The Peach Keeper by Sarah Addison Allen is the story of two women who live in an old town called Walls of Water. Willa Jackson leads a deliberately quiet life and wants to keep it that way. Her family used to own The Blue Ridge Madam until they lost their money and it was bought by the Osgood family. Paxton Osgood is organising the renovation of the Madam to throw a gala to celebrate the forming of the ladies society. Willa and Paxton’s grandmothers setup the society but can these two women make peace to attend the gala together?
Willa runs an organic camping supplies store but doesn’t like camping. Her life revolves around not doing anything exciting and watching the renovations on the Madam from afar. She is heard several times turning down social engagements by saying Friday nights are hoovering nights. When Colin Osgood, Paxton’s brother, comes back to town to stay for a month he takes an interest in Willa that she’s not too keen on to start with.
Paxton lives the kind of life that others envy. She chairs every society, always looks immaculate and seems so in command of every situation. The one thing she can’t control, her feelings for her best friend Sebastian. An old school friend who has recently returned to the town he is ethereally beautiful and probably gay. Paxton is madly in love with him and must hold her feelings in to avoid ruining what increasingly feels like the only good thing in her life.
Both women appear at the start at of the book to be trapped in Walls of Water. Paxton has taken on the family role of community leader that everyone had expected of her brother. While he roams the world she must stay at their parents house to look after everything. Willa feels the weight of the generations before her that lost The Blue Ridge Madam and their standing in the town. While her ancestors never complained Willa finds herself bitter about the loss. Unable to move on.
The is something magical about Walls of Water. The location is such a big part of the book. It becomes it’s own character. It holds so much past. So many people never leave or have left but feel a force pulling them back to this time and place. There’s a certain inevitability about it all. A fascinating juxtaposition of being a place that draws you in and that you cannot wait to escape. Allen has really captured that feeling so prevalent in towns like this one.
Of course though not all can be right in a town like this. Around the fringes of this ideal living is a dark tinge leading back into the past. A past few left living remember but which still has repercussions for the present.
This book is really an enjoyable read. The settings are sumptuous. It takes you back to another time, even in the section set today. There’s something so old fashioned and quaint about Walls of Water. It’s really a place you’d want to visit even if you weren’t keen to stay.
I was almost at the end of this book before I realised that I had read another book by the same author. A novel called The Girl Who Chased the Moon. I had really enjoyed that book so I was surprised that it hadn’t clicked with me sooner that this was the same author. There’s a wonderful magical realism about her books. Impossible things happening on the fringes that somehow fit perfectly into the narrative. It’s a very unique style and I will actively seek out her work in the future. We could all use a little more magic in our lives.
If you liked this book or this review you might like to take a look at my review of The Girl Who Chased the Moon from June 2023.
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