Friday recommends #6...

Friday again, and it's time for my choice of book for Friday recommends...

This is an exciting book blog hop that book bloggers can take part in once a week to share with their followers, the books that they most recommend reading!

The rules for Friday Recommends are:

Follow Pen to Paper as host of the meme.
Pick a book that you've read, and have enjoyed enough to recommend to other readers. It can be a book you've read recently, or a book you read years ago - it's up to you - but make sure you tell us why you love the book (like a mini review). You make the post as long or as short as you like.
Visit the other blogs and enjoy!



This is not so much a recommended read, but more of a recommended author.

A few years ago I read a magical debut book by an American author, Sarah Addison Allen. I loved the magic realism of her stories and her ability to create pictures with words. The book was Garden Spells and the first time I read this book I was simply enchanted, not just with the evocative descriptions, but with a truly magical way to live your life. It encompasses love, life and the power of family and friendship. It enforces the fundamental need to believe in ourselves…

"You are what you are, whether you like it or not, so why not like it.”



Since reading Garden Spells, I have gone on to read all of her books and finished her latest, The Peach Keeper, just the other day. She has an ease of writing that draws you in from the beginning,  and her books are simply perfect for curling up with on a cold afternoon.

My Friday recommended read is 

The Peach keeper

 by

 Sarah Addison Allen

The Peach Keeper

The Blue Ridge Madam was once the grandest home in the small town of Walls of Water in North Carolina. But when the Jackson family fell on hard times, their house sank into disrepair and became a local symbol for ruin and scandal. Many years later, Paxton Osgood is renovating the old house, and has invited the townsfolk to a grand opening. Willa Jackson,the latest descendant of the Jackson family, now lives a quiet life ,she keeps a shop in town, visits her grandmother Georgie Jackson in a local nursing home, and is unsure of whether to accept Paxton's invitation
Paxton and Willa have more in common than either of them knows, and when a mysterious collection of artefacts are unearthed in the garden of the Madam, neither is prepared for the secrets which are about to unfold.


Reading a Sarah Addison Allen novel is like indulging in your favourite ice cream, best savoured slowly over the course of an afternoon. It's quaint, charming and utterly delicious.

Reminiscent of the work of Fannie Flagg, Alice Hoffman, Ali Shaw-  this is magic realism at its absolute best.