

Paxton is having the Madam remolded for the big 75th anniversary gala for the Women's Society Club. Paxton is the president, and she feels that she must be in control. Colin is doing the landscaping for the Madam and when he finds a skeleton under a peach tree his sister feels as though everything is out of her control and she worries that she will not be able to have the gala there. The skeleton belongs to Tucker Devlin a traveling sales man who was in Walls of Water 75 years before. The mystery surrounding his death brings Paxton and Willa closer.

Paxton and Sebastian are very good friends and Paxton is under the impression from being in high school together that he is gay, yet she finds herself sexually attracted to him. She wants more from her relationship with him than just the friendship they have.

"He opened the car door for her and helped her out. 'It's too hot to be sitting in your car. Your hair is wet.' He put his cool hand to the base of her bare neck, which made her want to shiver. It was a base reaction from a place deep within her, a well full of sharp longings and pipe dreams." (p. 67) 

Even the way they interact shows how close they are physically even if it isn't sexual.

Colin and Paxton both need to come to terms with who they are now and what it means for them to be part of their family and an individual. All have to learn to be who they were in the past as well as who they are now to be comfortable, in coming to terms with this they are able to find happiness.

Feelings:
I really enjoyed the mountain setting for The Peach Keeper. The idea of a town of waterfalls seems magical, and the way the mist was described makes the setting magical. The idea of selling jars of fog, because of how think and magical it was seems an odd idea to me, but living in the mountains I understand the kind of fog that is being described. Unlike some of Sarah Addison Allen's other books this one combines a fictional location, Walls of Water, with a real location, Asheville, where the author is from. I liked that touch. Walls of Water is both a small town but also has the feel of a larger town. Through the setting and nature we learn about the characters which is important to the story.

Contrary to the title there were not many peaches in the story. I expected them to play a bigger part in the story but they didn't really. Personally, I had hoped that they would as they are my favorite fruit. Tucker Devlin has peach tree that is growing over were he was buried and there is the smell of peaches sometimes when people think of Tucker and what he did to the town. Mostly though peaches are part of the magical or unknown in this story.

I really enjoy reading Sarah Addison Allen's books but I have to admit that I am beginning to see a similar structure in them. This has not stopped me from enjoying the writing and the story. Almost all of her stories have a strong focus on the past and healing wounds. This story was no exception to this pattern. What makes her books really enjoyable to me are that the characters are strong and easy to like. The romance between characters helps, but I think I would like the story even if there wasn't romance and the characters were just friends.

I would recommend this to anyone looking for a good read over a weekend. It is easy to get into and the characters give in to the superstitions of the town. The town and the characters all have their own personalities that make this a book worth reading.