cover image Secrets

Secrets

Dawn Kirby. Dark Dragon (www.darkdragonpublishing.com), $24.95 trade paper (326p) ISBN 978-0-9879726-0-6

Kirby’s predictable and stilted series launch focuses on 22-year-old Leah, a precocious young woman who works at her mother’s cosmetics store. Leah’s story is propelled by her mysterious sensitivity to light, her ability to sense things other people can’t (such as distant sounds and auras), and her father’s disappearance years before the story begins. When strange people come looking for Leah, her father returns, and her mother is attacked, long-held secrets begin to unravel, changing Leah’s life dramatically. Leah’s father, David, brings along friends who compliment Leah on her “rockin’ body” while searching crime scenes; naturally this leads to something resembling romance, though the primary story focuses more on squabbles among various paranormal entities and groups. Clumsy, clichéd writing (“If anything ever happened to you I’m not sure I could go on living”) clearly marks this uninspired tale as a novice effort. (July)