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A review by amym84
Ain't She a Peach by Molly Harper
4.0
Frankie McCready is used to being seen as eccentric. As Lake Sackett's coroner it pretty much comes with the territory. Even though Frankie has a penchant for talking to the dead, she respects them, and she loves her job. That's why when someone keeps trying to break into the mortuary, she takes it personally. Frankie knows exactly who the perpetrator is, in fact she's been involved in a prank war of sorts with this particular individual for quite some time. The only problem is convincing the new town sheriff that the issue is legit and not just Frankie holding a grudge. The fact that Sheriff Eric Linden and Frankie had a one night stand before he moved to Lake Sackett, and they haven't talked about it since, doesn't help matters between the two. His reluctance to initially believe Frankie, coupled with his penchant for always assuming homicide as the reason for deaths in Lake Sakett, only makes Frankie more interested about who Eric Linden is and what brought him to Lake Sackett from Atlanta.
After reading what I can only call an extremely long prologue to this story in [b:Peachy Flippin' Keen|36111003|Peachy Flippin' Keen (Southern Eclectic, #1.5)|Molly Harper|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1516581689s/36111003.jpg|57699472], I was excepting something different with finally getting Frankie's full-length story in Ain't She a Peach. I figured it would focus more on building the relationship between Eric and Frankie, but I felt like what we got was more an internal rumination on Frankie's life and wanting to break out of the confines she's built for herself by still living with her parents and suffering from anxiety and hypochondria due to her diagnosis of Leukemia when she was a child. She obviously pulled through and is in remission, but the whole thing has left its scars.
So, those were the main focuses of Frankie's full-length book with the developing attraction between Eric and Frankie as a secondary story thread. I didn't mind the turn, I actually like when I'm surprised by the path an author decides to take with their story, but I felt like we lost a little bit of what made Frankie such a standout character in the previous book / novellas. She's this bright, energetic, pop culture-loving, rainbow hair-colored survivor. While I liked and agreed with most of the catharsis, I missed a little bit of that brightness.
Since the relationship was more relegated to secondary it became ensconced in Frankie's goal of gaining her independence. I really loved the way it was handled once I figured it wasn't going to be the prominent fixture. There's a nonchalance to the relationship. I liked that there's not much made by Frankie or Eric about the whole one-night stand thing. There are some missteps along the way, but as I said they're part of Frankie's realization that her life has been relatively sheltered.
One thing that stood out a bit better this time around was the closeness of the McCready cousins Marianne, Margot, Duffy, and Frankie. I felt like we really saw them band together more as a unit of the next generation of McCready's than in the previous books / novellas. I can only assume Duffy's book is next (since he's the only one left) so I hope this is a trend that continues.
Molly Harper hasn't let me down yet and I've really been enjoying this small-town southern family series, and I'm looking forward to see what happens next.
*ARC provided by NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
After reading what I can only call an extremely long prologue to this story in [b:Peachy Flippin' Keen|36111003|Peachy Flippin' Keen (Southern Eclectic, #1.5)|Molly Harper|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1516581689s/36111003.jpg|57699472], I was excepting something different with finally getting Frankie's full-length story in Ain't She a Peach. I figured it would focus more on building the relationship between Eric and Frankie, but I felt like what we got was more an internal rumination on Frankie's life and wanting to break out of the confines she's built for herself by still living with her parents and suffering from anxiety and hypochondria due to her diagnosis of Leukemia when she was a child. She obviously pulled through and is in remission, but the whole thing has left its scars.
So, those were the main focuses of Frankie's full-length book with the developing attraction between Eric and Frankie as a secondary story thread. I didn't mind the turn, I actually like when I'm surprised by the path an author decides to take with their story, but I felt like we lost a little bit of what made Frankie such a standout character in the previous book / novellas. She's this bright, energetic, pop culture-loving, rainbow hair-colored survivor. While I liked and agreed with most of the catharsis, I missed a little bit of that brightness.
Since the relationship was more relegated to secondary it became ensconced in Frankie's goal of gaining her independence. I really loved the way it was handled once I figured it wasn't going to be the prominent fixture. There's a nonchalance to the relationship. I liked that there's not much made by Frankie or Eric about the whole one-night stand thing. There are some missteps along the way, but as I said they're part of Frankie's realization that her life has been relatively sheltered.
One thing that stood out a bit better this time around was the closeness of the McCready cousins Marianne, Margot, Duffy, and Frankie. I felt like we really saw them band together more as a unit of the next generation of McCready's than in the previous books / novellas. I can only assume Duffy's book is next (since he's the only one left) so I hope this is a trend that continues.
Molly Harper hasn't let me down yet and I've really been enjoying this small-town southern family series, and I'm looking forward to see what happens next.
*ARC provided by NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.