Precious Things

A gorgeous, enthralling and intricate mystery, with love, life and fashion entwining in a story of a mysterious beaded collar and the young woman who finds it. One for fans of Kate Morton.

'Clothes - particularly vintage and antique ones - are my weakness' Kelly Doust

Spinning her love of stories, vintage fashion and frocks into an enchanting and enthralling novel of mothers and daughters, marriage, families and desire, bestselling author Kelly Doust's Precious Things is a story about how we so often reach out for the sparkly, shiny things (and people) we desire, only to realise - in the nick of time - that the most precious things are the ones we've had with us all along.

Maggie is an auctioneer living in modern-day London, who comes across an intriguing crumpled, neglected beading collar in a box of old junk, and sets out on an unexpected mission to resucitate it to its original glittering glory. On a hunt to uncover its secret and elusive past, she discovers more about its journey through time in the hands of the women who made it, loved it, desired it and lost it.

Maggie has a journey of her own too. Juggling a demanding job, a clingy young child and a rebellious stepdaughter, and with her once-solid marriage foundering under the pressure of a busy life, Maggie has to find out the hard way that you can't always get what you want... but sometimes, you're lucky enough to get precisely what you need.

Kelly Doust is the bestselling author of a number of books on craft and fashion, including Minxy Vintage and A Life in Frocks. She's written for Vogue and Sunday Life magazine, and worked in the UK and Hong Kong. She now lives in Sydney.

'Precious Things tells the compelling story of a modern woman while weaving the fascinating and mysterious stories of many women from the past two centuries. What links each of them is a beautiful, precious thing – a bejeweled and mysterious coronet … A wonderful and unusual story… an impressive debut.' Good Reading

'Wonderful storytelling - I was betwitched' Charlotte Smith, bestselling author of Dreaming of Dior

'Beautifully written and downright enchanting. Every character had a story and each story connected and drew me in to the point that I couldn't put the book down until I found out all their endings.' mybookdiary.com