Southern California Book Festival Honorable Mention Runner Up Great Southwest Book Festival – Best Regional Literature Runner Up Great Northwest Book Festival – Best Regional Literature A teenage girl discovers that her entire life has been a lie as would-be kidnappers and murderers stalk and attack her and a family she did not know she had. The discovery of three bodies in Lake Mead, Nevada, triggers a vendetta against Darby Donati, the rich, spoiled and snarky daughter of the owner of one of Las Vegas’ casinos. She must not only survive threats on her life, but learn why and who she really is. As FBI agents work to identify the recovered bodies, would-be assassins attack Darby and her possible relatives on the Navajo Reservation. Escaping a kidnapping attempt and following her wounded bodyguard’s orders, Darby flees to a remote holding in the middle of the Navajo Nation, where she discovers relatives she never knew she had. The friendship and care of her great-grandmother and aunt in turn leads her to question not only her identity but her entire previous way of life. Back in Las Vegas after another kidnapping attempt, Darby returns to school, but her old world is closing in on the man she had thought was her father and his business. When strangers invade her home, Darby again heads east, this time with Daisy, a school friend, only to end up in a siege on her great-grandmother’s holding. A last attempt to escape death ends in a desperate leap into a flash-flood-swollen stream and the FBI arrest of her nemesis. Months later, Darby, now Naatie, returns to the reservation for a coming-of-age ceremony that cements her identity as Navajo and promises a guide to her future.
