Review: Stealing the Dragon by Mell Eight

Reviewed by Fehu
Stealing the Dragon (The Dragon's Hoard #3) by Mell Eight
Less Than 3 Press
Novella
4.25 Pants Off

Blurb:
Stealing from a dragon's hoard is never a bright idea, but stealing from a baby dragon's hoard can lead to tears, sniffles, and smoke in the middle of a busy marketplace.

Jerney, a witch who does work for a well-known thieves' guild, knows exactly who's to blame for the brazen theft. With no other choice in the matter, he quickly becomes entangled in trying to help the baby dragon. What he doesn't expect is that his own heart might get stolen in the process.

Review:
Stealing the Dragon is the third instalment in this series and so far it's my favorite, also the first I'm rating over 3 stars. It's not really a stand-alone, since characters from previous books play an important role and of course the world building happened over all three stories, so I would recommend to read all of them, as to avoid confusion about the races and how who ended up where with what partner. ^_^

Tori is a cute baby dragon, but because of his eccentric mother, who gave birth to him in her human form, he cannot become a dragon, yet. In the human world Tori is 17 years old and that means an adult, but for a dragon he is just a child, so he doesn't really doesn't understand why the mean uncle Bast wants him to catch the witch, working for the Thieves Guild. Jerney on the other hand, had to grow up very quick after he lost his mother and had to save his siblings, from being sold as bed slaves by their stepfather. The Thieves Guild took them in, because of Jeney's abilities with magic and he promised to work for them in return and his siblings helped the guild when they were old enough, especially his half-sister enjoyed thieving and they were never caught, thanks to the spells Jerney worked for them.

So when Tori went to look for new treasures for his horde, he was unfortunate enough to run into Jewel, Jerney's sister, who stole his favorite jewel, which was very important to him - his hatching gem. The poor dragon baby is angry and sad at the same time and it's up to Jerney, who feels sorry for the dragon child, to bring him the jewel back, unfortunately for Jerney the theft and the return of the jewel, has far reaching consequences for him and his siblings.

Tori is adorable and Jerney is really sweet in his interactions with him, he understand that Tori is still quite young and that he has to be taken care of. Tori doesn't really understands what he feels for Jerney or at least not fully, he knows that Jerney is important to him and makes him part of his horde, but he isn't old enough, in dragon years to know how to act on his feelings.

The story flows smoothly and it has just the right length, though I am looking forward to see a grown up Tori, but I think that might have been too much in this novel. It's a sweet and well written story, without a lot of drama and it was mostly like a fairy tale, which had enough action and humor to keep me entertained, what with kidnappings, bad wizards and a rescue by an angry dragon mother and of course there is the cute dragon baby in a grown up human body, who acts adorable!

Should You Read It? If you've read the previous stories, then it's a must and this is the best story from the three of them so far. It's great to see the improvements with every novel. Also if you like stories that are fantasy, novel length and plot driven, then this is just the right book for you!