Review of The Peach Keeper, by Sarah Addision Allen

The Peach Keeper by Sarah Addison Allen

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


This is my third Sarah Addison Allen novel, and like the first two, I found things I liked: the small town North Carolina setting, the use of what I would call gentle magic, the interconnected love stories that are rooted in family histories, the secrets that never fail to haunt us. Willa, the scion of a once-rich old family, is trying to build a life "beyond the brooding Jackson family shadow" in her home town, Walls of Water. Blue Ridge Madam, the finest mansion in town, once owned by her family, is being renovated by "an old classmate--socialite do-gooder Paxton Osgood, of the very prominent Osgood famiy." Will this put the past to rest? Then, a skeleton is found buried beneath the lone peach tree on the estate, which turns out to be those of a traveling salesman, Tucker Devlin, "who worked his dark charms on Walls of Water 75 years ago," and apparently Willa's grandmother and on Paxton's grandmother as well. The discovery of the skeleton bring to light long-kept secrets and, of course, there are the romantic complications for both women. They come together in an unlikely friendship (which I consider one of the book's strengths)and together face the mutual mysteries of their past as they navigate present day romances and familial complications.

I also found Peach Keeper to the weakest of the three Her familiar plot structure--the two interconnected romantic and mystery story lines, two women, and so on, for me, lacked the depth of the first two I read: Garden Spells and The Girl Who Chased the Moon, especially Garden. Yes, these are not meant to be deep books, but romances with happy, albeit complicated endings, but even so the character depth isn't as present as in the first two. I liked the other story lines that make for interesting complications, such as in Garden: the estranged gay couple, the relative who was compelled to give gifts that she knew would be needed (just not how) and the abusive history of one of the two central female protagonists. The gentle magic just isn't as developed, either. I loved the magical cooking in Garden, and the interfering apple tree with its prescient apples. The wallpaper that liked a mood ring in Moon was a nice touch. Here, peaches seem to have some magical powers, and the moment is the Women's Society meeting where they all suddenly tell the truth, painful or not, was fun--but the pervasive sweetness of the magic in Garden especially. Allen's recurring plot structure seems too easy here, and I thought she dodged the question with Sebastian who seems to be such a gay character--or is he?

I did enjoy reading this book and I don't mind the familiar plot structure, but I felt she could have done a lot more with it.



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