The Fae Captain's Thief follows Bryn, a thief who decides to follow the legends she's heard about a necklace and has managed to steal it for herself. On her way back home though, Bryn must find a ship that will help her on her journey. But the only ship available belongs to a fae prince she stayed with once before leaving him behind, his compass now joining her collection of treasures. Bryn has to decide if it's worth sneaking onto his ship and risk getting caught or if she should find some other way of getting back home.
World-building was very interesting here. The idea of the fae and the various kinds there are and their magic was intriguing and I wish there was more in this novella to fill in the blanks. For that reason alone, I will be reading the other related books, just so I can find the answers I'm sure are in the other stories. What is given here was enough to keep the story moving but in the back of my mind, I kept wondering about the rest of this world that Thrasher has created, so yes, I'll be going back and reading more about this world. The story felt accessible, easy to fall into as we follow Bryn on her daring heist and everything that comes from it after. Everything flows easily from moment to moment, giving time to let emotions grow and to have characters come together. Everything asked was answered for this book and Thrasher shows a talent for writing a concise and enthralling story with the pages given.
As for the characters, at the start I wanted to wring Bryn's neck. This woman took a lot of risks for treasure and I wanted to tell her there was a time and a place to think about the next daring theft but she grew on me. Thrasher made Bryn strong but sympathetic and the reveals about the character made me want to bash some heads in so yes, I grew to love her. Which brings me to our fae prince, Henrik, a man of infinite patience who was obviously smitten with Bryn from the start. I felt like this was the perfect character to complement Bryn, compassionate and understanding and fiercely protective to those he loves. Henrik proved to be intelligent as a captain and resourceful enough to find ways to keep his crew safe and to help Bryn at the same time. These two together made way for a poignant storyline about finding someone to care for, to protect and keep safe and I loved when Bryn finally started to believe what Henrik was telling her.
As for the plot itself, I am very intrigued by the development this story took about the necklace that Bryn stole. The focus that it took about the origins of the necklace and precisely what it meant that Bryn stole it made me a little heartbroken. Which is why that ending made me smile. I meant it when I said I wanted to bash some heads in for Bryn so the way everything wrapped up made me cackle a little. The whole idea of thievery and how Bryn could actually use her talents as part of something more made me very happy. There's no other way to explain it. Sure, this was a spicy story and the heat between the leads was definitely there but what I'm left pondering the most was the effect the entire adventure had on Bryn and where she'll go with the knowledge she's gained. I hope to see more of these two in future books, you know, once I've caught up with everything set in this book world.
In the end, this was a very respectable read and I'm looking forward to adding the rest of Thrasher's books to my neverending TBR list.
Rating on my Scale: 8 Stars. I don't read novellas often, I'm always left feeling like I wanted more from everything. The good thing about this one is that there are other books in this world so this story has managed to hook me enough to make me want to read everything else so at least there is that. It's short and sweet, and I'll probably love it more once I know more about the books that came before this one.
My thanks to Behind the Pages and Elle Thrasher for the eARC of this book in exchange for a review. All opinions are my own.
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