Twenty-four-year-old Tess Lanier is finally ready to face the specter of her mother, Nina Lane, a world famous SF author. An undiagnosed manic-depressive, Nina committed suicide when Tess was three months old. Raised by her maternal grandparents, Tess was kept far from the Nina Lane mania.

Following her grandparents' deaths, Tess tries to reconnect with her family's past. Fleur-de-lis, Kansas, where Tess was born, has old Lanier roots. Deciding to relocate, Tess buys the historic Lanier building and plans to open her own coffee and gift shop. As well as hosting the annual Nina Lane Birthday celebration, this year there's to be another tourist attraction...the excavation of the Western Settler, a riverboat that sank in the Missouri River in 1857.

For most of his life Ned Ravenal has dreamed of digging up the Western Settler and now his dream is almost reality. Friendship brings Ned and Tess together; however, if Tess is to move forward, she'll have to learn all she can about her mother.

Few authors are as adept as Kathleen Gilles Seidel at delivering such a complex and comprehensive range of emotions in their novels. The bonds between mothers and daughters form the centerpiece in this outstanding story. (Feb., 384 pp., $6.99)

—Jill M. Smith