Uncharacteristically for me, I picked something up that isn’t explicitly a romance. I’d seen TikToks and Instagram posts about this series from people who loved it. Yes, I confess the hype got me. When a friend sent me a gift voucher, I had the perfect excuse to buy the book and I’m so glad I did. (At only 149 pages and US$10/162.50 ZAR, it was tough to justify with the exchange rate being what it is.)

This book contains exactly what the title says: journal entries. Specifically, Emma M Lion’s journal entries. That’s it. That’s the book. But I promise each entry brought new delight into my life.

Emma is smart and funny and genuinely interesting. She’s insightful and hungry to learn more, which makes her a character I’d love to be or be friends with or just stand near sometimes. Because of the nature of the book, you’re let into Emma’s world and how she sees it and it’s glorious.

Through her journal entries, you get to know her quirky and fun neighborhood and the main characters that live there. Maybe there are some hints of magic, but this is kept to an absolute minimum – at least so far in the series. There are eight volumes in this series so far.

I’m keeping this review short because the less you know going into the book, the more enjoyable the experience, I think, as you discover Emma’s world as she reveals it. It is also an incredibly short book so how much can one really say, though the others in the series are longer.

I will say one thing: volume one ends abruptly. Which makes sense given the format of the book: these are journal entries and they don’t follow a normal plot arc. I was just along for the ride in Emma’s life.

Reading these journal entries felt like being let into something extraordinary, a little world animated by a spark of brilliance. As with all excellent books, while I was reading this one, the outside world utterly ceased to exist. My worries and my to-do list disappeared from my mind. There was only Emma and her garret room in Lapis Lazuli House and her small network of friends and family (some loved, some not so much), and the neighbourhood of St Crispians in London. So immersed was I in that little bubble that I actually gasped when the book ended – such was the shock to it ending and the real world reentering my mind.

I will absolutely be picking up the other books in this series but I’m spacing them out. I can so see how a reader could burn through all the volumes in just a few days.

– Lara

“I’ve arrived in London without incident. There are few triumphs in my recent life, but I count this as one. My existence of the last three years has been nothing but incident.”

The Year is 1883 and Emma M. Lion has returned to her London neighbourhood of St. Crispian’s. But Emma’s plans for a charmed and studious life are sabotaged by her eccentric Cousin Archibald, her formidable Aunt Eugenia, and the slightly odd denizens of St. Crispian’s.

Emma M. Lion offers up her Unselected Journals, however self-incriminating they may be. Armed with wit and a sideways amusement, Emma documents the curious realities of her life at Lapis Lazuli House.

Readers have compared The Unselected Journals of Emma M. Lion to Jane Austen, P.G. Wodehouse, L. M. Montgomery, and Jean Webster.