Growing up, Thayer Wentworth knew three things about herself: She was an untamable, wild force, at least by her mother's standards; her only true confidante was her exotic grandmother; and wherever she went, magic followed her. Although her elitist Southern belle mother attempted to reconcile Thayer to a life where society dictated every last aspect, Thayer escapes every summer to Camp Edgewood on Burnt Mountain.

On Burnt Mountain, Thayer immersed herself in the magic that was embedded in the fibers of the camp—a place where she was free to experience the magic of nature, mountain life and first love. Thayer's summer romance with Nick Abrams burned passionately while it lasted, with promises of forever once he returned from a trip to France. However, after not receiving the much-anticipated phone calls and letter from her fiancv©-to-be, Thayer plunges into a deep sadness that steals the magic away from her world and forces her to deal with the cruel realities of life.

Years later, Thayer marries and begins her dream life with a man she loves and trusts, and the magic of life is fully restored to her world. But when her husband starts a new career as a mythological storyteller at her beloved camp, it sends Thayer's life into chaos. She discovers her husband is a man of disturbing obsessions, forcing her to face her own secrets involving her family and Nick. These revelations challenge her to take another look at the outcome of her life—and force her to decide where, or to whom, she might run.

Best-selling author Anne Rivers Siddons brings to life the traditional Old South culture in Burnt Mountain, a modern-day tale of heartbreak, love and, ultimately, self-discovery. Siddons captures readers from the start with elegant, flowing prose. We are left with the haunting reality that the true magic of life manifests itself in our adaption to its changing storms—and in who we become after weathering our own personal tragedies.

Summer camps play a pivotal role in the life of a young Atlanta heiress.

Thayer Wentworth has always been a disappointment to her mother, Crystal. Tomboyish, and too much like Crystal's distrusted mother-in-law, Caroline, known as "Grand," Thayer yearns for the life of the mind. In this Thayer resembles her father Finch, an educator, who died in an accident en route from a camp on Burnt Mountain. Grand, who refused to grant Crystal (a shopkeeper's daughter) entree to Atlanta's aristocratic Buckhead set, clearly favors Thayer over her more frivolous older sister Lily. When Grand moves into Crystal's house after Finch dies, she grooms Thayer to inherit her father's rarified legacy. First, there's a counselorship at Sherwood Forest, an exclusive girls' camp, where Thayer meets Nick Abrams, counselor at a nearby boys' camp. The two fall madly in love and vow to marry, however when Nick departs for Europe, Thayer learns she is pregnant. Nick never writes or phones as he promised, and Thayer is tricked by Crystal into having an abortion. After a difficult physical and emotional recovery, Thayer attends Sewanee University at Grand's urging, and there she meets and weds Celtic mythology professor Aengus. Crystal and Grand are no more thrilled about the Irish Aengus than they were about the Jewish Nick, however Grand is at least supportive. After a shocking betrayal (Crystal tells Aengus that the abortion left Thayer sterile), a permanent mother-daughter rift results. Grand dies, leaving Thayer and Aengus a rustic fieldstone house in a wooded Atlanta suburb. At first life is blissful, but then a local corrupt politician flatters Aengus into propagating Celtic lore at a boys' camp (which churns out the Atlanta equivalent of Stepford Teens) that's located, ominously enough, on Burnt Mountain. Suddenly Aengus' seemingly benign Celtic obsession turns into something menacing and Michael Flatley–like.

Siddons is at her usual incisive best at skewering the mores of socially pretentious Southerners, and her prose is limpid and mesmerizing, but the grand gignol denouement beggars belief.

As a child, Thayer Wentworth adored Camp Greyledge on Georgia's Burnt Mountain, even if she did find first love and then first heartbreak there. So at first she's happy when she moves nearby with her new husband, Irish-born professor Aengus, and he's invited to the camp as storyteller. But then, as it often does, the past rears its ugly head. With a reading group guide and fun for many readers.

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–like 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)