cover image Back to Before

Back to Before

Tracy Solheim. Berkley Sensation, $7.99 mass market (320p) ISBN 978-0-425-27580-1

Solheim moves on from her debut Out of Bounds series, but not too far; this Second Chances series opener is set in the same town, Chances Inlet, N.C. Big enough to spawn several celebrities but small enough to be as catty as a high-school clique, it’s the perfect setting for a stormy encounter between hunky native son Gavin McAlister, a wannabe TV star, and Ginger Walsh, a former ballerina struggling back to the dance world after a catastrophic injury. Since Ginger briefly played a soap opera villain, many of the townspeople don’t trust her with Gavin; their inability to separate role from actress is a conceit that wears thin long before Solheim lets it go, but Ginger and Gavin also have their own, more solid reasons for not leaping into a relationship. This is a brisk and heartfelt read, and not weighed down with an excess of backstory. Agent: Melissa Jeglinski, Knight Agency. (Jan.)