The Peach Keeper.Finished audio 3-25-13. 4 stars, pub. 2011

Unabridged audio 7 hours, 35 minutes. Read by Karen White who did an excellent job.

When I read Allen’s first novel, Garden Spells, I fell in love with this writer who embodies lightness and magical realism in such a beautiful way.  I love the southern charm and those moments of the supernatural in her books.  I always finish satisfied.  Once I got past that expectation I enjoyed the book for what it was, a great story of friendship among women, from one generation to the next.  Some of the whimsy was missing, but only missing because I expected it.

Wall of Water, North Carolina, is home to Willa, Paxton, and Sebastian.  Though none of them were friends in high school, Paxton and Sebastian are inseparable now.  Willa own her own store and lives a happy but quiet life.  When Paxton restores the Blue Ridge Madam, an old home important to Willa’s family, it brings a mystery that leads them both to their grandmothers, looking for answers.

I loved the friendship that forms between Willa and Paxton, much like the one their grandmothers shared many years ago.  By the end of the book I was ready to look up some of my friends from high school to see if we could be BFFs again.  I also loved how the story showed how much where and how we grow up influences who we are as adults, and not just in the obvious ways.  I moved away from home when I went to college and, except for a 5 month pit stop after I graduated, I’ve never moved back.  So, I understood when Paxton’s brother didn’t want to move back to Wall of Water, afraid he’d forever be labelled ‘Stick Man’.  And Paxton, who had never lived anywhere else, lived the opposite life, always struggling with the expectations placed on her.  There was was much to like about this story.

SAA delivers once again.  She can’t write fast enough for her fans 🙂

Eyes Wide Open. Finished 3-21-13, rating 3/5, fiction, 340 pages, pub. 2011

Jay Erlich’s nephew has been found at the bottom of a cliff at Morrow Bay. It’s all just a tragic suicide, until secrets from the past begin to rear up again. Did a notorious killer, jailed for many decades, have his hand in this?

Years ago, Jay Erlich’s older brother, Charlie, a wayward child of the sixties, set out for California, where he fell under the sway of a charismatic but deeply disturbed cultlike figure. Tragedy ensued and lives were destroyed, but as the decades passed, Charlie married and raised a family and lived a quiet, secluded life under the radar. Yet the demons that nearly destroyed him never completely disappeared.

When Jay heads out west to help his grieving brother, he is pulled back into Charlie’s past–and begins to suspect that his nephew’s suicide may not have been that at all. With eyes wide open, Jay puts his own life at risk to uncover the truth, a quest that goes beyond the edge of madness and a family haunted by a secret past . . . and into the depths of evil.

from Goodreads

There was non-stop action and creepy characters, complicated sibling relationships and inequality in the way society deals with mental illness.  One of the main characters was even suffering with organ transplant issues.  I loved the exploration of Jay and Charlie’s relationship.  I thought it was spot on.  I was heartbroken, along with Charlie and his wife about the way that the cops and hospitals dealt with their troubled son.  This was a big storyline in the beginning and I wish Gross had followed up with it.

The story itself deals with a crime decades old and it was a little hard for me to get into even though it provided a Charles Manson like villain.  I thought the book was average.  It had high points and low points, but it was good enough for me to give this author another try someday.

I bought this book for my Nook.