The Smoke Thief by Shana Abe

Hero: Christoff Langford (aka Kit)

Heroine: Clarissa Rue Hawthorne (aka Rue)

Category: Historical/Paranormal

Page Count: 324 pages

Grade: C

Dubbed the Smoke Thief for a series of daring jewel thefts, Clarissa Rue Hawthorne didn't expect the dra´kon leader himself to come to London dangling the tribe's most valuable jewel as bait: the Langford Diamond. But Christoff, the charismatic Marquess of Langford, had to catch Clarissa before anyone else did- or risk exposing the entire clan to the world of ordinary mortals. He never expected that the outcast halfling he pursued would have a proposition of her own to save the dra´kon- a proposition so dangerous, so tempting, that Christoff will find it impossible to resist: to join forces with her.To be honest, I only bought this book for two reasons: 1) the cover looked cool 2) it has received many positive reviews. I really wanted to love this book. I was itching for a good paranormal at the time and I was hoping this would be another series I could reread over and over.

Unfortunately, I just could not get into it, and I felt like toward the end I had to force myself to finish. It didn't reach the point to where I wanted to throw the book against the wall, but nothing exciting happened to keep me reading in the wee hours of the morning. The concept was great, it's what intrigued me in the first place. The hero and heroine are both dra´kons, species that can shift forms from human to smoke to dragon, and back. The prologue was longer than what I'm used to, and I felt that Abe has a talent for creating a history of the dra´kon race for the readers. The problem was that the prologue was just too long. By the fifth page of the prologue I was lost. Abe went through too many generations of the dra´kon and there were too many descriptions and names of places that were never brought up again in the story.

The first few chapters started out great. Rue was a child who always loved Kit from afar, but maintained a low profile in her clan. Kit was destined to be the Alpha Male, loved by all the women. Then Rue decided to stage her own death in order to escape the clan, start a new life and bury her past. When Kit catches Rue trying to steal the Langford diamond, the two decide to join forces in order to find the real thief. Rue agrees to help in exchange for her freedom, that she not be punished for staging her death and abandoning the clan. For me, this is where the story started to fall flat. Kit finds out that Rue is the first female dra´kon in four generations who can "Turn," or shift to the dragon form. This automatically makes her the Alpha female, and now Kit must have her.

I didn't feel any romantic connection, mostly because Kit just wanted Rue since she was Alpha female. He didn't seem to care why Rue valued her freedom so much. All he cared about was claiming her. Case in point...."Rape or seduction. He would take either." Yah, I didn't really like reading those words.Another thing that I disliked (though some may disagree) was the elaborate descriptions of the hero and heroine when they were in smoke or dragon form. For example, "His talons found her shoulders and hips...For a few wondrous minutes, as long as the wind cradled them, they were one creature, four wings, two tails, his head by hers, their cheeks touching." I personally, don't find dragon descriptions very romantic. I will probably read the next book in the series, The Dream Thief, for the sake of finishing the series. However, I don't think my expectations will be so high like they were for The Smoke Thief. I would be curious to know what other readers thought of this book. For me, it wasn't bad, but it fell short of my expectations.