If Ever I Return, Pretty Peggy-O

This is the first in the 'ballad' series of Appalachian novels by Sharyn McCrumb. I like this series so much, and I love that her recurring characters are more than just window-dressing, but are not the main focus of the books. This novel seems to take place in 1986, and it feels a bit dated, not on......more

The beginning of the Ballad series and man, is ever good. Most of the ballad books can be read as stand alones, but if you haven't started yet, begin here. McCrumb has not done anything this good lately though.......more

McCrumb does a good job of describing scenery & setting and of capturing snapshots of southern Appalachia and its idiosyncratic characters. Rather than using dialect and accent to give her characters a distinctly Southern voice, however, she uses omniscient narration to reveal their rural, socially......more

A very slow moving story, though the writing is good. However, I did not connect with any of the characters which made it difficult to be pulled fully into the story. An okay book, but I probably won't be reading any more in the series.......more

I'm a bit conflicted about this book because while I really liked the writing style, I thought the storyline was just okay. One issue, of course, is that the book was written in the 90s and so a lot of the references are dated. The mystery wasn't particularly compelling...in fact, for me, it was pre......more