The Peach Keeper by Sarah Addison Allen
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.
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.
Dear Sarah Addison Allen:
As a writer, I wanted to complement you on your good writing. This is the second book which I have read, that you wrote and it seems as each book you write gets better and more interesting than the rest. As a matter of fact, I could not put this book down until I finished reading it.
Just as an aside, I was wondering if you are any relation to my son, Kerry Thomas Allen (The grandson of Preacher William Thomas Allen) from Gastonia, North Carolina; or if perhaps your last names are just a coincidence. I found this very interesting as when I saw your picture on the back cover of the book, I was astonished at how you and my thirty-something son look so much alike. Then, when I noted your last name, it just got me to wondering if you could be a second cousin or another relation. Wouldn’t that be something!
In the meantime, I would enjoy EMailing with you as I too am a published writer, wtih a pretty solid career writing for society and other and varied and miscellaneous newspapers as well as those related to The St. Louis Post-Dispatch. Feature Writer, Ellen Fudderman there, was my mentor at one time, and my speciality is feature writing (front page stories for magazines and newspapers), articles about people.
Have a nice day Sarah! Keep up the good writing, and I hope to hear from you soon.
Sincerely, Julie Denice Griffin