The Chase

Fewings (Enthrall Him) feeds the current taste for over-the-top power fantasies featuring impossibly wealthy, mysterious, charming, and dramatically dominant men in the opener to a new trilogy. Heiress Zara Leighton, an art forensics specialist still carrying trauma from a fire during her childhood that destroyed most of her father’s art collection, brings an awkward naïveté to the job assigned by her London employer: serving as a discreet private consultant to American tech billionaire Tobias Wilder. Tobias, who can generously be described as controlling, invites Zara to his mansion, dresses her in designer underwear, and brings her to the exhibitions and gender-stereotyped orgies of the rich and famous, instructing her to stealthily evaluate the priceless artworks that furnish their homes. Directive but not rough sex is paired with Tobias’s protective possessiveness; conversation reveals how passionate he is about both art and charity. But Zara worries about the increasing evidence she sees that her client and lover may be connected to the international art heists committed by mastermind Icon. The book’s not very original and far too sincere, but those who crave the esthetics of Fifty Shades of Grey and James Bond will find them competently executed here. Agent: Kimberly Whalen, Whalen Agency. (June)