A Trinket for the Taking
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4.0 • 5 Ratings
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- $13.99
Publisher Description
This mesmerizing mystery series debut from New York Times bestselling author Victoria Laurie introduces the captivating Dovey Van Dalen, once the belle of 1840s Copenhagen, now charged with recovering magic property from mortals—whatever it takes.
Dovey Van Dalen has a gorgeous day planned for her 200th birthday: driving her new Porsche, admiring the cherry blossoms abloom in her adopted city of Washington DC, and a little pampering. But her boss has other ideas. A powerful artifact has been stolen, and he fears it’s causing chaos in the unmagical world . . .
The rich and connected Ariti family has suffered a string of suspicious deaths, with no signs of foul play. Yet each member has died in the way they feared most. As the enchanting agent most skilled at blending in with mere mortals, Dovey must find answers and retrieve the dangerous trinket.
There’s just one unexpected wrinkle: by the time Dovey arrives at the art gallery where the Ariti patriarch died, FBI agent Grant “Gibs” Bartholomew has taken control of the scene. Dovey needs his cooperation to investigate—but she’ll have to hide her abilities, and her true objective, from a man who uncovers deceptions every day. And as they inch nearer a deadly truth, both will face danger even the spellbound would be lucky to survive . . .
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Laurie (the Cat & Gilley Life Coach Mysteries) blends fantasy, mystery, and romance in this wobbly series launch set in an alternate universe where mystics (or "bounds") live among ordinary humans (or "unbounds"). Beautiful bound Dovey Van Dalen's 200th birthday celebration is interrupted by her boss, bound Elric Ostergaard, for whom she tracks down lost "trinkets" imbued with magical powers. He tells Dovey that the dangerous Promise Trinket, which compels those exposed to it to die by suicide, has gone missing. When wealthy Washington, D.C., gallery owner Augustus Ariti dies in a fire and, a short time later, his sister leaps from her penthouse balcony, Dovey fears the Promise Trinket is responsible. Elric sends Dovey to investigate, and she soon meets hunky unbound model–turned–FBI agent Grant Barlow, who's been assigned to the case. Sparks fly, making Dovey wonder whether it's worth pursuing a taboo romance between a bound and an unbound. Laurie squanders the promising setup with inconsistent magic rules and overwrought prose ("Watching him was like starting at the aurora borealis, inviting a certain marvel and wonder all its own"). It's a misfire.
