The Peach Keeper: A Novel by Sarah Addison Allen
What is with books lately and feeling authors are writing about me? Not literally, of course. But writing about characters and putting them in situations I find so familiar. I have to wonder if other readers sometimes feel this way with books they come across. It is kind of eerie in some ways, but it is also nice to know you are not alone.
It’s
the 75th anniversary of the Women’s Society Club. To celebrate, president Paxton Osgood has
arranged for the celebration to be held at the newly refurbished Blue Ridge
Madam, a house (more like a mansion) built by the ancestors of a woman named
Willa Jackson.
The
house hasn’t been owned by the Jackson’s for generations. Not since Willa’s grandmother was a young
woman. Now Paxton has renovated it into
a bed and breakfast, ready to open around the time of the anniversary
celebration.
One
of the people Paxton invites to the celebration is Willa, despite her not being
part of the club. Willa and Paxton’s
grandmothers are the last two surviving club founders. This distinction is why Paxton wants Willa to
come to the celebration, even though Willa’s grandmother’s health would most
likely prevent her from attending.
Willa
is not thrilled about going to the celebration no matter what the reason. Her lack of desire to attend is so bad she doesn’t
even want to open her invitation. Always
a bit of an outcast, Willa has never been friends with Paxton or her twin
brother, Colin. This is why it is so
strange Colin wants to spend time with her while he is in town helping with the
Blue Ridge Madam’s landscaping.
At
first Willa is reluctant to spend time with Colin at all. He is persistent, though, and after a while,
Willa starts to feels things for Colin she has never felt before.
Paxton
is struggling with romantic feelings of her own. She has fallen in love with her best friend,
Sebastian. It is unclear what his
feelings for her are. In fact, his
sexuality is often a topic of speculation.
Wanting to keep her friendship intact, Paxton tries to keep her feelings
to herself, but they start to come out, changing her relationship with
Sebastian forever.
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| Tugs of the Heart/Artwork by Kate Dorsey |
The
love parts are not why I relate to these characters so well. With Paxton, I understand the need to please
everyone and keep control of a situation, yet really having little to no
control in reality.
Willa I
understood because of her having to deal with people continuing to see her as
she was in high school. People thinking
all thoughts, beliefs, and actions could not have possibly changed over the
years. That someone will always be the
same person as they were in high school.
These thoughts can make a person hide, as it does for Willa, even though
she is proof people can change over the years.
Oddly
enough, Paxton goes through a similar situation with her mother.
While
it may seem the celebration and similar life circumstances may be what bring
Paxton and Willa together, it’s other things that lead this to happen. Those things are the secret of a dead body,
and their grandmothers’ connected past.
Two things Paxton and Willa didn’t expect to be looking into when
Paxton’s celebration plan got started.
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