A Gypsy's Kiss

A Treasure Hunt Adventure

Adventure, Romance, and Whispers of a Hidden Treasure...

Based on a true story, "A Gypsy's Kiss; A Treasure Hunt Adventure" follows the journey of rebellious teen, Miguel Younis. Across 1,200 miles and three states he discovers adventure, danger and mystery!

This fictionalized memoir launches a fabulous real-life treasure hunt. Uncover hints hidden within the pages and clues embedded within a mysterious verse scrawled by a Cajun gangster. Can you unravel the mystery and find the gold he left behind?

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Book cover for "A Gypsy's Kiss". A palm reader does her work in a smokey, candlelit room as a lady-of-the-night watches

A 50's era light blue truck parked at an old fashion red gas pump.

An ornate silver and green mardi-gras mask

A man in a suite walks down a misty park path

Sunrise on the desert seen through an opening in a tent

Feet sticking up at an out-of-focus forest canopy

Motor cycle handle bars as seen from the rider's view

A man sits backwards on an old-school motorcycle

About the Book

Interpret the clues to find a $10,000 treasure. Your Adventure Begins Now!

Jean Luc hurls angry French curses as he thrusts his menacing switchblade at my chest. His last words, the only ones I understand, hiss through his clenched teeth, “Little piggy, I’m going to stick you!”

The year is 1964. Mike, a 15-year-old boarding school student in Santa Fe, New Mexico, longs to make his own choices and experience a life of adventure beginning with an incredible trip to New Orleans to see Mardi Gras.

Using the alias “Miguel,” he grabs his uncle’s BSA motorcycle and speeds across the perilous Historic Route 66. Along the way, he collides with a gritty biker gang, an angry Texas sheriff and savage black bears.

Miguel roars into Mardi Gras just in time to meet Mariah, the mesmerizing Cajun beauty who will lead Miguel through the dark, dangerous, and passionate dimensions of New Orleans.

Follow along on Miguel’s journey to discover secrets leading to a hidden treasure. Uncover the hints hidden within the pages of the story and clues embedded in the words scrawled in a mysterious verse by a Cajun gangster and find the gold he left behind!

A Gypsy’s Kiss is an action-adventure, coming-of-age tale that launches a fabulous real-life treasure hunt.

The hidden treasure, worth over $10,000, assembled by the “A Gypsy’s Kiss” (AGK) community, includes the fantastic “Lakolya’s Cache” of gold, silver, jewels and cash, plus collectibles and cash contributed by searchers.

This book is based on a true story from the life of Toby Michael Younis. Toby has told the story of A Gypsy’s Kiss many times over the years and it is the perfect fit for a treasure story since it includes the same themes of hope, adventure and belonging inherent in our community ideals. It brings us great satisfaction to finally write and publish this first story. We plan to continue writing and launching subsequent treasure hunts and books in the years to come and hope you will join us in this endeavor.

A Gypsy’s Kiss; A Treasure Hunt Adventure will be released on September 1, 2020 on Amazon in paperback and Kindle ebook. Look for the book and audiobook to appear on Kobo, Ingram and Google Play soon!

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1956 BSA 500 Goldstar

About the Authors

Portrait of a man in a suite and tie against a brown background

Toby Younis

Toby Michael Younis loves to tell stories while bringing family traditions to life. He was born and raised in Santa Fe, New Mexico, and spent most of his adult life living in the Washington D.C. area and traveling around the world in his role as an intelligence agency government contractor. He is a father, grandfather and decorated Vietnam veteran. He was offered the opportunity to visit with Death seven times throughout his life but refused. It is his mission to write as many stories as possible before he is once again invited to the other side. In his debut fictionalized memoir, A Gypsy’s Kiss, he reveals the origin story of the long-standing moniker he gave to his sailboats, blogs and YouTube channel.

Portrait of a woman in a blue and white dress against a brown background

Shelley Carney

Shelley Carney, aka the Magical Treasure Princess (MTP) and Life Coach of the Rich and Famous, has the uncanny ability to turn a friendship into a thriving partnership, a hobby into a creative career, an average day into a joyful celebration and a story into an engaging novel. She meditates and journals daily and shares her coaching insights with her viewers every Wednesday in her Life’s Treasures segment on YouTube at AGypsysKiss.tv.

A woman hiker holds holds an animal skull in front of an evergreen

A red truck fords a shallow high-desert river

A man in baseball cap and sunglasses displays a can of bear repellant

The Authors Together

Toby and Shelley launched a treasure-hunting community with their YouTube channel, A Gypsy’s Kiss focused on the Forrest Fenn treasure in 2017. When that treasure was recovered in 2020, they quickly wrote their first novel, "A Gypsy’s Kiss," and created their own treasure hunt with contributions from viewers, friends and dispossessed searchers. Their treasure hunt is based on the example provided by Forrest Fenn and includes a book with hints hidden throughout, and a verse with clues to finding the hidden treasure. There are dozens of stories in Toby’s head, he merely required a compelling reason to write them down. Toby and Shelley have written short screenplays together, winning an award from New Mexico Women in Film and producing a 48-hour narrative film along with a few short documentaries. They describe their writing partnership process as “Toby puts up the tree and Shelley decorates it.”