Burnt Mountain
Grand Central, Jul 19 2011, $25.99
ISBN: 9780446527897
In Atlanta, seventeen year old Thayer Wentworth is pregnant, but prenatal tests show that her unborn is severely malformed. Though she is heartbroken, she chooses an abortion. Thayer goes on to college where she meets and is attracted to extroverted storyteller Dr. Aengus O’Neill. They marry.
When Thayer’s affluent grandmother dies, she inherits her incredible Atlanta home not far from Burnt Mountain’s Camp Edgewood where her father died in a car accident. She and Aengus take up residence in the luxurious mansion. However, he begins to recall upsetting memories from his childhood in Ireland that disturbs Thayer who fears her husband is losing his mind. At the same time she looks into has past at her mom and her first love Nick Abrams who broke her heart at Camp Sherwood Forest in North Carolina.
Burnt Mountain is an entertaining southern drama that fans of the author will enjoy. Thayer is an intriguing individual facing relationship issues. The story line is at its best when the focus is entirely on the heroine’s inner turmoil although too many subplots are left dangling. Still she has decisions to make even if happenchance assists her on the most critical. Although not Anne Rivers Siddons’s best work, readers will still appreciate touring the North Carolina Mountains with Thayer as their guide.
Harriet Klausner
