THE THIEF REDEEMER
Leigh Clary Abdou
Published on September 9, 2013
Genres: Contemporary, Dark, New Adult, Romance
Brandon Wilson is trouble.
As leader of the largest car theft ring in Atlanta, GA, life is coming at him faster than he can handle. While the criminal world views him at the top of his game, the truth is, he’s breaking apart, piece by piece. He’s not sure how much more he can take before he completely shatters.
He’s able to manage this facade until he meets Claire Peters. As a part of a kidnapping scheme gone bad, she’s literally delivered right to his warehouse door. As his love for her grows, Brandon finds himself caught in an impossible dilemma. With his lifestyle, he knows he can’t keep Claire, and yet, he can’t risk letting her go, either. His men think he should make her disappear forever, but she’s his angel who still believes in second chances.
Can someone be so lost they’re beyond saving? And if salvation is possible, how does Claire show him the way?
Can a thief be redeemed?
REVIEW
The Thief Redeemer is an apt title for this book because that’s exactly what this story is about. It’s quite literally about a career criminal, a car thief named Brandon, who progresses from a man with no regrets or aversion to his criminal way of life, into a man who falls in love and is willing to put his life on the line in order to prove he is worthy of a special woman.
I love this premise. I love dark books and this one starts out dark. Brandon has a years old vendetta with a local lawyer and this is his initial motivation for going through with a harebrained plot to kidnap two innocent girls. He needs to take the heat off himself, so what better what to do that than to kidnap the lawyer’s daughter.
He first meets the heroine, Claire Peters, when he poses as an intern at the lawyer’s office. His goal is to obtain secret files of the whereabouts of his younger siblings—two brothers who were separated from him a long time ago and he was forbidden to ever see gain due to his unstable nature.
His plan a bad one and this is one of the main issues I had with this book. Brandon was supposed to be so smart he was the ringleader of a major car stealing ring, yet he’s not that bright when it comes to his plans. His character was a bit one dimensional for me and he fell in love with Claire the minute he laid eyes on her.
However, this book had a great message – one of redemption and moral obligation, not just to other people (like Claire, who was the catalyst in his desire to redeem himself) but also to one’s self. I think Brandon really wanted to do the right thing and I liked how his character turned out in the end. In fact, the ending was the best part of this novel in my opinion. I loved the message of personal responsibility and Brandon’s ability to suck it up and pay the price that comes with being a career criminal.
I think the consequences of Brandon’s bad choices were shown pretty realistically and the author did not just hand Brandon his happy ending. Great read if you like stories about a bad boy making good and the seedy underworld of car stealing.
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