Kat with a K

Review: Peaches by Jodi Lynn Anderson

Peaches by Jodi Lynn Anderson
Genre: Young adult
Pages: 320
Rating: 3.9

I've heard that Anderson is the originator of the concept behind the popular Traveling Pants series; the publisher bought her idea but hired Brashares to write the series. The Peaches series is similar in concept - a small group of teen girls from different backgrounds/interests are put into a common situation and become friends despite their differences. In this case, the common situation is a summer of working at a peach orchard; the girls are the orchard owner's serious, nerdy daughter, her rich, spoiled cousin, and a smart but "fast" and "troubled" girl caught trespassing (or maybe stealing peaches?) and assigned by the local judge to work in the orchard to make up for it.

This was a fun read, but got a bit annoying at times. It was so obvious that the three girls were going to become friends that I got fed up with all the exposition. JUST START LIKING EACH OTHER ALREADY. Anderson also tried to include some sort of vaguely mystical element involving the peach trees and tying everything together, and that part just didn't quite work for me. The characters were engaging, though, and when I finished the book I immediately wanted to read the sequel, so over all I'd recommend it.