The Dream Thief

Once upon a time, a race of dragon shifters ruled above all of the other animals. They were called Drákon and their home was in the Carpathian Mountains. Mankind’s jealousy and persistent attacks eventually thinned their numbers. Some left to find a safer home; and some stayed and did what they could to blend in and survive.

There was a stone with the power to enslave the Drákon. The diamond called Draumr was once safely in the possession of these beings which it could affect but was stolen from them along with their most beautiful princess. All ended in tragedy and with the stone being lost.

The lure of its song has always been heard by Lady Amalia Langford, daughter of the clan’s Alpha. But now the call is stronger, unrelenting, and more of their kind can hear it beckon. Lia has another Gift, that of seeing the future in her dreams. They tell her that her fate is bound to Zane, a human and a thief who has served the clan since he was a youth. The prophetic visions are disturbing with the power of Draumr used against her for the purpose of avarice.

Zane is given the impossible sounding task of finding a mysterious diamond and bringing it to Darkfrith where the Drákon live. He will be richly rewarded if he succeeds. As he travels in his search, he finds himself saddled with an unexpected companion. The flare of attraction seems doomed but what if there were some way he could have her?

The elegant writing gently lulls us into this story with fascinating details of dragon shifters to flesh them out into life-like beings. Descriptions on how the Drákon perceive stones and minerals were astonishingly creative. It is with a sense of wonder that readers will make their way through the journey with Zane and Lia.

We are left unsure until the very end regarding whether the hero will help or attempt to control the heroine and her people. This was a large part of the suspense of the story. He is not painted as a leopard that suddenly changes his spots. His background, pragmatism, and ruthlessness even when dealing with Lia, in many aspects gives this character a credibility that we don’t often find. Love, of course, is something for which people are willing to sacrifice.

The dreams the heroine had apparently always came true. It kept us guessing in how the romance could possibly be resolved in a happy ending. A common detail of the dream having more meaning than was explained previously made a key scene feel a bit awkward. This, however, was a very small blip on a very smooth road.

As heroine’s go, Lia is in a unique position of knowing so much before her time. The insights and various situations that disconcert her is handled well and shown so that we can feel the weight of what she comprehends. Even more interesting is the coming into her other gifts, ones for which she has yearned.

In THE DREAM THIEF, we come across a well-matched pair with a streetwise master thief, and a tenacious young woman who defies the conventions of her people to try to take a measure of control for her future and for the future of her kind.

November 2007