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.

Book Summary

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.