Book Log #40: The Dream Thief, by Shana Abe

Shana Abe’s second Drakon book, The Dream Thief, didn’t seize me quite as nicely as The Smoke Thief did. This one picks up some years after the first one left off, with Lia, one of the children of the first book’s protagonists, impulsively joining Zane, the human thief who’d adored her mother when he was a boy working with her in thievery, on a quest to recover a fabled diamond said to possess the power to control her people. Lia is, of course, quite in love with Zane–and against his better judgement, for her people will doubtless never accept him as a mate for one of the Alpha’s daughters–he reciprocates her feelings.

All a fine core concept for the story. But in its execution, it fell down a little bit for me. There’s much made of Lia’s ability to foretell the future, and she has quite a few rather dark-themed visions about her future with Zane that ultimately and unsurprisingly do not bear fruit. Accordingly, they lose quite a bit of their impact and don’t really add much to the story for me as a reader.

Still, though, this was enjoyable enough, and the stage is clearly set for Book Three, Queen of Dragons. For this one, three stars.