Books for Christian Girls: "The Thief of Blackfriars Lane" by Michelle Griep

About this book:

“Sometimes there’s a fine line between a criminal and a saint…but on which side of the line is the thief of Blackfriars Lane?

Constable Jackson Forge is determined to make the world a better place. But the streets of Victorian London are Kit Turner’s domain, a self-proclaimed Robin Hood who runs a crew that acquires money the old-fashion way—conning the wealthy to give to the poor.

When a local cab driver goes missing, it’s Jackson’s task to find the man…and the only way is to enlist Kit Turner’s help. With Jackson’s job precariously close to termination, he convinces a reluctant Kit, reminding her that refusal means turning her in for thievery.

Neither of them realize the worst of their problems still await…”

Series: Book #1 in the "Blackfriars Lane" series.

Spiritual Content- Prayers & Thanking God; Talks about God, trusting Him, & witnessing/being witnessed to; ‘H’s are capitalized when referring to God; Jackson has a faith & witnesses to Kit; Kit doesn’t believe that God cares for her area of the world, *Spoiler* towards the end, she surrenders to God *End of Spoiler*; Mentions of God; Mentions of cathedrals, a reverend, & prayer books; A few mentions of Scriptures; A few mentions of angels & Heaven; A couple mentions of those in the Bible; A couple mentions of a Christmas play & Joseph;

*Note: A few mentions of hell & demons; A few mentions of hellfire & hell-bent men.

Negative Content- Minor cussing including: British slang/minor curses (as such ‘blast’, ‘dash it’, ‘confound it’, ‘thunderation’, ‘nick off’, ‘push off’, ‘what the deuce’, etc.); a ‘drat’, a form of ‘idiot’, a ‘sheesh’, five forms of ‘what the devil’, and six forms of ‘stupid’; Mentions of curses (said, not written); Eye rolling & sarcasm; Pain, being shot, being held hostage, nearly drowning, & bleeding (up to semi-detailed); Fighting, Hitting, & Knives (up to semi-detailed); Coming across a drowned body (up to semi-detailed); All about mentions of criminals/thieves, pickpocketing, & stealing/robberies; Many mentions of abductions & kidnappings; Many mentions of lies, lying, & liars; Mentions of a suicide; Mentions of drownings & a body; Mentions of an assassination attempt; Mentions of a beating that left a young man disabled (it’s worded by a family member that he has the “intellect of a potato”); Mentions of pain, injuries, blood/bleeding, weapons, & fighting/fights; Mentions of torture; Mentions of a gang; Mentions of smuggling illegal goods; Mentions of threats & blackmail; Mentions of gossip & rumors; Mentions of alcohol & drinking; Mentions of cigars; A few mentions of wars & lost limbs; A few mentions of vomiting; A few mentions of tobacco; A mention of a tattoo.

Sexual Content- a hand kiss, a barely-above-not-detailed kiss, a semi-detailed kiss, and a detailed kiss; Remembering a kiss & Wanting to kiss (up to semi-detailed); Touches & Warmth (up to semi-detailed); Noticing, Staring, & Smelling (up to semi-detailed); A man tries to proposition Kit (Jackson stands up for her honor); Mentions of a kiss; Mentions of suggestive comments/innuendos by crude men towards Kit (most regarding men and women being alone together at night or in the dark) & men leering at Kit; Mentions of women of ill repute & harlots/harpies (some men assume Kit is one and she also acts like one in this manner to get looked over by someone); Mentions of flirting & flirts; A few mentions of men having their way with women & the women losing their virtue (this is brought up because of an awkward situation of Jackson and Kit pretending to be cousins and then kissing); A few mentions of blushes; A couple mentions of an illegitimate son; A mention of an out-of-wedlock child being conceived in love; A mention of a three-year-old singing a song about wine & women; Love, falling in love, & the emotions;

*Note: A couple mentions of men being left alone with only what God gave them (no clothing, not-detailed); A mention of kneeing a man in the groin; A mention of a plunging neckline.

-Kit Turner

-Jackson Forge, age 23

P.O.V. switches between them

Set in 1885

313 pages

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Pre Teens-

New Teens-

Early High School Teens-

Older High School Teens-

My personal Rating-

This was my first book by this author and I was very pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed it. Robin Hood or thieves plots always attract my attention so I knew I had to try this one out. Bottom line? I quite like Kit. I could just leave it at that, but I truly liked her gumption, her fierceness, but also her emotions felt very realistic. Learning her story, you can understand why she’s jaded towards God—but here comes Jackson who witnesses to her and sets the record straight that she needs to trust God.

I’m typically a fast reader, but I flew through these 300 pages in three hours. I wish I had slowed down some, but I did definitely enjoy it. The ending was great and I love the plotline of conning the bad guys.

My one criticism would be that I wasn’t a fan of some crude men’s suggestive comments about or towards Kit. I understand the time period and area there were in, but it was a bit much. I would have also preferred Kit and Jackson to not have noticed so may physical things about the other, but by the end, it was less overall than I was expecting.

“The Thief of Blackfriars Lane” was a novel that I really enjoyed the plot of, and it’s now made me curious about the author’s other books. Like I said earlier, this was a pleasant surprise at the end of the year!

See y’all on Monday with a new review!