Artefacts and dangerous acquisitiveness!

Of Gold and Shadows (Times Lost Treasures #1) by Michelle Griep  

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Ami Dalton moonlights as a Shadow Broker, dealing in Egyptian antiquities on the edges of places like convenient cemeteries. Out from that shadowy existence, Ami is the daughter of famed Oxford Professor, Archer Dalton, an archaeologist whose expertise is Egyptology. Under her father’s tutelage Ami too has become an expert in Egyptian artefacts. Not that that helps as Ami battles the prejudices against women of her very Victorian times. Ami’s passion is restoring plundered relics back to Egypt. If that’s not possible she brokers for smaller items to have them put in museums rather than private collections. Hence her work as the Shadow Broker.

Edmund Price is a successful business man returned from India to take charge of a shipment of Egyptian items that he wants catalogued and priced to sell to any interested collector at the highest price. He needs the money for an Indian friend to fight taxes the English parliament is about to place on Indian goods.

Edmund employs Ami to take charge of the process. He didn’t plan on being caught up in plans his English partner Gil Fletcher has for the collection. He didn’t plan on being manipulated into an engagement with Violet Bastion, the daughter of the influential Lord Bastion in exchange for a seat in parliament, and he definitely didn’t plan on being enthralled by the innocent, quick silvered, intelligent sprite of a woman that is Ami.

A lively read from Michelle Griep set in Victorian England amidst it’s flurry of desire for all things Egyptian. A love story hinting at the darker side of acquisitiveness, of addictions, of following mammon as a way to solve problems, and of the courage of listening to one’s heart’s direction.

A Bethany House ARC via NetGalley.                                              

Many thanks to the author and publisher.