Precious Things

By Kelly Doust

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

• Language: English
• Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers Australia
• Release date: Apr 1, 2016
• ISBN: 9781460705575

Kelly Doust

Kelly Doust is the author of A Life in Frocks: A Memoir, the vintage fashion bible Minxy Vintage, The Crafty Minx series, and the novels Precious Things and Dressing the Dearloves. Her writing has appeared in Vogue, Australian Women's Weekly, and Sunday Life magazine. Kelly has a background in book publishing and publicity, and has worked in the UK, Hong Kong, and Australia. Today she is a publisher of lifestyle books and lives in Sydney, Australia, with her husband and daughter.

Reviews for Precious Things

[carpe_librum · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Precious Things by Australian author Kelly Doust follows a handmade beaded collar through history to the present, touching on the women who owned it and wore it in the past.Maggie is an auctioneer in London and she comes across the collar in a box of neglected lace and fabric and is immediately drawn to it. Interspersed between Maggie's narrative of busy family life in present day London, are individual vignettes from the previous owners of the collar, from 1890s France to the present day. Despite being written by the same author, each of the characters had their own distinct voice and setting, and as a reader I appreciated the skill required to accomplish this.I loved the little sketches breaking up some of the content within the chapters, but I was soooo glad there was a timeline at the back, detailing the women who had owned and worn the collar/coronet so I could refer to it at the end.When it comes to presentation, Precious Things was the most thoughtful and beautiful advanced review copy I've ever received. You can see in the photo on my blog that it came wrapped with lace and ribbon, several postcards with quotes and a precious thing, a candle holder. Given author Kelly Doust has worked in the publishing industry herself, this should come as no surprise but it still made an impression I won't forget.The cover design for Precious Things is wonderful, however my only gripe is that the collar on the cover doesn't match the description of the collar/coronet in the novel and I so desperately wish that it did. The collar in the novel had a recurring fleur de lis pattern, and I just don't see that in the lace collar on the cover.If you're a fan of Kate Morton, historical fiction, vintage items and dual timelines, then Precious Things is for you.* Copy courtesy of HarperCollins Publishers Australia *

[heatherlinc · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

What a delightful read "Precious Things" was. It had a lovely mix of contemporary and historical, and I thoroughly enjoyed the story with all its emotion, turmoils and heartbreak. I found modern-day Maggie very likeable as she struggled with marriage, motherhood and a demanding career, and I think many female readers will easily relate to her.However, what I loved most were the shorter chapters that were woven throughout Maggie's story showing the history of the beaded collar Maggie had found. Beginning in 1891, when a young woman first makes the collar for her wedding dress, these chapters followed the lives of the women who subsequently owned the handmade piece using it not only as a collar, but also a coronet, fashion statement and art piece. Each woman's story was unique and their narrative compelling.However, like many books, I found the epilogue unnecessary but, overall, a beautifully detailed, multi-layered story about the things we hold dear.