Secrets by Dawn Kirby - Book Reivew

A gem for fans of the supernatural fantasy genre, whilst bringing something new to the table. Secrets has everything you could want and more besides!

Secrets by Dawn Kirby - 1st book in the Serenity series.
Summary: It is said that the truth will set you free, but for Leah it kills.

Leah always knew she was different. From her extreme light sensitivity, to her ability to read people by their auric scent, she kept these differences secret.

Not even Mia, Leah's mother, knew the fullness of her daughter's differences, but she held even greater secrets to Leah's past - the truth about her father and Leah's conception. 

With the escape of an old foe, Mia is too late to reveal to her daughter 

the truth before Judith can exact her revenge in a wash of blood and death.

Thrown into a world unheard of, Leah discovers that she is not alone in keeping her secrets. That there are people from her parent's past who would die to protect her.If she only knew why.

Raine, placed as her protector, hides deadly secrets of his own. Drawn to each other, Leah and Raine must uncover the truth before one of both are killed.

This new offering on the teen/adult supernatural fantasy genre will be a read treat for fans of the genre. I can seen teenage readers of series such as Twilight, True Blood and the House of the Night who have now grown up loving Secrets for its similar themes of romance mixed with secrets, danger and adventure - just like me.

Leah is the extraordinary protagonist who has supernatural powers coming out of her ears. Super hearing, being able to view people auroras, smell their personality (yes I do mean smell) and withstanding, and enjoying extreme heat at times seem like a little too much. But her weaknesses balance her out to be a character I grew to love through-out the book. Fans of supernatural and fantasy fiction will recognise the signs of different fictional races common within the genre, which I really enjoyed. Yet Leah's predicament in my reading experience still presenting something unique. 

Discovering Leah's secrets as the book progresses became an really enjoyable read for me. With my habit of reading more than one book at a time, it was great to have to read only two sentences to be absorbed back into narrative. With dramatic and shocking scenes holding a serious tone, the personalities and relationships growing between characters provided light release, delivering the romantic domestic scenes I really enjoy.

I did feel like more than a few of the events throughout the book were rather rushed, in particular the romantic developments between characters. Alongside this, the constant addition of characters, often with similar names, sometimes required some hard concentration to keep up with (yes I am speaking to you David, Donovan and Declan). The enemies were often just as numerous and their intertwining motivations becoming clear eventually.

Despite my mixed feelings about the character developments and rushed narrative, I truly enjoyed going to bed every night to just read a bit more before I went to sleep. The writing style is effortless to read providing much needed escapism into another world where vampires, werewolves and everything else in-between exists. 

Overall I give Secrets:

7/10

Secrets is not cheap, priced at just over £6 for the Kindle version on Amazon in the UK (and nearly $10 in the US) and more the the printed version - but I think it is one to put on your wishlist. I will defiantly be picking up the next book in the series regardless.

Thanks for reading,

Love Rie x

I was gifted this book to read and review as part of the Secrets blog tour organised by Illuminated Tours. 

No Good Deed by Bill Blais - Book Review

Don't get me wrong, I love YA fiction, but this is one seriously good grown up demon fighting awesome book that all age groups will love!

Summary Courtesy of Amazon: "In the last ten days, I've resigned myself to three things: Your kid'll break his arm the day after you lose your job; you should always look a gift horse in the mouth; and nothing, not even ridding the world of demons, is as straightforward as you'd think."Kelly McGinnis has spent her adult life trying to do the right thing, but as a newly down-sized mother of twins and the wife of a man living with Multiple Sclerosis, she also knows that trying isn't always enough. While interrupting a scene of police brutality, Kelly unwittingly releases a real, live demon. After she manages to kill the creature through gut instinct and blind luck, she is approached to join a secret group of demon hunters who reveal an underworld of monsters and magic. Against her better judgment, Kelly accepts the lucrative, if bizarre, offer; but when she meets Umber, a compelling incubus with an unexpectedly human story, she learns that the truth is far stranger and more terrifying than she imagined.

This is the #1 book in the Kelley and Umber series by Bill Blais. Bill is such a great guy, and having posted and interview with him here on the blog before I read the book he made some pretty bold statements that had a lot to live up to. But I have to say it was more. This is a seriously good book!

At the ripe age of 21 I find very few characters I can really relate to. YA protagonists seem to always be young teens and I see their flaws and strengths in relation to when I was that age. Kelly though, is a character I will inspire to be like! Middle aged, slightly over weight but with a fantastic family that she loves and an exciting change of career. She is likeable, funny, imperfect and most of all KICK ASS!

At no time was I left feeling like this was similar to another book, that I could predict where the next page would take me or felt it slowing down at all. Even domestic scenes of dinner parties had their exciting twists that left me wanting more.Speaking of twists; the introduction of the character Umber in the late stages of the book is something I have not seen before and I loved it. As the whole series is named after the pair I know he will star more in the future books and I can't wait.

The main flaw in this book from my opinion is not really its fault. Being written by an American, being set in America it holds and lot of references to America that do fit is well with the international audience. Struggling to pay medical bills just does not happen in the UK with the NHS, and this was something that bugged me a little. However it is integral to the story and I of course understood that healthcare is insurance based and has to be paid for. Other American cultural references I feel were lost on me, but it did not hold the book back in any way.

Overall I loved this book. The protagonist Kelly is awesome, her family adorable and the character of Umber is really one I look forward to reading more about. 

9/10 (1 point lost because I'm not American)

I am taking part in a blog tour for this book with some really awesome book bloggers. You can see their out their reviews, interviews, guest posts and giveaway from here.

Thanks as always for reading,

Love Rie x

Author Interview: Bill Blais

This is my second instalment in a series of posts for the Kelly and Umber series, which consists of an interview with the author Bill Blais. If you want to know what I am doing this series of posts please go back and check out my first post.


This is only the second author interview I have conducted, and the first one to go up on the blog (the other one will go up a bit later in the year). It is thus fair to say that the question that I asked were fairly bland, but I was really happy with the response I received, and I hope you will be too:

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Rie: How long have you been writing?

Bill Blais: Well, the first story I wrote was during my sophomore year of high school English class, which would be, whoa, almost 25 years ago. I wrote more pieces during that year and the years that followed, submitting when I thought I had something worthwhile and receiving the requisite (and largely deserved) rejections. A few years after college, though, I hit a lull of several years. I continued to toy with writing, but I wasn't really serious and produced only a couple of complete pieces during that time.

All that changed in 2004. That year, as my 32nd birthday approached, I realized that I hadn't become the published author I had imagined I would be all those years earlier. Of course, the reason was simple enough: I wasn't writing. Not seriously.

So I challenged myself to write a complete novel -- beginning, middle and end. If I could finish that, then maybe I had a chance. If not, I would put that dream aside for good.

It took me a year to write the first draft of Witness and almost three more to revise it (13 times!), and it was an incredibly frustrating, exhilarating, painstaking process (my wife deserves a martyrdom for sticking with me through all that), but I did it. The very best part, though, wasn't finishing the book, but itching to start the next one. That was the moment that I truly felt I was doing what I should be doing.

Since then, I really haven't stopped.

Rie: Why did you first decide to start writing fantasy fiction?

Bill Blais: Oh, the genre was a given long before I even considered writing. My first books were Narnia, The Lord of the Rings, Thomas Covenant, Dragonlance, et cetera. I wanted desperately to be swept away to these worlds. When I got older and started to consider writing, fantasy was a natural choice. I'm also a fan of science fiction, historical fiction, and mysteries, and I'm working in those directions, as well.

Rie: Who are your favorite authors?

Bill Blais: It comes down to good writing, and I tend to prefer time-tested authors, like Jane Austen, Charles Dickens, Patrick O'Brian, and Henryk Sienkiewicz.

Rie: What can readers expect from the Kelly & Umber series?

Bill Blais: My goal is to give readers something they haven't had from the genre to date. I don't lay any claim to true originality, but I try to avoid convention and pre-conceived expectations wherever I can.

Rie: Is the character of Kelly based on anyone you know?

Bill Blais: Yes and no. Like all the characters I write, I want to make her as realistic and honest as possible. For me, this means imbuing her with traits I am familiar with from my own experience and relationships, but it also means allowing her to use, change, or discard these traits as she sees fit in the development of her own unique character. I know that sounds a bit evasive, but it's true.

Rie: Are you writing anything at the moment, if so what?

Bill Blais: Time's been a little tight with the new baby girl, but I'm just finishing up the final (hopefully) revision of a science fiction short story I want to get out in the next couple weeks. I tried a different approach with this one and it was a fun ride, but I have trouble with short fiction, because they have to be, well, short, which is not my strong suit.

Rie: What will be your next book release?

Bill Blais: I expect to publish Another Night at the End of the World, a more traditional fantasy novel, this summer. After that, the third Kelly & Umber novel (currently titled The Road to Hell) is on schedule for this coming winter. Finally, the second in the All Prophets are Liars series (also outlined and prepped) should be ready for a summer 2013 release. There might also be a sci-fi novel slipped out in between sometime.

Because I'm obviously short of things to do.

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I think you will agree that Bill is fantastic interviewee, and a big congratulations for the birth of his little girl, as well as some great little books.


You can read other (more creative) interviews with Bill as he has taken part in his book tour here:

• The Land of Oz - Some great answers around how becoming a new Dad has affected Bill's writing.
• Left and Write - Find out what Bill would bring save if the Zombie Apocalypse came upon us! 
• Raine Thomas - Find out what the biggest compliment Bill has ever received about his books. 

You can find out more about Bill on his website, Facebook, Twitter & Goodreads. 

The next post in this series with be a book review of the first book in the Kelly & Umber series, No Good Deed . 

Thanks for reading,

Love Rie x

Interview organised by the wonderful Annabell Cadiz at Illuminated tours.