Synopsis

“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. (via Amazon)

Review

This series of books has been on my TBR for a few months now. I was actually planning on reading it a bit further down the road, however I noticed the audio book edition was available to rent on Libby, so I snatched the opportunity.

The audiobook took me only about two sittings to finish, as it is a rather short listen of only 3 hours and 15 minutes. Genevieve Gaunt did a tremendous job with narrating, as she has a lovely range of voices for each character.

The book consists of dated journal entries penned by a Miss Emma M. Lion. The main focus of this first volume is her return to the Lapiz Lazuli house in the fictitious town of St. Crispian’s of London. Due to some unfortunate circumstances, her return back to her childhood home is not as calm and relaxing as she hoped.

Her entries delve into her daily life as she is getting reacclimated to her surroundings, as well as her interactions with people of the community, and others who call the Lapiz Lazuli house, home.

There are some interesting characters in this series for sure including Emma’s infuriating cousin Archibald and her overbearing Aunt Eugenia. Emma’s interactions and musings with these characters in particular were responsible for the more hilarious moments in the story.

Behind the humor, there are moments of reflection showing glimpses of grief for Emma that gives a more honest look at her character. I am excited to delve deeper into the inner machinations of her mind through these volumes.

The romance aspect in this first installment was virtually nonexistent. There are a couple of characters that have been set up as potential love interests in future books, so I am curious to see how that plays out. Beyond that, there are the societal expectations of women being married off that was the norm of the Victorian Age.

All in all, this was a fantastic beginning to this series. The main reason behind my four and a half-star rating is the fact this book began a bit slow for me. That being said, once it took off, I could not stop listening until it was over.