This is such a good family drama. A story full of lies and secrets. The ending felt very rushed which spoilt my enjoyment

This was such a good family drama read.
I think in most families there can be misunderstanding, misinformation and lack of 100% honesty as not to upset others feelings. Coupled with each person’s assumptions of situations or concepts of what they “think” has or hasn’t happened. This can cause all kinds of upsets, breakdowns in relationships and contentious behaviour in some.

It’s what I call ‘family life’.
If left it can lead to all kinds of mistrust.

We see this within this family until.

I loved following along between the family, between the sisters and the Grandmother. A very wise woman.

The men within these pages were variable in temper, personality and degrees of niceness.

Truly loved it and came to love Peaches.

Title: Where Wild Peaches Grow
Author: Cade Bentley
Genre: Contemporary Fiction
Rating: 2.50
Pub Date: August 30, 2022

I received complimentary eARC from Lake Union Publishing via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own. #Gifted #Ad

T H R E E • W O R D S

Atmospheric • Choppy • Forgettable

📖 S Y N O P S I S

Nona “Peaches” Davenport, abandoned by the man she loved and betrayed by family, left her Natchez, Mississippi, home fifteen years ago and never looked back. She’s forged a promising future in Chicago as a professor of African American Studies. Nona even finds her once-closed heart persuaded by a new love. But that’s all shaken when her father’s death forces her to return to everything she’s tried to forget.

Julia Curtis hasn’t forgiven her sister for deserting the family. Just like their mother, Nona walked away from Julia when she needed her most. And Julia doesn’t feel guilty for turning to Nona’s old flame, Marcus, for comfort. He helped Julia build a new life. She has a child, a career, and a determination to move on from old family wounds.

Upon Nona’s return to Natchez, a cautious reunion unfolds, and everything Nona and Julia thought they knew—about themselves, each other, and those they loved—will be tested. Unpacking the truth about why Nona left may finally heal their frayed bond—or tear it apart again, forever.

💭 T H O U G H T S

I was initially drawn to Where the Wild Peaches Grow after reading the synopsis. However, I never felt inclined to pick it up before now as I am trying to make my way through a backlog of e-ARCs. And I'd honestly forgotten what this one was even about.

Filled with family secrets, betrayals, and reconciliation, the descriptions of the setting and some of the history of the area are what stood out for me in this novel. Unfortunately, that's about all that worked for me. Told in the present with flashbacks to the past the whole thing was disjointed and I really had trouble keeping track of the characters. The flashbacks weren't clearly identified, so I constantly found myself having to backtrack to see where I was in time and place. This became irritating. Additionally, the main characters felt very surface level and could have used more fleshing out.

Where Wild Peaches Grow had all the elements to make it a winner, however, the execution just wasn't there. The whole plot centres around the misunderstanding trope, which at times felt juvenile. I cannot fault the author for the writing, yet this isn't a book I'll remember in a few weeks time.

📚 R E C O M M E N D • T O
• fans of Southern fiction
• readers who don't mind the misunderstanding trope

⚠️ CW: death, death of parent, toxic relationship, pregnancy, racism, racial slurs

🔖 F A V O U R I T E • Q U O T E S

"Death brings up all kinds of thoughts. Of things long forgotten. Good memories. But also those strands of bad ones weaved in."

2.7 Stars
One Liner: Could have been great but ends up choppy

Nona ‘Peaches’ Davenport left everything in Natchez, Mississippi, to move to Chicago. Fifteen years later, she is a professor of African-American Studies. Back home, her sister, Julia, is livid that Nona deserted the family like their mom, Cat. She doesn’t mind using Nona’s lover, Marcus, for her comfort and a better future.
Jasper Davenport, their father, has secrets of his own. But it’s his death that forces Nona to return home and Julia to confront the past. With more secrets, plenty of misunderstandings, and miscommunication, it’s up to the sisters to sort through the mess and rebuild their family. Can they do it?
The story comes in the third-person POV of Nona, Julia, and Jasper.

My Thoughts:
On the surface, the book seems to have what it takes to provide entertainment and some food for thought. However, it is mostly a mash of this and that, with loads of stupid decisions thrown into the mix.
The setting is beautiful, and I loved how Natchez is woven into the narrative. The land, its history, the heat, random rains, architecture, etc., make the book interesting. I always enjoy reading about new locations (to me), so this was a plus.
The characters could have truly shined with their flaws and vulnerabilities. While we get some introspective moments in how Nona and Julia change over the years, the emotional quotient is missing. There’s only so much blaming others and justifying one’s actions a reader can bear.
The book tries to deliver multiple messages – family bonding & relationships on the personal level and the Black history on the macro level. Yet, both seem to be half-baked and don’t blend seamlessly.
I’m not sure why Sanganette was given so much space. I understand her characterization, but it’s not cohesive. Julia’s friendship with her is odd. Also, Sanganette’s character was annoying from start to finish. While I see why her sense of privilege had to come across heavily, it needs to align with the rest of the plot.
The story moves between past and present with no clear indication in some places. Julia and Nona randomly think about past events. It’s easy to miss the shift unless we pay complete attention.
I hate misunderstanding and miscommunication tropes. While they have some benefits, using them for trivial issues can be annoying. Yeah, it does show how something inconsequential can have life-altering consequences. However, it would also be good if the characters just talked to each other. Statements like ‘I know they betrayed me’, ‘everyone knows about this’, etc., become a little too silly as the story progresses.
Then we have the most confusing face-off drama where accusations fly for no reason. TBH, this feels way too dramatic, with zero progress in the plot. For people who are supposed to be in their 30s, the sisters act worse than 8yos. Also, Nona is younger than Julia. I thought it was the opposite given how Julia acted. Not that Nona was any better.
What’s astonishing is how the person responsible for the mess is not even really blamed. We even have a character accepting it as something done to protect them. Ridiculous. The only person with some common sense was Jayden, Julia’s teenage son. Now go figure.
The ending tries to explore how distorted Black history from the region affected Nona when she learned the truth. While I see how it helped her research more to share the actual truth, that Nona could become so freaking insecure and go into a shell for trusting a friend seems unbelievable. She was 6, for goodness sake.
As someone from a colonized country, let me tell you that even today, we have people who believe that Colonization was the biggest blessing to our ancestors. They take pride in being ‘civilized’ and act more white than Whites. Unlearning and relearning are a part of growing up. These aren’t supposed to make one feel insecure about what they accepted as kids.

To summarize, Where Wild Peaches Grow aims high but falls flat in many places. The execution is not strong enough to present the themes cohesively, resulting in a choppy read.
Thank you, NetGalley and Lake Union Publishing, for the eARC. This review is voluntary and contains my honest opinion about the book.

I'm from the South, so the setting and characters here all felt very familiar to me. This is a family drama with lots of secrets and lies. A lot of the drama boils down to a huge misunderstanding though, so if you're not a fan of miscommunication, this may not be for you. Overall though, I found it to be well-written and an enjoyable read.

There were a few things that had me scratching my head and having to suspend a lot of disbelief. Not once in speaking to each other every week for twenty years did Nona's grandmother mention Julia being married to Marcus or having a son? I find that really hard to believe. Also, I get that Julia's been friends with Sanganette since childhood and sometimes we can look past our friend's beliefs, but she just sits idly by as a black woman while Sanganette plans on teaching revisionist history about slavery and the Confederacy to a whole generation of students?

Thanks to NetGalley and Lake Union Publishing for the e-arc of this book. The two main characters, Julia and Nona aka Peaches, are sisters who have not seen or spoken to each other for years, each feeling as if their sister and other members of their family and community did them wrong. Then, their father dies, so Nona, who fled to Chicago years before, comes back home. All of the misunderstandings, outright lies, and manipulation that kept them apart finally come to light, and their relationship is mended, with lots of bumps along the way. I loved the premise and the complex, complicated characters. I loved that there was responsibility on everyone's shoulders for how messy their lives had become. There were points here and there when the writing style lacked a good flow, and I think it could have been a little shorter without disrupting the story. There were grammatical errors and awkward sentence structure in places, but I assume those were corrected in the final copy so that's not a concern for me. Overall, I enjoyed the story and the way it was nicely woven together.

I really enjoyed this book by Cade Bentley. The characters were interesting, flawed, and real. Even when I thought I knew where the story was headed amidst the trials and tribulations of the dysfunctional family members I was left in awe when there was twist after twist I was not expecting. The story was engaging and included a satisfying ending. I look forward to reading more books by this author.

I highlighted this book on my Booktube channel. The video can be accessed here: https://youtu.be/LTn1nMBRomA

Let’s start with the cover.. the cover is beautiful!

The settings and descriptions were so descriptive and I feel like this was a real highlight.

However I found this book very choppy and hard to follow. It is hard to distinguish between the present and the past and this made it hard to read.

I loved this. The depth of the story hooked me from the start and I couldn’t put it down. Would love to read more from Cade Bentley

Overall, I found this story line to be flimsy. We're introduced to sisters, Nona and Julia, who are meeting face to face for the first time in 20 years, when their father passes. So we keep reading about this big reason of why the sisters (and most of the family) haven't talked in so long. Except, when it's finally revealed it ends up being a misunderstanding that was blown out of proportion. Within the extended family members, we learn that some had relationships with one another but those relationships were basically kept secret. What? Very little of the storyline seemed plausible.
Most of the characters were a headshake for me. Everyone gathers for Jasper's funeral - but he really was a lying, cheating, manipulative, cheating drunk. Also, he was mostly responsible for keeping the family torn apart for all those years. Cat left her children because off this jerk; Mawmaw knew about all this; a white woman, who believes slavery wasn't all that bad, is a black woman's best friend.
In general, Nona and Julia felt like teenagers in a perpetual state of temper tantrum.
Thank you to NetGalley, the publisher, and the author for providing an electronic copy of the book, in exchange for my honest review.

I couldn't get into this story. It was slow to start and it was hard for me to figure out which character was who. I couldn't relate to the characters or their plight.
If you like a low burn story or can relate to the characters, I'm sure you would like this story. It just wasn't for me.
Thanks to Netgalley for the advanced copy.

Bentley beautifully wrote a story about family and about how lies, secrets and drama are detrimental towards these familial relationships, as well as to history and the future. I found myself getting emotional at the events that occurred but was also fascinated and struggled to put it down as I needed to know what was going to happen next. I thoroughly enjoyed this book and would recommend it to everyone.

A wonderful read. We can’t change history but we can learn from it and embrace the truth.
Many thanks to Lake Union Publishing and to NetGalley for providing me with a galley in exchange for my honest opinion.

From the start I cant seem to grasp what the story is about. I like the second half better than the first half. I cant seem to wrap my mind with all the misunderstanding and the secrets the family has. The last few chapters were messy, drama and more drama. Felt like the ending with Nona, Julia and Kat has ended quickly. Im expecting more than just phone call. Lots of nasty characters here but I like Jayden,after all that’s happened, he seems to have the one with more sense here..

Thanks NetGalley for my ARC copy.

I definitely have mixed feelings on this book as I was close to DNFing purely because of the story. I’m giving this 2.5 stars.

Let’s start with the positives:
- I thought the book was well written
- The overall message about making amends and leaving the past behind is something we can all learn
- I was happy that the characters grew at the end

I don’t read blurbs and the cover intrigued me. As I read the opening chapters, I thought to myself, what grudge would you have to not talk to your family for 20 years? It’s got to be something particularly bad right? When it was about halfway through the book (or more), that we find out Nona’s grandmother and Ruby that meddled with Nona’s plan to elope, only for Nona to blame her dad and sister, I was like whaaat? I thought to myself, why wouldn’t Nona just take the time to listen to her dad when he came to Chicago? Why would she not talk to her family because of that? Also, why didn’t she contact Marcus and figure it out when he didn’t meet with her? It just doesn’t make sense. For grandma Opal to not reveal the truth over all the time they talked on the phone… it just all could have been avoided without miscommunication and misunderstanding. I’m not sure I particularly like this trope. It makes the characters come across as immature.

There was too much back and forth of - should I / shouldn’t I talk to her and should I avoid them between the sisters. Some parts of the story felt repeated because of it. The ending felt rushed and it was left open ended in parts. It would have been good for Julia to see Cat and for the sisters to meet their brother Ben together as I think it would have wrapped up the story a little better.

I’m still trying to get over the fact Nona wouldn’t speak to her sister for 20 years because she thought Julia revealed her elopement secret to their dad, which didn’t happen. It seems too far fetched to me. I definitely understand Julia’s point of view of feeling abandoned and that’s why she couldn’t pick up the phone, but because it impacted Nona THAT much, she could have unleashed her anger through a conversation and realised what she knew was wrong.

Nona Moved away as soon as she could and was forced to return when her father passed away. Her sister, Julia stayed behind, and holds resentment towards her sister. With unknown secrets neither of them knew, will they ever be able to forgive each other and mend their broken relationship.

As I started reading this book, in my mind, I thought it was going to go a certain way. Boy was I wrong, and I am so happy about that. This story was such an exciting ride with several twists and turns that I was not expecting. The family dynamics, as well as the growth of the characters made this story even more interesting to me. I did not want this story to end, nor could I put it down. I can't wait for the next book from this author.

Families especially southern families are not only complicated but have deep roots and tangled weeds. A death brings sisters together after decades apart. Feeling we’re hurt, unresolved. Each sister has reasons for the lives they have chosen. The familiar brings feelings to the surface. Southern heat has been the catalyst for many a confrontation. It is no different here.

Where the Wild Peaches Grow is the story of a family and the struggles they face around miscommunication. I didn't love all the characters but I did love the setting the family ties. Sometimes I just wanted to say you all just need to talk and listen to one another but isn't that real life too?

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the advance copy in exchange for an honest review.

Setting is absolutely gorgeous. Not a huge fan of the miscommunication trope and how simple conversation could solve all issues but it never happens. The characters make some questionable decisions which took me out of the narrative a little however I still enjoyed it.