June '13 group read: The Peach Keeper

[Lindsay♫SingerOfStories♫]

Our group read for June (but feel free to start reading any time!) will be Sarah Addison Allen's . I'm particularly excited about this one. Here is the synopsis from Goodreads:

The New York Times bestselling author of The Girl Who Chased the Moon welcomes you to her newest locale: Walls of Water, North Carolina, where the secrets are thicker than the fog from the town’s famous waterfalls, and the stuff of superstition is just as real as you want it to be.

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.

For the bones—those of charismatic traveling salesman Tucker Devlin, who worked his dark charms on Walls of Water seventy-five years ago—are not all that lay hidden out of sight and mind. Long-kept secrets surrounding the troubling remains have also come to light, seemingly heralded by a spate of sudden strange occurrences throughout the town.

Now, thrust together in an unlikely friendship, united by a full-blooded mystery, Willa and Paxton must confront the dangerous passions and tragic betrayals that once bound their families—and uncover truths of the long-dead that have transcended time and defied the grave to touch the hearts and souls of the living.

Resonant with insight into the deep and lasting power of friendship, love, and tradition, The Peach Keeper is a portrait of the unshakable bonds that—in good times and bad, from one generation to the next—endure forever.

[Meaghan]

I've already read this book, and it was really good! I'm a big fan of this author in general, so you should check out some of her other stuff. Garden spells was another one I loved

[Dani]

I'm about to start chapter 7 and I'm really into this book so far. At first I was a bit confused, especially about Paxton and Sebastian's relationship but I realize now that (view spoiler)[ Paxton is in love with him but he's only maybe gay. (hide spoiler)] That is such an interesting dynamic. I really like that (view spoiler)[ Paxton and Willa have become civil to each other/ friends. I just read the part where Willa rescues drunk Paxton. I think it's touching that two different people can feel sympathy for each other. (hide spoiler)]

Overall I really like the writing and the voice so far.

[Dani]

I just finished! I loved it!

[Lindsay♫SingerOfStories♫]

I have about 30 pages left in Ender's Game and then I'll be starting this one. I've been looking foward to reading it for months so I'm excited to get through it.

And glad you liked it, Dani! :)

[Ashley]

I am starting this book today. Listening to it on an audiobook so I hope it is as good as the "real thing"

[Meghan]

I finished this book last week and loved it so much that I bought all her other books!

[Steph]

I finished the book last week but it was just ok
for me. I can't wait to get the next book it's on hold at the library :)