Why I read it: This is one from my own TBL.
What it’s about: (from Goodreads) An Atlanta ex-cop comes to sleepy Lake Sackett, Georgia, seeking peace and quiet—but he hasn’t bargained on falling for Frankie, the cutest coroner he’s ever met.
Frankie McCready talks to dead people. Not like a ghost whisperer or anything—but it seems rude to embalm them and not at least say hello.
Fortunately, at the McCready Family Funeral Home & Bait Shop, Frankie’s eccentricities fit right in. Lake Sackett’s embalmer and county coroner, Frankie’s goth styling and passion for nerd culture mean she’s not your typical Southern girl, but the McCreadys are hardly your typical Southern family. Led by Great-Aunt Tootie, the gambling, boozing, dog-collecting matriarch of the family, everyone looks out for one another—which usually means getting up in everyone else’s business.
Maybe that’s why Frankie is so fascinated by new sheriff Eric Linden…a recent transplant from Atlanta, he sees a homicide in every hunting accident or boat crash, which seems a little paranoid for this sleepy tourist town. What’s he so worried about? And what kind of cop can get a job with the Atlanta PD but can’t stand to look at a dead body?
Frankie has other questions that need answering first—namely, who’s behind the recent break-in attempts at the funeral home, and how can she stop them? This one really does seem like a job for the sheriff—and as Frankie and Eric do their best Scooby-Doo impressions to catch their man, they get closer to spilling some secrets they thought were buried forever.
What worked for me (and what didn’t): I read Peachy Flippin’ Keen in May. It is a prequel to Ain’t She a Peach and does not stand alone. As an adjunct to this book, it’s fine. On it’s own it was… incomplete. That said, I think I did get a better picture of Frankie and Eric from having read the novella first so I do recommend it for that reason alone. I’m sure it will be much more satisfying if one can read or listen to the full length book immediately after.
I also recommend having read or listened to the earlier books in the series first too as there are developments in Margot and Kyle’s relationship which will be better appreciated that way.
As it usual, the heroine (in this case, Frankie) is the sole POV character, with the story being presented in first person past. The Southern Eclectic series tends to bridge the divide between contemporary romance and women’s fiction, with a lot of page time being spent on the heroine’s personal development in addition to the romantic relationship. I was expecting that and had calibrated my expectations accordingly, so I wasn’t disappointed but it’s the sort of thing I find useful to know going in, so it’s worth mentioning.
Frankie had childhood cancer and her doting parents are still watching her closely. She is 28 and she still lives at home. She’s been thinking of moving out but hasn’t actually done anything about it yet – she’s nervous about how her parents will react and doesn’t want to hurt their feelings.
In the meantime, she is attracted to the new sheriff, Eric Linden and they dance around a relationship for a while. Frankie and Eric had hooked up one night in Atlanta some months earlier. He was miffed because she left without having breakfast; he felt a little hurt she had no interest in sticking around or getting to know him. Occasional trips to Atlanta were Frankie’s only way of blowing off steam and getting laid given the close supervision of her loving family. Frankie wasn’t in the market for a relationship. It takes a while before Frankie admits to herself that she could contemplate something with Eric.
Added to that, Frankie’s nemesis, a teenage terror by the name of Jared Lewis, is trying to break into the mortuary where Frankie works as the mortician and county coroner.
All of these things combine, often in hilarious ways, as Frankie navigates adulthood (she’s a little slow on the whole being an independent adult thing) and Eric settles into the town, hopefully to become the permanent sheriff rather than just the interim one as he was when he first arrived.
The story is quirky, as I expect from Molly Harper, fun and sweet with southern charm and fond mockery of life and the characters found in small town American south. Eric and Frankie’s relationship is only really just taking off when the story ends. Most of Frankie’s journey is about taking a step into adult relationships – don’t expect any wedding bells in this book.
What else? The narration is excellent. I’m sure I enjoyed the book much more because I listened to it. I think I’d have gotten impatient with the Jared Lewis story and some of Frankie’s eccentricities without the benefit of Amanda Ronconi’s performance. I enjoy listening to her so much; there is something very comforting and reliable about a Harper/Ronconi audiobook. Ain’t She a Peach is a fairly gentle listen, amusing and not terribly passionate or exciting, but sweet and funny with a little sexy in there too (although not very much of it I admit) and it kept me entertained.
