Review: Hope for Street Kids
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 10 5, 2011
Someone is selling Chicago's street kids as factory workers in 1874. Livy O'Brien was once one of those kids but she gave up her light-fingered ways two years ago. Now a Christian, she's passionate to help kids in need in the down-rail town of Chestnut, running an orphanage with Mrs. Brooks. With crime on the rise and the street kids implicated, Livy dives in to their rescue.Jake Russell is Chestnut's deputy and determined to restore order to his town. When he (literally) bowls Livy over on the street, he's drawn to her caring ways. But surely she's wrong about the street kids. Chestnut didn't have crime before they arrived from Chicago, so who else could be to blame?Livy and Jake are at odds in their opinions of the orphans-and strangely attracted to each other. Can they find out who is really to blame for the crimes and save a passel of kids while they're at it? The clock is ticking...Stealing Jake is a historical romance that takes the reader into the seamier side of America's history. The novel is strong and tightly woven. The bleak, icy setting of winter in an Illinois coal town suits the desolate need these children find themselves in.