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.

In the town of Walls of Water everyone has secrets, some more elicit and passionate than others, but a few stray to the other end of the spectrum…deadly. When Willa returned to establish a life in Walls of Water after her father’s death it was never in the hopes that she would rekindle old friendships and possibly even old mischief, but it nonetheless finds her in the form of a familiar face, Collin Osgood. For Paxton, the opposite is the case, her desire to cement herself in the town has become an obstacle that could cost her the love of her life and possibly an opportunity to discover who she is. With each striving to lose themselves they quickly learn it could take a trip into the ancient pasts of their grandmothers, Georgie and Agatha, to truly learn what it means to have lasting love and friendships.

Whoa! I’m not exactly sure how I write about this book without turning into a complete fangirl. Sarah Addison Allen is one of those authors that I know will have me instantly hooked into a book. Her settings are gorgeous, not only because of the surroundings, but also because of how she writes in a way that allows you to use all of your senses to experience it. You see it, feel it, you can nearly touch it, there’s always some sort of sound to be heard be it music or the wind, and of course there are the tastes… Which I have to say are my favorite of all the senses you experience. In every way imaginable, even magical, Sarah Addison Allen’s books leave something behind when you’ve closed the pages and I always have a lingering desire to reopen them and start all over again. The Peach Keeper was no different.

There’s something to be said for reading a book that makes your heart race and has you giddily smiling like a school girl within nearly every chapter. It’s that incredible “I’ve just fallen in love” feeling and I adore that about this book. The relationships between the four main characters, Willa & Collin and Paxton & Sebastian, are wonderful. The timing of how their relationships play out is absolutely perfect. I don’t want to give anything away, but I’ll just say you will not be disappointed. I adored the romantic side of the story so much so that I’m tempted to read it through again tonight.

Now, of course the story wasn’t all romance and feelings, though I obviously enjoyed those parts. I thoroughly enjoyed the story revolving around the pasts of Georgie and Agatha. The death and circumstances surrounding Tucker Devlin weren’t anything surprising to me, but it was how Willa and Paxton handled the discoveries that made the story. The friendship that blooms between Willa and Paxton is so similar to that of Georgie and Agatha, but also different in many ways. What it helped me to remember was what’s truly important, not the accomplishments or things we acquire, but our friendships and lasting relationships.

Again, I feel as though there’s no way to do this book justice. From page one to the very end you can’t help but fall in love with the magic of The Peach Keeper. To smell the sweet scent of peaches in the air, feel the misty foggy breezes of Walls of Water and of course taste every last coffee brownie Rachel makes is beyond delightful. Please do make sure to enjoy this wonderful book and be reminded of what it feels like to truly love and have unbelievably good friendships. The Peach Keeper by Sarah Addison Allen is a gorgeous book I’d recommend to anyone!

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