The Smoke Thief by Shana Abe
Oct. 25th, 2008 04:08 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
meganbmooreI’m starting to notice a trend in Shana Abe’s romances. The hero and heroine will have known each other or been betrothed since childhood. At some point, the heroine will go off and have to survive the world on her own, becoming strong and independent along the way, and then the hero will show up to “claim” her, much to her objections.
Kit Langford and Clarissa Rue Hawthorne are both children of a tribe of drakon-people who can turn into dragons or smoke, Kit is the male Alpha, the head of the clan. It’s been generations since there has been a female alpha to survive the Turn that gives them their abilities. Rue is a half-breed who has always been looked down on by the tribe, and when she survives the Turn on her 17th birthday, she fakes her death to escape being married to him.
Years later, she’s living in London as a cat burglar, complete with some secret identities. When the tribe realizes that only one of their own could be pulling off the heists, they send Kit to London to draw the thief out, using their own jewels to draw the thief out. While Rue is too smart to fall for that, someone else isn’t, and when Kit finds her, she ends up getting blamed, even as Kit and the rest of the tribe declare that, as a female Alpha, she has to marry Kit.
Despite the fact that it relies on a Big Misunderstanding, I like the overall plot, and I adore Rue. Kit…well, to be fair, Abe’s alpha male heroes aren’t as bad as many of them in romantic fiction are, but at the same time, most heroines haven’t struggled as long and hard to have their own, independent lives as her heroines have. Kit talks about how he likes her being so fierce and independent, but spends most of his time blackmailing her and telling her how she has no choice but to be his wife. Great way to both show and earn respect, there.
Like the other Abe books I’ve read, I’m happy with it overall, I just wish the hero wasn’t so alpha and determined to take her freedom from her, or at least that I was really convinced that he respected her.
Kit Langford and Clarissa Rue Hawthorne are both children of a tribe of drakon-people who can turn into dragons or smoke, Kit is the male Alpha, the head of the clan. It’s been generations since there has been a female alpha to survive the Turn that gives them their abilities. Rue is a half-breed who has always been looked down on by the tribe, and when she survives the Turn on her 17th birthday, she fakes her death to escape being married to him.
Years later, she’s living in London as a cat burglar, complete with some secret identities. When the tribe realizes that only one of their own could be pulling off the heists, they send Kit to London to draw the thief out, using their own jewels to draw the thief out. While Rue is too smart to fall for that, someone else isn’t, and when Kit finds her, she ends up getting blamed, even as Kit and the rest of the tribe declare that, as a female Alpha, she has to marry Kit.
Despite the fact that it relies on a Big Misunderstanding, I like the overall plot, and I adore Rue. Kit…well, to be fair, Abe’s alpha male heroes aren’t as bad as many of them in romantic fiction are, but at the same time, most heroines haven’t struggled as long and hard to have their own, independent lives as her heroines have. Kit talks about how he likes her being so fierce and independent, but spends most of his time blackmailing her and telling her how she has no choice but to be his wife. Great way to both show and earn respect, there.
Like the other Abe books I’ve read, I’m happy with it overall, I just wish the hero wasn’t so alpha and determined to take her freedom from her, or at least that I was really convinced that he respected her.
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no subject
Date: 2008-10-25 09:32 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-10-25 09:59 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-10-25 10:33 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-10-25 11:20 pm (UTC)I mean, when you're reading a romance book and the entire time you're rooting for the heroine to defeat the hero and go off on her own? Something's going wrong.
I prefer the second book for this reason, but the third is right back to grinding my teeth. I couldn't even finish it.
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Date: 2008-10-25 11:26 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-10-26 10:04 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-10-26 10:03 am (UTC)And that's why I got rid of that book and am not reading this author again. There are lots of other good authors out there who do not make me feel that.
no subject
Date: 2008-10-26 02:27 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-10-26 02:26 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-10-26 02:27 pm (UTC)