Thief and the Noble by Dana LeCheminant

Thief and the Noble
by Dana LeCheminant

ISBN-13: 9781524417086
Paperback: 224 pages
Publisher: Covenant Communications
Released: February 1st 2022

Source: ebook review copy from the publisher through NetGalley.

Book Description, Modified from Goodreads:
As the daughter of a marquess, Lady Marian Russell is poised to impress in her first London Season. She is young, beautiful, and wealthy—but catching an eligible husband is the last thing on her mind. Marian is disillusioned with how the upper class lives while the poor of London suffer, and she's determined to do something about it. When she comes face-to-face with a mysterious man who steals from arrogant aristocrats and redistributes the spoils to the poor, Marian recognizes a motivation that mirrors her own.

When she unmasks the bandit Robin, he begrudgingly agrees to train Marian in the art of thievery in exchange for her silence. But when they discover a copycat thief operating in London, they focus on stopping him at all costs.


My Review:
Thief and the Noble is a Regency romance set in London. While I realized it'd be part fantasy, it didn't really fit in the Regency period. Marian and Robin obviously didn't follow conventional manners, but no one really did. For example, a bad guy groped Marian's backside during a waltz at a ball and her parents did nothing. Marian was told several times that women couldn't do anything to help the poor (huh?), so she resorted to robbing people. Starting with shoplifting because....well, even she finally realized that wasn't a rich person. And she stuffed the ribbon into her bodice (of all places) in a crowded store, yet no one noticed? Hm.

I was disappointed that Robin's reasons for robbing the rich were about his ego and punishing people he didn't like. He'd do the robbery and hand the jewels and money off to someone else to sell and give to the poor, so he wasn't directly involved with helping the poor. When Robin inherited a title and wealth, he decided helping his own tenants and pushing to change laws were not enough: he wanted to be the savior of all the poor by punishing the snobbish rich! Yet when the copycat stole to punish people for how they treated a certain person, he had to be stopped as a bad guy.

Finally, Marian was inept, foolish, quick to anger and take insult (especially against Robin), and stubborn about getting her way even if it put others in danger. I didn't really like her. But Robin viewed her quick temper as a desirable trait, and each made the other "feel whole." There was no sex or bad language, but obviously this tale didn't appeal to me.


If you've read this book, what do you think about it? I'd be honored if you wrote your own opinion of the book in the comments.