The Smoke Thief [Unknown Binding]

I hate it when a good idea and good writing gets ruined by the misconception that a manipultive, abusive liar is a romantic lead. Christoff repeatedly ignores, insults, and disrepects the heroine. When he finally bullies her into submission, they ride off into the sunset, happy and in love.

In a "passionate" moment, he doesn't care if it is "rape or seduction" as long as he can have sex with Clarissa. Any hero that can confuse rape with passion is no hero.

I like a strong male as the love interest, but when his "strength" destoys her hopes and makes her miserable, I could only feel disgust for him and for her for not having the backbone with him that she had everywhere in the rest of her life.

After finishing THE SMOKE THIEF by Shana Abe', I feel it prudent to report - Ms's. Feehan, Kenyon, and Holly - make some room in the shape-shifters' realm; there is a new kid on the block and she ROCKS! Make room because here come the Drakon's!

They've lived for centuries in northern England's green hills and mountains, guarded, honored and treasured - extraordinarily beautiful and sensual creatures - able to shape-shift from human to dragon and back again. A close tribe that keeps to themselves except for the few that escape - `runners' who are swiftly found, brought back to Darkfrith and punished. Alerted by rumors from London of a jewel thief, `that could disappear in smoke' the Drakon council knew that this was not a human, but another `runner' who had fled Darkfrith without permission. Christoff `Kit' Langford, the Alpha leader and enigmatic Marquess of Langford, knows that the `runner' must be caught before revealing the existence of Drakon's to mortals and planned to dangle the Langford diamond, the tribes' most tempting jewel, as bait in order to trap him. What Christoff, or the council never expected to discover was that the `runner' was not a he but a she.

After years growing up as an outcast in Darkfrith, as a Halfling - half drakon, half mortal - Clarisa Rue Hawthorne on her seventeenth birthday had orchestrated her `death' and fled. Rue knew that a female had not been capable of `Turning' in over four generations and on that day that she had `Turned' -- as an Alpha female - she would be destined to be Kit's bride. After having loved Kit her entire life, she could not have endured being married to him without his love in return. For the last nine years, she had lived in London masquerading as a widow and relished her freedom. When captured by Kit, who in the process lost the famous Langford Diamond, Rue would offer Kit a proposal to help him reclaim the jewel in return for her freedom. Kit accepted her challenge - all the while expecting to win not only the diamond, but something more precious - this most amazingly beautiful woman, Rue, as his willing bride.

- I loved this book! From the very first pages I was totally mesmerized by this fascinating, highly imaginative, and sensually thrilling world of the Drakons. Kit and Rue's sensual dance was exotic, totally bewitching and one, which will leave the reader panting for more. Whether on land or in the air, Shana Abe' has created vivid and exhilarating imagery in the mating dance of the Drakons that is sure to please the most discriminating fans of historical fantasy and catapult this author right up the ranks with the likes of Kenyon, Holly, and Krinard. I for one will be very anxiously awaiting future sequels to this spellbinding new series featuring the Drakons!

I hated this book. I really really hated it, and the fact that I really wanted to like it makes me hate it even more. When I read the back I thought to myself "Hey, shape shifting dragons with some love scenes, what's not to like?" Well, what's not to like is that the female lead is built up to be a strong female, yet shows herself to be weak, ineffectual, and having no willpower. Woo, someone I sure look up to. The male lead repeatedly lies to the female, bullies her, absolutely cares not at all how she feels about a damned thing, and winds up raping her. (if you don't give your partner even a CHANCE to say "no", it's rape.) The "hero" straight up says "I don't care if I'm raping her, as long as I get what I want. Yeah, charming fellow.

One scene that had me wanting to throw the book in the fire was a scene where the "hero" tells the female lead "we're in a hallway where only one of us can fit in here as a dragon, so neener". Does the MORON of a woman say "Hey thanks for telling me!" shapeshift to a dragon and snap him up like a bonbon? NO, she just snivels and gets escorted to the cell. She had NUMEROUS opportunities to do something, anything to get away from that abusive jerk, yet just feebly flaps her wrist and lets herself go along with everything he wants.
Some people will say "Well she loved him!" NO she did NOT. She had a crush on him when she was a young girl, and as an adult has NO clue what kind of man he is. In fact, all the evidence points to him being a big selfish buttwipe, but she falls in love with him anyway? WHAT?
Then there's the shoddy writing. I read quite a bit, it's very easy for me to "fall into" a book, and see things from the character's point of view. This book may as well have been stone for how solidly it remained a book to me. If the characters weren't driving me crazy, the poorly written plot would push me there instead.
So, if you actually enjoy sexy scenes, strong female characters, strong male characters and good storytelling, go read the Dark Jewels books and run the hell away from this one.

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