What if Bridget went to Church? (Redeeming the Pink Pocketbooks thru Christian Chick Lit)

This is probably the longest blog title I have ever come up with. Sounds like a thesis. Hahaha! Anyway, for those of you who aren’t updated with the Missus, this blog is actually a sequel to a previous entry entitled “Classic Chick Lits” which was a “comprehensive” summary of the Chick Lit clichés, that even yours truly lived out in real life. I have to make it clear that now I have become a Christian, I don’t live like Bridget Jones anymore. This former chick lit heroine finally went to church.


Let’s admit it, chick lit books have been flying off the shelves ever since Helen Fielding hit the fiction jackpot with Bridget Jones’s Diary more than 10 years ago. The genre has been a publishing goldmine. Pink pocketbooks are the reigning queens of fiction. They’re like the book equivalents of Hannah Montana and High School Musical. They’re a massive enterprise. And let’s also admit that in a Christian perspective unfortunately most if not all of the content of these novels aren’t exactly healthy food for the soul.

I consumed chick lit like junk food way back before I got converted not because I wanted to be like the heroines of these novels but more because I could relate to them. They echoed my life and somehow it felt comforting to know that a lot of twenty-something women out there were on the same roller-coaster ride and despite their imperfections and temporary moments of insanity it was still possible to survive and flourish. I had my own happy ending – got my dream boy and stepped up on my career – similar to most chick lit heroines. There was just one difference though – something you wouldn’t see happening in a Hollywood-bound pop fiction – I BECAME A CHRISTIAN.

So ever since then I have always wondered what would have happened if Bridget went to Church? What if her sequel was about her new life as a young woman thriving and struggling at the same time to balance her new Faith and values with the secular world? Instead of scribbling down calorie counts, she’d be writing down prayer items now on her diary. Okay that’s probably pushing it too much. Hahaha!

But seriously, I have never heard of a convert storyline just like that. Why not? (Tell me if there’s already a Christian Chick Lit novel with that plot.) I’ve done my research on Christian Chick Lit, and I found out that it’s actually just one of the many sub-genres born out of the Chick Lit genus. Would you believe there are actually books now that are categorized as: Tween Lit, Bridezilla Lit, Mommy Lit, Multicultural Lit, and my goodness Widow Lit! And believe me there are quite a few more which I don’t even want to mention already.

Actually, according to my research, the idea of a Chick Lit genre in the Christian publishing world was almost impossible. First of all, the term Chick Lit has gained some bad reputation so they couldn’t actually make an equation out of Chick Lit and Faith. But thank God for Christian writer Neta Jackson’s bestselling “lighthearted” novel “The Yada Yada Prayer Group.” The success of her book actually helped launched Chick Lit into the Christian market. She’s the Christian world’s version of Helen Fielding and Sophie Kinsella. Her Yada novel has actually spawned successful sequels too.



I am glad though that now the Christian Chick Lit genre is gaining some ground even among the secular readers. I read that some of these books aren’t just being sold at Christian bookstores. They have also taken up some shelf space in more common stores like Target in the US.

But before we get excited let us pause and ponder for a while, how do you define a Christian Chick Lit anyway? How can we easily spot one among the rows and rows of pink book covers especially when they’re allegedly sold now at regular shops? I don’t think you’d see a Bible verse printed as a tagline or even as a blurb on the cover. There are some titles that can be a dead giveaway like “Amen Sisters” and one called “Christian Serial Dater” which I think was kind of funny and a tad bit ironic. But that’s as far as you can get. So it can be tricky. You might pick up a pink pocketbook with a seemingly harmless sounding title then only to find out that the character was just another Bridget clone. So I suggest stay close to those titles that obviously has a positive message. And of course, it doesn’t hurt to read the synopsis found at the back just for closer scrutiny.

So if you’re interested to bury your heads in some Christian Chick Lit, here are a couple of websites with a selection of Faith-filled Fiction:

Christian Chick Lit Book List
Church Chick Lit selection @ chicklitbook.com

As a couple of Christian authors quipped about their readers: They love Jesus (and cute boys too!) Let’s face it. Girls will be girls. Christian girls pretty much do the same things as any other regular girls out there – shopping, dating, parties, work or school – except that they’re all done in a wholesome manner. Definitely no Gossip Girl behavior here. Christian chicks know that TRUE LOVE WAITS. Most people think that anything labeled Christian is preachy. The Christian Chick Lit genre is proof that biblical values and doctrines can also be conveyed through a voice that’s contemporary, hip and socially real. Let’s admit it we cannot always talk poignantly like Henry Blackaby and Harold Sala and even Anne Graham Lotz. Sometimes we women would just want to be enlightened by the Word through a simple girl talk.



As someone who used to live the Bridget Jones life, of course I am not proud of my mistakes and foolishness but at the same time, it is something that I would not even try to hide. I am a convert. My blogs oftentimes tell these stories about my change of heart. Sometimes I’m wary that some people at my church would question my blogging on secular things, like my fancy for Chick Lit for instance. Again they’re not meant as tripwires for my Christian readers but it’s really more about reaching out to my Non-Christian friends. If I can be redeemed so can they. If they’re still stuck in the chapters of their own Chick Lit existence, then my story is evidence that they too can have their happy ending, and they can even have a MUCH BETTER sequel if they let Jesus start writing their life.