DrÁkon — (2005- ) There are five books planned for this series. Publisher: For centuries they’ve lived in secret among northern England’s green and misted hills. Creatures of extraordinary beauty, power, and sensuality, they possess the ability to shape-shift from human to dragon and back again. Now their secret–and their survival–is threatened by a temptation that will break every boundary....
Dubbed the Smoke Thief, a daring jewel thief is confounding the London police. His wealthy victims claim the master burglar can walk through walls and vanish into thin air. But Christoff, the charismatic Marquess of Langford, knows the truth: the thief is no ordinary human but a “runner” who’s fled Darkfrith without permission. As Alpha leader of the dra´kon, it’s Kit’s duty to capture the fugitive before the secrets of the tribe are revealed to mortals. But not even Kit suspects that the Smoke Thief could be a woman.
Clarissa Rue Hawthorne knew her dangerous exploits would attract the attention of the dra´kon. But she didn’t expect Christoff himself to come to London, dangling the tribe’s most valuable jewel–the Langford Diamond–as bait. For as long as she could remember, Rue had lived the life of a halfling–half dra´kon, half mortal–and an outcast in both worlds. She’d always loved the handsome and willful Kit from the only place it was safe: from afar. But now she was no longer the shy, timid girl she’d once been. She was the first woman capable of making the Turn in four generations. So why did she still feel the same dizzying sense of vulnerability whenever he was near?
From the moment he saw her, Kit knew that the alluring and powerful beauty was every bit his Alpha equal and destined to be his bride. And by the harsh laws of the dra´kon, Rue knew that she was the property of the marquess. But they will risk banishment and worse for a chance at something greater. For now Rue is his prisoner, the diamond has disappeared, and she’s made the kind of dangerous proposition a man like Kit cannot resist....In this bewitching novel, Shana Abé transports us into a world of exhilarating romance and magic.
       
 The Smoke Thief
Sometimes I honestly don't get myself. It's been years since I've enjoyed an actual romance novel and to be perfectly frank, I wasn't expecting to enjoy The Smoke Thief.
Joke's on me there, I guess. Shana Abe's writing is so light and airy that reading it is, if you'll excuse the pun, a breeze. It just floats by without effort, easy and evocative (and occasionally slightly purple, especially during love scenes, but no one is perfect and I don't expect them to be). It's easy to sink into, to just let the book sweep you away, and that makes it all the easier to enjoy.
Though it's been a long time since I've cared for romance stories too much, especially the characters, I found that I liked Rue. The premise of a woman like that becoming a master thief in the way she does is utterly charming, teaming up with courtesans and thieves. She's a strong character, with relatively little romance heroine stupidity and melodrama, and easy enough to empathize with. I was less sure of Kit at first, as he comes across as an arrogant, demanding jerk (which he kind of is) but he gentles a bit after a while.
Like any romance novel, the plot is largely centered on the development of the relationship, but the premise Abe uses here (catching a wayward diamond thief) is very well suited to the characters. If you're looking for something complicated and full of threads, you won't find it here, but the plot works well for the book. It's good for the interaction of the characters, which is often witty and clever, and only occasionally misses the mark.
For me, The Smoke Thief was a surprising guilty pleasure. But one should never underestimate the value of a good guilty pleasure. The Smoke Thief is like the book equivalent of chocolate mousse: You couldn't subsist on it, of course, but it makes dessert all the more fun. And props to Shana Abe, because honestly, I would never have thought I'd be able to buy anything off the romance shelves again. Joke's on me there, too. —B.J.
 The Dream Thief
Oh dear. Talk about a change of heart! Well, since I've made a pledge to begin with the good, I can at least say that Shana Abe's writing hasn't taking any nosedives structurally speaking. That said...I'm afraid this review is going nowhere but downhill.
The Dream Thief stars Amalia Langford, the daughter of Kit and Rue from The Smoke Thief, and Zane, a thief who was introduced in the previous book. Zane is charged with retrieving a special diamond called Draumr. At the behest of Kit and Rue, he agrees to travel across Europe, into the Carpathians, in search of it. Accompanying him is Lia, who is possessed of the ability to hear the future. In her dreams she hears a future in which Zane, using the power of Draumr, holds her as his slave, slaughters her entire tribe, and uses her knowledge of precious gems to steal. So she decides to um...help him retrieve the diamond. Oookay...
This only so-so plot is not helped by the characters. As much as I enjoyed Rue in The Smoke Thief, I can't stand Lia. She's just not very interesting. The plain Jane outcast who doesn't have all the family's special powers...who grows to be stunningly beautiful, with the same powers her family possesses and then some. Boring. Worse, I find her stupid. She knows these things about Zane, and still she follows him around like a lovesick puppy. I never quite understand why she feels the need to help him obtain something that she sees giving him the power to slaughter her family. If she's plotting something deeper, well, it never communicated well to me as the reader.
It should come as no surprise, then, that she has no chemistry whatsoever with her counterpart Zane. Zane is arrogant and rude. He has no interest in Lia or her company, until out of the blue he decides that he wants her. I suppose Abe was going for the aloof thief whose heart is won against all odds by Lia, but I'm simply not buying it. It doesn't work at all. And Zane, with his controlling attitude, doesn't improve at all as a character. His charm is low to begin with, and takes a huge plummet when he rapes Lia. Now, I don't care how you try to look at it...she was asleep, she didn't wake up, she only vaguely remembers it happening the next day...it was rape. The Smoke Thief walked a pretty thin line between consent and non-consent, but it did so in a way that worked for its characters, and that never fully crossed over. This most certainly did not work, period. Saying oh, but the character enjoyed it and wanted it to happen, after it's over and done with, doesn't change this.
And because I'm simply not scratching my head enough already, Shana Abe adds to the WTFery by having Zane announce, after he has just finished raping Lia, that he wants to marry her. He can barely tolerate her presence, he insults her by calling her names (including a monster), and now suddenly he wants to marry her!?
A romance is very dependent upon its characters and how their interaction plays out. It's safe to say that for me, the characters didn't work at all. The paper thin plot couldn't even begin to make up for this. Even Abe's writing isn't as good as it was; that airy, evocative quality that swept me through the first one wasn't present. So the question remains, which was the fluke? —B.J.
Queen of Dragons
Ouch. Just ouch. I know I'm doing the whole beginning with the good thing, so I really should mention that Shana Abe's writing still hasn't taken any major structural pitfalls, but at this point I begrudge even that. Remind me never again to go out and buy an author's next two books on the merit of their first.
So here we are in the third book. The plot has something to do with the mysterious Drakon princess, Maricara, who was introduced in The Dream Thief and Kimba the White Lion—I mean, Kimber, the son of Kit and Rue from The Smoke Thief. There's something to do with someone murdering Drakon, I think, but frankly I didn't make it far enough to find out. Which is kind of sad, actually, because if the reader isn't sure of what's going on by page 70 or so, you're doing it wrong.
I suppose a large part of the problem was that nothing was going on. One party is talking and doing tedious stuff, the other party is talking and doing tedious stuff, and that's it. The main characters—the love interests, for crying out loud—do not even meet one another until page 50. We don't actually get to see them interact until about page 60, though, because Ms. Abe felt the need to write a ten page long detail-by-detail account of Maricara breaking into Kimber's manor home, so the reader is treated to a flashback that is not only boring, but jarring.
I don't get much feel for the characters before I quit reading, which is a pretty good mark of how bland they are. But I don't really want to get to know them either. I don't enjoy any of it anymore. I could deal with the backwards mindset of the Drakon in The Smoke Thief, but it's completely out of hand at this point. Why do the women have no choices? Why is Maricara betrothed, without her knowledge or consent, to Kimber at the age of 15? Why are the Drakon still not allowed to get out and experience the world even a little bit? The events of the past two books should bring some growth to the Drakon society—like, perhaps, allowing Rue, who was a very intelligent and capable woman in The Smoke Thief, to be on the council—but there's been none. In fact, it's devolved even further.
The Smoke Thief was fun. The Dream Thief was not. And Queen of Dragons was so slow and dull that I couldn't get far enough to discover if it might be fun. I was excited when I bought this book, but it was nothing more than a massive disappointment. I won't be bothering with the next one. It's just not worth my time and money. —B.J. |
