A return to Willows Rise was supposed to be a beginning. Instead, it becomes a reckoning.
Five years ago, Lyra Reynolds arrived at Willows Rise carrying more grief than any twelve-year-old should have to hold. The camp became the first place where she felt seen, heard, and slowly stitched back together.
Now Lyra is older, steadier, and back as a counsellor.
At least, that is what everyone believes.
Responsible for a cabin full of girls, music sessions, late-night worries, and the emotional storms that come with camp life, Lyra is trying to be the kind of person she once needed. But Willows Rise is no longer only a place of healing. It is a place of records, rumours, strange silences, and pieces of the past that were never meant to stay buried.
Then Ruby arrives.
Quiet, watchful, and always closer to Lyra than coincidence should allow, Ruby carries questions she does not fully understand. Her presence begins pulling at threads Lyra did not know were still loose, threads tied to old letters, hidden trails, forgotten names, and the lake that everyone seems to avoid discussing directly.
At the centre of the mystery is Alma.
The camp cook has been part of Willows Rise for as long as anyone can remember, though no one can quite explain when she arrived or why she seems to know more than the people officially in charge. Alma watches the lake like it owes her something. She goes silent at certain names. She answers questions Lyra has not asked, then refuses the ones that matter most.
And then there is Mrs. Wilson.
Cold, controlled, and armed with enough paperwork to threaten the future of Willows Rise, Mrs. Wilson has her own reason for wanting the camp shut down. As tensions rise between her and Alma, Lyra begins to understand that this is not just a battle over camp rules. It is a fight over what happened here, who was hurt, and who has spent years keeping the truth hidden.
Still, camp life refuses to become entirely serious.
Matthew is losing a personal war against raccoons, teenagers appear to have developed a strategy board, and one chaotic cookout briefly convinces everyone that maybe, just maybe, the past can wait until morning.
It cannot.
When old letters surface, Lyra is pulled into a mystery that reaches further back than she expected and closer to home than she is ready for. The deeper she searches, the more Willows Rise seems to change around her. Familiar paths lead somewhere else. Old stories stop sounding like stories. And the lake, quiet and dark beneath the summer sky, begins to feel less like scenery and more like a witness.
Then the worst storm in the camp’s history breaks over Willows Rise.
Rain falls. Power fails. The camp begins to come apart.
And in the middle of it all, Alma is finally ready to tell Lyra the truth.
Then the lights go out.
"Secrets of Willows Rise" is Book Two of "The Lightkeepers" Series, a young adult mystery about grief, faith, foster care, family history, summer camp, friendship, buried records, old wounds, and the truth that waits beneath still water.
Sarah King, is a Canadian author, artist, musician, and storyteller from Alberta. Her work often explores grief, foster care, neurodivergence, faith, chosen family, and the quiet courage it takes to keep going after loss. Drawing from her own lived experience, her stories centre young people who feel unseen, misunderstood, or out of place, while offering them hope, humour, and a path toward healing.Secrets of Willows Rise is the second book in The Lightkeepers Series and continues Lyra's journey through memory, mystery, family secrets, and the lingering shadows of Willows Rise. When she is not writing, Seraphina is also involved in music, coaching, leadership development, and community work in Alberta.
