cover image Sara's Song

Sara's Song

Fern Michaels. Zebra Books, $6.99 (415pp) ISBN 978-0-8217-5856-4

Dallas Lord, a 38-year-old rock star asks Sara Killian, M.D., 39, to marry him (perhaps for the wrong reasons), and as a gift, he writes her a song. Then, having supposedly died in a plane crash, Dallas chooses to drop out of sight in order to gain new perspective on his sense of his life and himself (he's tortured by undiagnosed dyslexia). In his absence, a bad-girl backup singer claims rights to the song and attempts to murder Sara. After a brief attraction to Adam Lord, Dallas's older brother/manager, Sara is left to flounder in a midlife crisis as the brothers reunite, neither willing to admit their feelings for her. There's plenty of potential here--romantic story line, dynamic conflict--but Michaels's (Vegas Heat) latest is weakened by a poorly represented locale, abrupt transitions and the hero's maudlin motivations. Michaels is aiming for the heartstrings here, but she manages to hit only a few chords. (Mar.)