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Trinket #1
Trinket
Found as a small child outside a remote enclave, and left to fend for herself as a foundling, Theia has survived in a dying world on the edge of war--and something far worse. She built a life from crumbs, always careful in who she trusted and who she loved.
Until she was lured to the Churn by the people she trusted most. Now her soul is bound to a man she's never met and may never find.
Shattered, humilated, and broken, she flees to the distant city of Haven to find a ship to take her across the Vast Dark. But before she even makes it to the docks, she catches the eye of Haven's most powerful residents.
They offer her a choice that isn't a choice at imprisonment for the crime of existing, or to entertain them as their newest pet...
Trinket is a slow-burn romantasy for fans of deceitful gods, broken worlds, and no one being who they think they are.
Until she was lured to the Churn by the people she trusted most. Now her soul is bound to a man she's never met and may never find.
Shattered, humilated, and broken, she flees to the distant city of Haven to find a ship to take her across the Vast Dark. But before she even makes it to the docks, she catches the eye of Haven's most powerful residents.
They offer her a choice that isn't a choice at imprisonment for the crime of existing, or to entertain them as their newest pet...
Trinket is a slow-burn romantasy for fans of deceitful gods, broken worlds, and no one being who they think they are.
282 pages, Kindle Edition
Published December 20, 2024
About the author
Merry Ravenell
23 books348 followersMerry is a dark sci-fi and fantasy author that currently lives in rural Alabama. She enjoys tormenting her main characters and doing excessive research to make sure unrealistic things are as realistic as possible.
When she's not writing, she enjoys coffee, vodka, painfully bad movies of all varieties, documentaries, coloring books, and knitting.
When she's not writing, she enjoys coffee, vodka, painfully bad movies of all varieties, documentaries, coloring books, and knitting.
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Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews
March 25, 2025
In my head, I reserve 5 stars for knock my socks off, day-til-I-die memorable books, but in reality I'll also slap them on books like this one—smaller author, smaller audience. Something deserving of support.
Merry Ravenell has been on my auto-buy list ever since I found her. She consistently produces work that feels freshly original, even when it echoes popular tropes. She's smart, she knows good banter, and, while the storylines might not be everyone's cup of tea, they're fascinating. I'm continually impressed by how often I go I have never thought of that before... with respect to her world-building. It's about more than introducing a cool concept (like, say, dragon shifters living on earth unknown to humans), it's about the neat extensions (so, there have to be dragon scientists, right? and ones that specialize in pumps for the clean water they'll need?) and complications dependent on that world-building.
In Trinket, the protagonist Theia is a low-born human who bakes bread for an aristocratic wolf-shifter family. She's been sleeping with their heir knowing nothing's going to come of it (he'll have to marry rich, marry wolf), but gets convinced to buy a trinket, anyway. A trinket is a token that should match your true love's. Find the match and find your match, essentially. Theia believes in them, but she's also a realist who knows that even if she gets paired with her wolf, his family would never approve.
Surprise, surprise, but they don't match. Not only do they not match, but Theia immediately faces new circumstances that convince her to leave her city altogether. She eventually ends up in Haven city, plucked from the sky by a dragon. He, his brother, and his mate insist she stays with them until they can figure out why the raven shifters (also in the city) are so interested in Theia and the past she can't really remember.
That's a vast oversimplification, but to be honest, as deeply as I appreciated Ravenell's world-building, it wasn't always delivered in the most organized, natural way. It was like she threw all of her cool ideas into a bag and shook them out on the carpet with too much excitement to bother with ordering. So...I was a little lost, at times. I was that person in the mall squinting at the map—except the map's backlight is broken, the red circle you are here dot is missing, and someone Sharpie'd out the directory. I'm still at the mall. I can still see neat stores. I'm just not exactly sure where I am.
I'm along for the ride, though. I'm banking on the world becoming more familiar to me the longer the series progresses, and I'm comfortable with her brand of weird. Don't get me wrong—I love weird, but I've also read a lot of Ravenell and I'm prepared for things to get truly mind-bendy. You just have to be okay with vibing, sometimes. Which isn't everyone' cup of tea.
Just like reverse harem isn't everyone's favorite brand of romantasy. I think that's where this is going, but like I said...it's a strange plot to pin down. Two of the men are dragons, one's a gryphon, and I think there'll be at least one more. There are some quick sex scenes in this first novel (one of the parties is not in human form during one of them, FYI), which means there will probably be more? I'm guessing? But romance is not really the focus. It's more about finding out who Theia is, establishing her conflict + the world's conflict, and introducing the main players.
Like I said, this isn't truly a five star read for me. I had fun. I'm excited for book two. I was happy to hold another one of Ravenell's books and poke around because, as always, there's really nothing else like it. But it was hard to feel grounded.
Merry Ravenell has been on my auto-buy list ever since I found her. She consistently produces work that feels freshly original, even when it echoes popular tropes. She's smart, she knows good banter, and, while the storylines might not be everyone's cup of tea, they're fascinating. I'm continually impressed by how often I go I have never thought of that before... with respect to her world-building. It's about more than introducing a cool concept (like, say, dragon shifters living on earth unknown to humans), it's about the neat extensions (so, there have to be dragon scientists, right? and ones that specialize in pumps for the clean water they'll need?) and complications dependent on that world-building.
In Trinket, the protagonist Theia is a low-born human who bakes bread for an aristocratic wolf-shifter family. She's been sleeping with their heir knowing nothing's going to come of it (he'll have to marry rich, marry wolf), but gets convinced to buy a trinket, anyway. A trinket is a token that should match your true love's. Find the match and find your match, essentially. Theia believes in them, but she's also a realist who knows that even if she gets paired with her wolf, his family would never approve.
Surprise, surprise, but they don't match. Not only do they not match, but Theia immediately faces new circumstances that convince her to leave her city altogether. She eventually ends up in Haven city, plucked from the sky by a dragon. He, his brother, and his mate insist she stays with them until they can figure out why the raven shifters (also in the city) are so interested in Theia and the past she can't really remember.
That's a vast oversimplification, but to be honest, as deeply as I appreciated Ravenell's world-building, it wasn't always delivered in the most organized, natural way. It was like she threw all of her cool ideas into a bag and shook them out on the carpet with too much excitement to bother with ordering. So...I was a little lost, at times. I was that person in the mall squinting at the map—except the map's backlight is broken, the red circle you are here dot is missing, and someone Sharpie'd out the directory. I'm still at the mall. I can still see neat stores. I'm just not exactly sure where I am.
I'm along for the ride, though. I'm banking on the world becoming more familiar to me the longer the series progresses, and I'm comfortable with her brand of weird. Don't get me wrong—I love weird, but I've also read a lot of Ravenell and I'm prepared for things to get truly mind-bendy. You just have to be okay with vibing, sometimes. Which isn't everyone' cup of tea.
Just like reverse harem isn't everyone's favorite brand of romantasy. I think that's where this is going, but like I said...it's a strange plot to pin down. Two of the men are dragons, one's a gryphon, and I think there'll be at least one more. There are some quick sex scenes in this first novel (one of the parties is not in human form during one of them, FYI), which means there will probably be more? I'm guessing? But romance is not really the focus. It's more about finding out who Theia is, establishing her conflict + the world's conflict, and introducing the main players.
Like I said, this isn't truly a five star read for me. I had fun. I'm excited for book two. I was happy to hold another one of Ravenell's books and poke around because, as always, there's really nothing else like it. But it was hard to feel grounded.
January 6, 2025
I love this story
I found this book forever ago on wattpad, it's the reason I began reading Merry's books. I read on wattpad until I caved and started following on patreon, and now I stalk Merry on Kindle... sorry, not sorry.
Anyway this book is amazing the next ones in the series will be amazing!
If you follow Merry on other platforms I advise you to give Trinket another read. It's nice to remember how it all started plus I think there's some new parts.
I found this book forever ago on wattpad, it's the reason I began reading Merry's books. I read on wattpad until I caved and started following on patreon, and now I stalk Merry on Kindle... sorry, not sorry.
Anyway this book is amazing the next ones in the series will be amazing!
If you follow Merry on other platforms I advise you to give Trinket another read. It's nice to remember how it all started plus I think there's some new parts.
May 5, 2025
I first read this book on Wattpad a couple of years ago and I loved it. Then it popped up on my Kindle and I reread it within a couple of hours and I remembered why I loved it so much. There wasn't much smut in this book but you can tell it's building up for the next books and the tension is great.
December 25, 2024
A Great Start
This book is a great start to the series the author plans. Not really any spice, and the romance is almost nonexistent here. There are so many questions set up, the start of world building and lore. I think half the harem here in the start, but very realistic(?) relationships (no instalove here, and when the men find she's their mate they turn softer).
I started this on Wattpad and I'm so glad to see it here, this is a really good story!
My only qualm is there are some areas that need editing.
This book is a great start to the series the author plans. Not really any spice, and the romance is almost nonexistent here. There are so many questions set up, the start of world building and lore. I think half the harem here in the start, but very realistic(?) relationships (no instalove here, and when the men find she's their mate they turn softer).
I started this on Wattpad and I'm so glad to see it here, this is a really good story!
My only qualm is there are some areas that need editing.
December 22, 2024
great
Merry Ravenall has written a fantastic piece about Theia who thinks she’s human in a world with many shifters. Read how she meets her mates. Or are they.
Merry Ravenall has written a fantastic piece about Theia who thinks she’s human in a world with many shifters. Read how she meets her mates. Or are they.
January 14, 2026
Very intriguing story, but it literally ends almost mid-sentence. Not even a cliffhanger, just literally I expected to turn to the next chapter and nope, the book was over.
Positives first. I like this author’s writing, both in general and in this specific book. The storylines are interesting, the concepts are fun, the steamy scenes don’t make me cringe or skip ahead, the banter is enjoyable (this is SUCH an issue in most books, I can’t even begin to explain how I dread trying new-to-me authors because of it) and I tend to genuinely like the characters AND world-building.
However, there were the same issues as usual with this author’s writing. First, “fetid” was used often enough that it started to make me snort every time it came up on the page. Second, it’s “teemed” with people (not “teamed”), which I don’t say to be nitpicky, but because there are enough small errors like this sprinkled throughout the author’s books (I’ve read 4 at this point) that I would highly recommend a new copy editor to go over everything. Third, it was less of an issue in this book, but there’s a tendency to exactly repeat something a paragraph or page apart. Again, just needs a good editor.
These details bother me because I actually really enjoy this author’s writing. I read so many books per year that I run into this exact issue fairly often: authors who have a lot of promise but really need a strong editor to get their books from the 3-star range up to 4+ stars. I hope that in this author’s case, they’re able to find the right person to help them with this.
If they keep writing, I’ll keep reading.
Positives first. I like this author’s writing, both in general and in this specific book. The storylines are interesting, the concepts are fun, the steamy scenes don’t make me cringe or skip ahead, the banter is enjoyable (this is SUCH an issue in most books, I can’t even begin to explain how I dread trying new-to-me authors because of it) and I tend to genuinely like the characters AND world-building.
However, there were the same issues as usual with this author’s writing. First, “fetid” was used often enough that it started to make me snort every time it came up on the page. Second, it’s “teemed” with people (not “teamed”), which I don’t say to be nitpicky, but because there are enough small errors like this sprinkled throughout the author’s books (I’ve read 4 at this point) that I would highly recommend a new copy editor to go over everything. Third, it was less of an issue in this book, but there’s a tendency to exactly repeat something a paragraph or page apart. Again, just needs a good editor.
These details bother me because I actually really enjoy this author’s writing. I read so many books per year that I run into this exact issue fairly often: authors who have a lot of promise but really need a strong editor to get their books from the 3-star range up to 4+ stars. I hope that in this author’s case, they’re able to find the right person to help them with this.
If they keep writing, I’ll keep reading.
March 25, 2025
The writing is very repetitive and heavily descriptive. I didn't get pulled into this reality, I skimmed throughout. I really couldn't care less about buildings, especially if all that goes on and on more than an actual plot. This, to me, was not a world build but a visit to a museum.
After that whole book we've moved by...at most 3 chapters when it comes to the plot.
3* because towards the end we actually had more interactions amongst the main characters, less speculation and more getting somewhere.
After that whole book we've moved by...at most 3 chapters when it comes to the plot.
3* because towards the end we actually had more interactions amongst the main characters, less speculation and more getting somewhere.
December 27, 2024
Aaahhhh! I'm so excited that this actually finally came out! I LOVE all the intrigue and mystery and can't wait to see what the next books in the series will bring. Theia, the FMC, is fierce and says exactly what needs saying and actually faces everything as it comes. I love having an FMC like that! The men so far definitely have to have big character arc moments to be likeable, but the potential is there and the tension is delightful. Top notch.
July 13, 2025
3.5 ⭐️/1 🌶️—A bit of a mashup of KM Hade’s Cruelly Made series, Ravenell’s 25XA (there are trinkets involved in the plot), and Laurel Chase’s Haret Chronicles. I didn’t like this as much as Ravenell’s 25XA series, which is one of my all time favorite sci-fi romances. This series is a fantasy that brings together a dying world, a missing princess, and disappearing supernatural races (think Peter Beagle’s The Last Unicorn or Sedona Ashe’s But Did You Die?).
February 3, 2025
4.5 ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️💫
I remember reading this book on Wattpad years ago and I’m so happy that it’s finally been published! I was so intrigued by this story back then and couldn’t put it down. I think this was my first introduction to RH, so it will always have a special place in my heart. Not to mention the complexity of this world and all the mysteries that will be unfolded! I won’t lie and say that this is a perfect book as there were some errors and mistakes in the writing that needs editing.
I have an idea of where this is going so I’m excited to read the next book!
I remember reading this book on Wattpad years ago and I’m so happy that it’s finally been published! I was so intrigued by this story back then and couldn’t put it down. I think this was my first introduction to RH, so it will always have a special place in my heart. Not to mention the complexity of this world and all the mysteries that will be unfolded! I won’t lie and say that this is a perfect book as there were some errors and mistakes in the writing that needs editing.
I have an idea of where this is going so I’m excited to read the next book!
Want to Read
May 7, 2025amazing 😍😍
but when is the next Book coming out?
but when is the next Book coming out?
May 8, 2025
I was mesmerized by this on Wattpad, excited to see it on here. Merry writes some of my favorite books, fascinating world building and great chemistry and tension. Looking forward to book 2!
June 28, 2025
the wattpad version was better
February 28, 2026
I first read it on wattpad and couldn't stop thinking about it so I went in search of it,still remains one of the most puzzling plots I read from that app
Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews