This light-hearted story introduces Kiya Mortenson who has
twice been struck by lightning, currently heading home in
an elderly car which lets her down on a mountainside. Out
of work and money, she accepts a lift and the offer of work
from a passing stranger, Dalton. All she has to do is stay
at an RV campsite and look after his grandmother's five pug
dogs. The Oregon countryside is dense with sagebrush,
blackberries and cedars, the RV site is isolated and all
the disdainful residents are related. The tent she's
offered as a home stinks of skunk. Yes, she is that
desperate.
TIME THIEF gives us a protagonist who isn't so much chatty
as gabby; asked who she is and why she's walking the dogs,
she gives a lengthy response which doesn't answer the
questions. As a contrast we see Dalton driving placidly in
his sports car, talking to someone called Peter who has a
strange animus ball of light beside him, referring to 'the
mortal police' and 'impure mahrimes'. It does take a while
to understand what is going on, but a group called
Travellers appear to be connected to unexpected deaths, and
some of the deaths are happening by time theft.
I was interested in the concept of time theft and kept
waiting to see what it entailed. I read about blueberry
facials for dogs, Peter getting stabbed and falling into
Kiya's tent at night, and sundry long conversations, and
eventually I found an example of time theft that was ten
seconds of deja vu. If someone steals enough time from
another person they can use it to travel back in time and
try to avoid a bad outcome. But they must pay for the time,
usually in silver. Kiya finds the puzzling Peter attractive
and follows him around; however he speaks a convoluted
Romanian form of English and Kiya can't say one sentence
when ten will suffice, so the conversations, sometimes
amusing, can be hard to follow.
I thought some tighter editing would have helped and I
could have done with less of Kiya's having lengthy
discussions with her car. The characters and settings are
well described however and there is some hot adult action.
Urban fantasy fans may like to check it out -
it's definitely different.
FIRST IN A NEW SERIES FROM THE BESTSELLING AUTHOR OF THE
DARK ONES NOVELS!
Outcast due to their ability to manipulate time, shunned by
the mortal and immortal worlds alike, a Traveller’s life is
anything but easy.
Peter Faa is a member of the Watch tracking down a murderer,
and unfortunately, all clues seem to point toward his own
estranged family of Travellers. Any of his cousins could be
guilty, but which one? They’re all experts in the art of
stealing time...
After surviving a lightning strike, Kiya Mortenson is
determined to get just one thing in her life right. And if
that means taking a job as nanny to five pugs on a campsite
in the Oregon wilderness, then so be it. It doesn’t hurt
that the job comes with some spectacular male eye candy,
including her new boss’s gorgeous grandson. If only she
didn’t keep having this strange sense of deja vu...
When Peter discovers his own family is stealing time from
Kiya, all bets are off. While she may drive him crazy at
times, it’s clear that it’s not just lightning that’s
creating some serious sparks between them. And he’s not
going to let secrets, lies, or a devious murderer keep Kiya
from where she belongs: at his side.