cover image Southern Fires

Southern Fires

Mary Lynn Baxter. Warner Books, $5.99 (0pp) ISBN 978-0-446-60204-4

A lot has changed in the 17 years since Dana Bivens left Charlottesville, Va. For one, her estranged mother has undergone every cosmetic surgery procedure known to the medical profession, married the town's richest man and ""ridden him to death."" Now she's after handsome, infamous OB/GYN surgeon Dr. Yancy Granger. Granger is up for a Nobel Prize in medicine and Dana hopes to advance her journalistic career by doing an expose on him. She figures that everyone, including Granger, has something to hide and she intends to find it. Steering clear of her mother runs a close second to fighting her growing attraction for Granger. Little does Dana know that Granger's deepest and darkest secret involves a traumatic incident from her own past that has altered both their lives. Baxter's (Hot Texas Nights) wickedly dysfunctional secondary characters add depth and readability to an otherwise smarmy and contrived tale. (Oct.)