The Peach Keeper

by Sarah Addison Allen

[Leah]

Sarah Addison Allen is an author that delivers every. single. time. Although, I will admit, I only have that experience from one of SAA’s books; at least I did until I read The Peach Keeper. I’ve now read 2 of her 4 novels (The Girl Who Chased The Moon being the other one) and she just delivers with every novel. Her blend of love stories, magic, friendships and ties to the past seems to create novels you just can’t (and don’t want to) put down. I always feel a bit as if I don’t deserve to review her books, because her books are just so good that I don’t feel I can do the book justice, almost as if I’m in awe. Of the book, of Sarah, of writing a review that will make you want to pick up the book.

The Peach Keeper is a novel about the Osgood family and the Jackson family, two families who long ago in the past were intwined, whose histories connected. However, in the present day the two families are no longer connected and haven’t been for years. Now, Willa Jackson and Paxton Osgood do their level best to not come into contact with each other. Willa spends her days in the store she owns, whereas Paxton is busy planning a gala for the 75th Anniversary Women’s Society Club and plans to host it at the newly refurbished Blue Ridge Madam, and she wants Willa to come. Willa doesn’t want to, but when a long-buried secret is unveiled and the two women find themselves forging an unlikely friendship, they both begin to wonder just why they’d never bothered to be in contact with each other before…

I just loved The Peach Keeper and if I could end my review on that note, I’d be happy to. After being wowed by The Girl Who Chased The Moon earlier this year I wasn’t entirely sure Allen could pull it off again, wasn’t sure she’d be able to hook me the same way she did the first time around, but now I wonder why I was worried? The three days it took me to read this book were like being on the best rollercoaster ride ever. It had everything I wanted from the book and yet again Allen has knocked my socks off. I liked the energy of the novel, I was fascinated by the characters, I thought the romance was edge-of-your-seat stuff; I knew who I wanted Willa and Paxton to be with and I delighted in the sparks created and the whole thing just made me smile. The novel does have a bit of a serious edge – with the secret that’s uncovered but that just provides yet another branch to the tree, just another delight to read about, even if it isn’t exactly a happy branch.

It’s such a charming read and Allen is such a charming author. I raced through the book, I was desperate – so, so desperate – to see how these characters lives would pan out, I was rooting desperately for Willa and Paxton and I totally fell for Colin and Sebastian. The budding friendship between Willia and Paxton was delightful; the way Willa’s assitant at her store, Rachel, was a coffeeologist was brilliant; but the writing – oh, the writing! – was simply delightful. Sarah Addison Allen is a magician with words. She manages to make it all sound just so good. So charming, so warm, so heartfelt. In a time where I find novels to be more predictable by the day, Sarah Addison Allen with The Peach Keeper and with The Girl Who Chased The Moon has given me two utterly charming, but two utterly different to each other and anything else novels. Both are of a high standard and I was so enamoured with The Peach Keeper, so enamoured I read it as quickly as I could. The setting, the writing, the characters, the old superstitions of Willa’s grandmother, Georgie, the forthrightness of Paxton’s grandmother, Agatha, and then, of course, there’s the Sarah Addison Allen magic she puts into every novel, it’s just one big delight. You have to read it to believe it and kudos for Sarah Addison Allen for hooking me again and providing me with yet another book to call a favourite.