cover image The Lost and Found Necklace

The Lost and Found Necklace

Louisa Leaman. Sourcebooks Landmark, $16.99 trade paper (336p) ISBN 978-1-72821-371-2

A family heirloom said to have magical powers disrupts a woman’s life in English writer Leaman’s heartfelt latest (after Second Chance Boutique). Jess Taylor, 30, receives a request from her grandmother, Nancy, to retrieve the family’s “True Love Necklace,” now on a London auction block. According to Nancy, each of the women who wore it in their family, over several generations, found their soul mate. At the auction house, Nancy, who already has a boyfriend, Tim, competes for the necklace with Guy Arlo Van der Meer. Sentimental Jess would spare no expense to fulfill her grandmother’s wishes, despite her older sister Aggie’s protests, but Guy outbids her on behalf of high-profile influencer Stella Weston. Jess pleads with him to sell it to her, and he offers to consider if she has dinner with him. After worrisome news about Nancy’s declining heart rate, Jess reluctantly accepts Guy’s invitation, and the two plot to retrieve it from Stella without upsetting her. Along the way, Tim and Aggie both resent her closeness with Guy, and as Nancy nears the end of her life, she wonders if she should give up her search. Readers will be moved from beginning to end. (July)