Love and Peaches and Troubles

I'd managed to forget much of the events in Love and Peaches between the first time I read it and this reread. I still remembered the stuff about Murphy's dad and Birdie and Enrico's broken engagement, but a lot of Leeda's story had been forgotten.

There are thing in this series I don't like. As with most series, things don't end up exactly the way I wanted them to and while I loved how Leeda ended up and was surprised but happy about Birdie's ending, her breakup with Enrico made me sad and Murphy's ending was one I really didn't care for, probably because her and Rex were just one of those pairings I just never really "got." This book was very much about coming to terms with the past and facing the future -- each of the girl's stories highlighted this in some way. Birdie with the orchard. Leeda with her grandmom's letters. Murphy with Rex and the identity of her dad. And all three girls finding a place they fit and finding a way to be happy.

It strikes me that in large ways this series as a whole is really, really sad. Full of impossible relationships, family tension, and characters who think they know what they want but don't even really know who they are. Things end nicely, but in a way that doesn't altogether seem to fit with the rest of the series. I still love this series. It's one of my favorites, so full of beautiful, lush writing, huge emotions, and well-developed characters that I relate to in different ways.

Here's a quote that pretty well sums up much of the problems in the book(s):

What worried her [Leeda], sometimes, was that she had never been able to capture the feeling of being completely real. (Love and Peaches, pg. 106)