The Smoke Thief Book

I wasn't sure how a historical romance with dragon-shifter characters was going to play out; it could have been really cheesy. Fortunately, I was pleasantly surprised with this one. The author blended magic, romance, and a historical setting with this cat-and-mouse story seamlessly. I was completely drawn into the world and characters and I can't wait to read more about the drakon now.

Clarissa Rue Hawthorne is a halfling; have Other (human) and half Drakon (dragon). She's an outsider in her community and is constantly picked on by the stronger girls. She quietly watches as the alpha-to-be Christoff Langford flirts and chases after all the other girls in the shire, falling in love with him against her better judgment.

Fast forward 9 years and Clarissa has escaped the shire and its strict rules to live among the Others in London. Clarissa is drawn to the jewels and treasures of the wealthy in London, and she stops at nothing to get what she wants.

But when Christoff brings his tribe's own treasure to London to show off to the public, Clarissa fears that she might be recognized and taken back against her will. The only problem is, during the showing someone else takes the gem and Clarissa is forced to help Christoff recover it, all the while fighting off his advances. Clarissa knows he sees women as replaceable and she doesn't want to become one of the many. Christoff has other plans for her though.

Clarissa is a great character. She's independent, head-strong, smart, resourceful, and likable. Christoff is your typical alpha-male, but he knows when to push and when to back off; the man has great timing. I liked how we got to see inside his head a bit to see what he was thinking and feeling.

Both characters were very well-written and their romance was believable. Some might not like the whole fated to be mates thing, but honestly, their romance had started almost 10 years ago so it wasn't as if they had just met. Plus they didn't jump into bed right away and the tension was built up adequately. And the scenes where they finally gave into their urges were really hot.

I thought that giving them two forms - smoke and dragon - was really neat. As a friend pointed out, their smoke form is an ingenious way to camouflage them until they get above the clouds so they can then turn into dragons without people seeing them. It actually is very clever, and also useful to escape out of sticky situations.

I also really liked the character of Zane and I was happy to see that he shows up in the next book. I'm curious to see what happens with him.

I enjoyed this book a lot and I really appreciated the author's way with words. This book has a fairytale quality to it and her writing is magical. When you read the parts when they're smoke or dragons you really get pulled along for the ride.

I don't read a whole lot of historical romance but even if there hadn't been dragon-shifters and magic in this I still probably would have liked it. This really was a great start for this series and I look forward to reading more by this author!