Of Thieves and Novels

Picture of the Day: 

Go Bulls! 

Quote of the Day: 

"Dance is the hidden language of the soul." 

-Martha Graham

I finished two books within 24 hours, and I was left with the utmost inspiration! So, instead of being able to work on my other works already started, I had a new idea and set to work on mapping out the details I already knew would be a part of the story. There is a stone, its guardians, and a thief. Mayhem, love, and adventure ensue! 

Speaking of thieves, one of the books I finished featured one as a main character. Get ready for a book review! 

I read Shana Abe's book called The Dream Thief; ironically, it has nothing to do with someone who steals dreams (which was what I was expecting when I opened this book). It does, however, have something to do with a thief and a girl, named Amalia, who can dream the future. 

Basically, Lia (or Lady Amalia) is a member of a fantastic group of people called the Drakon. The Drakon are shape shifters, and while they take the form of humans most of the time, they can change into smoke, and from smoke, they can change into dragons! She sets out with Zane, a thief, to acquire a stone called the Draumr, and the stone has a power to control the Drakon when wielded by a human. Mainly: Zane. The entire time she dreams that she is under the power of the stone and serving Zane like a slave, and it is up to her to figure out how to change her fate. Only one problem. From page one, she is in love with him. 

Now let me start by saying, I was highly disappointed with the names of the characters. They all sounded like they belonged in a fantasy novel that did not take place in the seventeen hundreds in Europe. (For instance, the Thief's name is Zane. I very much doubt that that was a time appropriate choice. But it was memorable.) Still, I cringed when I read the name Amalia; it sounded very stock-ish, like I have seen it hundreds of times before. Still, the names were easy to get by and I still managed to knock out the entire novel in one sitting. 

It is not a particularly hard read. In fact, it seems to move very fast, especially in the beginning. There wasn't a lot of in depth details given about character's physical appearances, or indeed the locations that the characters happened upon in the course of the pages. One place the details did not fail, though, were in the intimate scenes between Lia and Zane. 

It was detailed enough that I almost felt assaulted reading the text. Still, I will admit that I couldn't seem to put it down. It was a lot like roadkill; I just couldn't look away. Part if it could have been the fact I promised myself I would branch out into all different types of reading material. Part of it could have been that, while simple, Abe's style of writing is highly entrancing. I couldn't tell you, really. But I will say that if you want to avoid such books, this is not the one for you. 

The Dream Thief is actually the second book in a series. Not that it mattered; you got all the back story necessary in this novel alone, and it wasn't until I had finished that I realized it was a part of a trilogy. I may go out and search for a read on the rest of the series too, since I did enjoy the characters. 

All in all, I wasn't disappointed. (And to think. I bought it for fifty cents!) If you're looking for a quick, easy, romance novel to look at, this may be your ticket to escape.