Ain't She a Peach: Volume 4 (Southern Eclectic, #3)

by Molly Harper

"An Atlanta ex-cop comes to sleepy Lake Sackett, Georgia, seeking peace and quiet--but he hasn't bargained on falling for Frankie, the cutest coroner he's ever met. Frankie McCready talks to dead people. Not like a ghost whisperer or anything--but it seems rude to embalm them and not at least say hello. Fortunately, at the McCready Family Funeral Home & Bait Shop, Frankie's eccentricities fit right in. Lake Sackett's embalmer and county coroner, Frankie's goth styling and passion for nerd culture mean she's not your typical Southern girl, but the McCreadys are hardly your typical Southern family. Led by Great-Aunt Tootie, the gambling, boozing, dog-collecting matriarch of the family, everyone looks out for one another--which usually means getting up in everyone else's business. Maybe that's why Frankie is so fascinated by new sheriff Eric Linden...a recent transplant from Atlanta, he sees a homicide in every hunting accident or boat crash, which seems a little paranoid for this sleepy tourist town. What's he so worried about? And what kind of cop can get a job with the Atlanta PD but can't stand to look at a dead body? Frankie has other questions that need answering first--namely, who's behind the recent break-in attempts at the funeral home, and how can she stop them? This one really does seem like a job for the sheriff--and as Frankie and Eric do their best Scooby-Doo impressions to catch their man, they get closer to spilling some secrets they thought were buried forever. With Ain't She a Peach, Molly Harper proves once again that she "never lets the reader down with her delightfully entertaining stories" (Single Titles)"--

• ISBN10: 1501151339
• ISBN13: 9781501151330
• Publish Date: 12 June 2018
• Publish Status: Active
• Publish Country: US
• Imprint: Simon & Schuster
• Format: Paperback (US Trade)
• Pages: 304
• Language: English

Reviews

[Berls]

So fun! I love Frankie. She's a funny character, with lots of quirks and snark (in true Molly Harper fashion). The family in this series is pretty great and the number of times I literally laughed out loud made it the perfect read for before and after work. Looking forward to more in this series. Definitely to be listened to, with Amanda Ronconi nailing the narration as always.

[MurderByDeath]

I can't think of a single book Molly Harper has written that I haven't enjoyed on some level; even if the plots aren't always solid, the snarky humor and solid character dynamics that revolve around family and friends makes up for it.   This was the case with Ain't She a Peach.  It's part of a series of books that aren't serial, called Southern Eclectic; they share a common setting and characters, but act as stand alone reads.  Comparing story structures between this one and Sweet Tea and Sympathy, Ain't She a Peach lacks the central plot that pulled ST&S together.  Here, Frankie's story is far more focused on her struggle for maturity and autonomy, as the only-child/cancer survivor to older parents.  The romance is secondary, and the resolving the break-ins to the family mortuary tertiary, and by far the weakest link in the plot.   Still, any fan of Molly Harper's will find a lot to like here.  Few authors I read come close to the engaging and engrossing dialog Harper spills across her pages and she creates characters that are likeable, hilarious, strong and noble - characters that really are the people you wish your friends and family could be - without making them into after-school-special paper constructs.   Not her best, but still enjoyable, and exactly what I've been needed to read the last few weeks.

[EBookObsessed]

I don’t know how anyone could read Peachy Flippin’ Keen without already having a copy of Ain’t She a Peach since it leaves you hanging and thankfully I had review copies of both. 🙂

Molly Harper takes us back to that crazy town by the lake, Lake Sackett, Georgia and the McCready Clan to spend time with Frankie McCready. Frankie was my favorite character of this series, even over Tootie, and I was excited to see that her book was next.

In Peachy Flippin Keen, which is a novella Molly put out back in April, We are introduced to the new Sheriff in Town, Eric Linden, as well as Frankie’s nemises, Jared Lewis, a local teen who has been trying to get into Frankie’s morgue for a peek at the dead people. Frankie and the new Sheriff aren’t seeing eye to eye and that might be because he doesn’t like the way Frankie dresses or the odd colors of her hair, or the fact that he is embarrassed because Frankie know that he can’t stand the sight of dead bodies. But when someone keeps trying to break in, Frankie just knows it has to be Jared, she just has to get Eric to trust her.

Reading this novella without a copy of the next books, will just make you crazy since it leaves you wanting answers: Is Frankie right? Why does the Sheriff treat her so badly? What is going on in this crazy town? So make sure you have both books before getting started.

In Ain’t She Sweet, we get more information about Eric and why he has come to the small town of Lake Sackett. We also get to really know Frankie and while she appears to be full of self-confidence, we see how she allows her parents to baby her almost to make up for all the years they thought she would die young from the Leukemia. She wants to move out and grow up, but her parents make her feel guilty so she is stuck in a little girl’s room, living a little girl’s life. And we see that her choice of clothes and hair allow her to take control of the stares she always received around town as the little girl who was dying. As the story goes on, we see that Frankie’s self-confidence is a fascade. That part disappointed me since I liked Frankie’s self-confidence and I-don’t-care attitude and to learn it was all fake was a let down.

This is a crazy family and you just don’t know what is coming next but since Molly Harper is involved, it will surly give you a laugh.

[llamareads]

I’ve read the other Southern Eclectic novels, and found them ridiculously hilarious. They’re funny, sweet, and light, a bit like biting into one of those eponymous Georgia peaches, but there’s also a good dose of snark to add to that southern charm. While I think you could pick this up as a standalone, the amount of secondary characters (including Frankie’s enormous family) may be overwhelming if this is your first visit to Lake Sackett and the McCready Family Funeral Home and Bait Shop. Frankie, the mortician at her family’s funeral home, was one of my favorite side characters from the other books, so I was excited she was getting her own book.

Eric’s the new sheriff, though not a stranger to Frankie – they had a one-night-stand on her last visit to Atlanta. Why, exactly, he’s gone from being a big city cop to rural Lake Sackett’s sheriff and chief pain in her butt (she’s also the county coroner, and he seems to see foul play everywhere) is a mystery, but Frankie eventually realizes she needs his help to deal with a series of escalating pranks. She’s certain she knows who the perpetrator is, and that his end goal is to break into the funeral home on Halloween – something unthinkable to Frankie, who greets each of the earthly remains trusted to her care by name every morning and has conversations with them. Frankie is a childhood cancer survivor, and her parents, well, still haven’t quite adjusted to the fact that she’s an adult now. Part of it may be that she had a funky sense of style (dyed hair and nerdy T-shirts), part of it may be that she does still act younger than her age, like engaging in arguments with a snotty teenager. She’s in her late twenties, and looking around at her happily paired-off cousins, she’s starting to yearn to move out of her parents’ house and get a bit more autonomy, though she’s afraid of hurting them. Some of her behavior was seriously juvenile, but as the book went on and she gets a little more honest with herself and others as to why she still sometimes acts like a spoiled brat, I found her a lot less annoying.

“You like this boy. And that means something. You don’t let yourself get involved. You are, as Duffy would say, a ‘hit it and quit it’ girl.”
“Never let those words leave your mouth again,” Frankie told her.

While I liked the romance, it did feel like it wasn’t as prominent in this book – it seems to lean heavier on the women’s fiction scale than the previous book. So while I liked the development of Frankie and Eric’s relationship, I was more ambivalent about the plot revolving around the pranks. It just felt weird that she’s a woman in her late twenties and her big nemesis is a jerky teen boy. I did find the resolution of that plot line pretty hilarious, though, so I guess I can’t complain too much. I especially love the small town feel of these books, and how something as simple as a Trunk-or-Treat turns into a giant to-do complete with months of planning meetings where people with competing opinions nearly come to blows. I also liked that we got to see a bit more of the couple from the first book’s story as it played out alongside Frankie’s.

Overall, I’d give this 3.5 stars, rounded up to 4. It’s an enjoyable light read, perfect for relaxing lakeside with a glass of sweet tea!

I received this book for free from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.