Thieves’ Honor by Jamaila Brinkley
Paranormal Romance
Released: May 4, 2016
Soul Mate Publishing
Reviewed by Mandi
Em Stackpole has the magical ability to create illusions. She can make herself look unmemorable, or almost undetected, or unrecognizable. Her uncle is a highly trained thief, and took Em under his wing growing up, creating a thieving team. When this book starts, Em is under a – don’t pay attention to me – glamour, and but yet still gains the attention of a seedy man. When he tries to take advantage of her on a dark path, she loses her glamour and stabs him, killing him.
This man who died collected many important magical artifacts, and now important people want them back. Our hero, Thomas, is an Earl and a talented wizard. He can use magic, but his passion likes more in the scholarly department. When he is asked to investigate these missing artifacts, he is surprised, as usually he is asked to do more academic things – but he feels up for the challenge. His first stop is to find the country woman who was last seen with the dead man and all the artifacts. This leads him to Em’s house.
He soon learns Em is not only a talented illusionist, but a thief and a murderer as well. He is….impressed. She asks him if she can help on this case, and he agrees only if she teaches him how to be a thief. They decide to break into the dead man’s house to look for the artifacts, and give Thomas lessons in thievery along the way.
This book starts off pretty cute. I like that Em is pretty bad-ass, and fools people into thinking she is a meek, country girl. Having a heroine who is a thief is a fun twist. And Thomas is more shy and awkward, so their chemistry is set up well. I chuckled a few times in the first half of this book.
But – I have complaints darn it. First, Em is a thief and murdered someone, but no one seems to care. I would think that Thomass’ parents, the duke and duchess would have some reserve about their son helping this woman, but instead they could not have cared less. Their banter was cute at times, but it bothered me they took her in so easily.
I also found the artifact adventure hunting to fall flat in the second half of the book. But my biggest disappointment was the romance. Yes, there is a HEA at the end of the book, but no romance leading up to it. While there is a complete lack of physical romance (I think we get one kiss at the end) there is no courtship. No sexual tension. No – hand holding or sly glances. They are fond of each other, but it felt totally on the friendship level. When they announce they love each other at the end, it felt misplaced.
This definitely had potential – but by the end I was a bit disappointed.
Grade: C
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