Burnt Mountain

Bestselling author Siddons combines American Southern and Irish folklore in her 12th novel (after Fault Lines) with lackluster results. Growing up around Georgia's wealthy elite, 17-year-old free spirit Thayer Wentworth finds herself unexpectedly pregnant. But a test shows that her baby is "badly... malformed" and she has an abortion. She makes a fresh start at college, where she falls for Dr. Aengus O'Neill, a gregarious but oddly childlike professor. When Thayer's favorite grandmother dies, she inherits her fairy tale%E2%80%93like Atlanta home and moves into it with O'Neill, now her husband. O'Neill, a famous storyteller (he's invited to speak at a nearby boy's camp) becomes so obsessed with disturbing scenes he remembers from his native Ireland that Thayer begins to think he's mad. Coincidentally enough, she's confronted with her past at the most opportune moment, showing her a clear way out. With anemic characters and many unresolved story lines, Siddons takes on too much and does too little with it. (July)