The Peach Keeper

The Peach Keeper by Sarah Addison Allen

I didn't intend to read this all in one sitting - but then I rarely do, and it still happens anyway that I look up at the end of a book only to realize that it's 3am. Peach keeper is a beautiful story about friendship and acceptance; two things that I'm realizing Allen does very well as I read more of her books.

Willa owns a camping goods store in a small North Carolina town nestled in a mountain range, and otherwise leads a pretty quite life, but she wasn't always that way. In high school she was known for staging incredible pranks & a sense of reckless adventure. A fact that Colin, one of her former classmates who is visiting continually points out. But something brought her back to this small town after college. This is one of those small towns that has a history & has known the touch of magic. Much that history has been buried for a long time, but when Colin's twin sister, Paxton, begins rennovating a historic home known as 'the Madam' in order to open a bed & breakfast, some of that history is unearthed. And some of it could change everything they thought they knew about their town & their respective families role in it's shaping.

I feel like my review isn't quite doing the book justice, because while the plot & characters are fairly 'normal' Allen's writing & the way magic is woven into the fabric of her characters & settings creates something really beautiful. It's one of those enchanting "just read it and you'll get it" kind of books. So there you go: just read it and you'll know.