The Peach Keeper by Sarah Addison Allen

 

Synopsis :

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.

This is what I say :

For many years this title was in my shelf and many times I wanted to read it but many times I decided not to too.  I do not know and can't really remember why I decided so but it was recently that I took out a couple of titles that I told myself I must read for this year and The Peach Keeper was one of them.

I wasn't disappointed. The Peach Keeper was a rather pleasant read.  The words flow quite well and the characters rather complements the simple storyline.  Was there an element of paranormal?  The author seems to hint that there could be but she neither confirms nor denies it so your guess as as good as mine.

That aside, I quite like the way the story was narrated and the way it flows.

I never read any title by Sarah Addison Allen so I have nothing to benchmark this title.  Anyways, if I do get hold of another title by the same author, I do not mind giving it a go.