800 years ago, dragons were banished to an alternate world that is too hot for them, leaving their species to slowly die, while the humans who banished them--who used to form bonded pairings with the dragons--populate the world the dragons once called home. Everend, the only male dragon that’s hatched in the last 300 years has found his way back to his ancestral homeworld and accidentally bonds with a human, Arcady, but the bond hasn’t fully taken, leaving them both vulnerable to damage. If one gets hurt, so does the other, leaving them trapped in this unlikely pairing. Everend wants to finish the bond so he can use Arcady’s magic to open the rist and allow the rest of the dragons to come home. Meanwhile, Arcady is trying to shake the curse of his family’s name. Having been forced into a life of thievery, Arcady manages to steal a dead person’s identity, but to fully start over, he needs money. He sets his gaze on a valuable relic and builds a team for a special heist. But will he be able to teach Everend to be a thief in time? And will these growing feelings between Arcady and Everend overwhelm the dragon and sentence his people to a life on their dying world? 

 

GAY DRAGON HEIST. GAY DRAGON HEIST! Arcady is gender fluid, Everend is educated on not assuming genders and to always ask, defaulting to the “they” pronoun when it’s not clear. There’s also a lot of sign language included in this, since there was a plague that had a side of effect of damaging vocal chords. I like the idea of the humans worshiping dragons, even though they’re the ones that ran the dragons out of the world, and I liked seeing Everend’s reaction to the different relics they value, bits and pieces of mummified and found dragons that the secret society uses to patch holes in the rift. Everend’s relationship to his sister was a sweet one, though I like how it compared to the relationship they both have with their queen mother. There was a minor third-act breakup/liar revealed, but it was thankfully resolved quickly. I’m quite interested to see where the second book takes the story.