I'm still trying to decide if The Smoke Thief by Shana Abe was as magical and breath-taking as I thought it was while I was reading it, or if I've just read so many bad romances in a row that this was like a breath of fresh air to a genre that I was dangerously close to taking a long hiatus from.
I love paranormals, and I can't tell you what makes this one different then the other books I've read but it was such a wonderful read that I can't wait to read the other drakon books in this series.
The Smoke Thief is your typical paranormal romance: A group of people have a powerful secret to keep...girl meets boy, falls in love...fights falling in love, secrets abound, guy makes girl upset, then they both admit to being in love, but have trials to overcome before they can live happily ever after. Only there is a twist to this story: Clarrisa (rue) Hawthrone is the girl who falls in love with the boy-Christoff, (Kit) the Marquess of Langford. They are both of the drakon clan and live in a shire that is kept secret from the rest of the world and has it's own rules because they have gifts that no one must know about: They can shape shift from humans into dragons.
Clarissa grows up being made fun of because her mother falls in love with and marries someone who isn't a drakon. So this must mean, she doesn't have any powers at all, right? That's what everyone thinks...to escape the shire and it's rules she goes to London and lets everyone in the shire believe that she died. Once in London she becomes a daring thief..she changes her name to Rue. She lives in secret until she starts becoming known as the Smoke Thief and is said to vanish into thin air. Kit comes to London to find the Smoke Thief because the secret of his kind can not be known to the public. The thief must be caught at all costs.
Kit finds Rue in London by luring her out of hiding to steal the most powerful jewel of the drakon-the Langford diamond. However, someone steals it before she can. The two work together to find it and Kit finds out that Rue while half human has some powerful magic in her. She has the ability to Turn. She's the first female in generations to be able to shapeshift into a dragon. What I loved about this part of the book was that neither of them were surprised by their gifts or tried to hide them from each other as is the case in so many paranormal romances.
This being a romance, Rue's ability to Turn comes with a catch: it means that she's the alpha female, and therefore is Kit's match. She knows this, and of course tries to fight for her freedom and during this time falls hard for Kit..of course she doesn't let him know she has it bad for him, while he makes it known she's the only thing he wants.
This being a romance, Rue's ability to Turn comes with a catch: it means that she's the alpha female, and therefore is Kit's match. She knows this, and of course tries to fight for her freedom and during this time falls hard for Kit..of course she doesn't let him know she has it bad for him, while he makes it known she's the only thing he wants.
There are a lot of twists and turns in this book, and I loved every minute of it. Even though this was one of those lets fight our feelings for each other until the last 100 pages or so, it was well written and not as unbelievable that they end up getting together like it is in so many romances these days.
