Once Upon a Twilight!: Character Tour: The Collectors' Society | Heather Lyons | Artful Dodger | Excerpt

Welcome to our stop on the character tour for Heather Lyons' The Collectors' Society.

Our charter we are featuring is: Artful Dodger

Artful Dodger

Name: Jack Dawkins

Alias: The Artful Dodger; the A.D.

Age: 35

Eye color: Blue

Hair color: Blonde

Height: 6’ 0”

Timeline: 1838DICK-OT

He pretends to swoon, an arm across his forehead. “Be still me heart.” And then, with a rubbery grin, “Do you talk this dirty to all your beaus?”

“Got to keep my game sharp and all, boss man.”

Excerpt:

“Contrary to what you believe,” Van Brunt mutters, “not everybody is as enamored with your legend as you are.”

The naughty smile turns crooked. “Au contraire, boss man. Plenty of people find me irresistible.”

Van Brunt is unimpressed, though. “Fellow thieves, perhaps. It’s a good thing you were recruited when you were, Mr. Dawkins. I shudder to think what might have happened had you not been given a proper education and a legitimate reason to utilize your unique set of skills.”

“The Society was lucky I agreed to come.” Dawkins’ grin spreads wide as he runs a hand through his hair. “I could have said no, and then where would you be?”

Van Brunt sets the phone down just long enough for a pair of chimes to sound from it. “The simple truth is we would be here all the same, and you would have lived the rest of your days out in a penal colony, stealing food and fighting for survival.”

Dawkins’ laugh is high-pitched and more than a little bit wicked.

From the author of the Fate series and The Deep End of the Sea comes a fantastical romantic adventure that has Alice tumbling down the strangest rabbit hole yet.

After years in Wonderland, Alice has returned to England as an adult, desperate to reclaim sanity and control over her life. An enigmatic gentleman with an intriguing job offer too tempting to resist changes her plans for a calm existence, though. Soon, she’s whisked to New York and initiated into the Collectors’ Society, a secret organization whose members confirm that famous stories are anything but straightforward and that what she knows about the world is only a fraction of the truth.

It’s there she discovers villains are afoot—ones who want to shelve the lives of countless beings. Assigned to work with the mysterious and alluring Finn, Alice and the rest of the Collectors’ Society race against a doomsday clock in order to prevent further destruction . . . but will they make it before all their endings are erased?

Heather Lyons has always had a thing for words—she’s been writing stories since she was a kid. In addition to writing, she’s also been an archaeologist and a teacher. Heather is a rabid music fan, as evidenced by her (mostly) music-centric blog, and she’s married to an even larger music snob. They’re happily raising three kids who are mini music fiends who love to read and be read to.

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