Book Review: 'Hidden Passions'

If you're unfamiliar with the daytime drama Passions, this setup may be head-scratching. This dishy diary, supposedly kept by the show's resident witch, Tabitha (played by Juliet Mills), was delivered to HarperCollins by her magic doll, Timmy (Josh Ryan Evans, a little person with a lisp). Long-buried secrets and lusty affairs abound, and the same silly dialogue that makes the show such fun translates nicely to the page: ''Police work had become his only focus — that and weight lifting ... and the occasional adult magazine.'' Listen, if you've gotten over the shame of watching a soap whose star is a doll, you might as well succumb to the book's charms. Just tell your friends that camp takes courage. B+