Book Series

Book Series Review: THE UNSELECTED JOURNALS OF EMMA M. LION by Beth Brower

| Jessica Crawford

The Unselected Journals of Emma M. Lion is a series written by Beth Brower. Originally self-published beginning in 2019, they have since been picked up by Bloomsbury, and brought to audio by Echo Point Books and Media. There are eight volumes currently available, with a total of somewhere around 24 total planned. The first few are novella-length, but the books become full novels as the series progresses.

Genre

Historical Fiction (with just a light sprinkling of magical realism)

Opening Line

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.

Description

“The year is 1883 and Emma M. Lion has returned to her London neighborhood 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, which comprise a series of novella-length volumes. Armed with wit and a sideways amusement, Emma documents the curious realities of her life at Lapis Lazuli House.”

Each volume spans two months worth of the titular character’s journal entries, and the author plans on covering four years of her life in total. They detail Emma’s experiences upon returning to St. Crispians, visiting its locales and getting to know it inhabitants. Such friendships she makes! Such struggle to gain and maintain one’s autonomy as a young woman in Victorian England!

My Thoughts

I had noticed that this series was blowing up on the scene, becoming hugely popular seven years after its first volume was published. I saw so many people gushing about it and decided to see what all the noise was about.

The first book was nice, but I didn’t “get it” yet. But as I read on in the series, I became a convert in full – I love Emma M. Lion and her world! These books are the definition of charm.

Journal entries relate the day to day doings of a young woman in Victorian England, beginning as she approaches reaching her majority. The home her deceased parents arranged for her to inherit is Lapis Lazuli House in the London neighborhood of St. Crispian’s. Here is where that dash of magical realism comes into play – objects tend to “wander” in St. Crispian’s, and you may one day discover your neighbor’s hat in your kitchen cupboard. There is a basement at a local storefront where residents drop off the items they find, and look to reclaim their own missing belongings. And then there is The Roman, the neighborhood ghost outfitted in the armor of a Centurion.

Besides those fanciful accents, the story is solidly in historical fiction territory (with plenty of laugh out loud moments!) Emma is an exceedingly witty young woman navigating life as best she can. Her aunt demands she attend balls and various society function and assist her beautiful cousin in securing an advantageous marriage during The Season. Her ridiculous (other) cousin has done her dirty, and she must deal with the outfall. She makes some lovely new friends: a lame war photographer who spent some time in America, a duke, a vicar, a con man, a spinster painter, etc etc. Some of the traditions of St. Crispians just warm the heart, and it’s a pleasure to spend time in its streets alongside the spirited and droll Miss Lion.

An additional bit of fun is the personal library bit at the end of each installment – Emma very much wants a collection of her owns books (library lends are not an option, as she likes to scribble notes in the margins), and at the end of each volume readers are treated to the growing list all of the books Emma has managed to obtain during the course of her story. There is also always a list of previously mentioned persons of interest, which I imagine might be helpful if you’re not immediately diving into the next book as soon as you finish one, as I have been!

To reiterate, if I had to sum this series up in one word it would be CHARMING. I am bereft at having caught up to the author in her writing, and am waiting rather impatiently for the next volume to come! And will be again for the next, and the next, and the next…

A note on the audiobooks: I am personally not a big audiobook reader, as I find my mind wanders easily and I don’t absorb as much. Nonfiction is usually the easiest for me to listen to. Action-packed stories leave me wishing I could flip back a page or two to review and make sure I hadn’t missed any important details. But not only do I find I am able to listen to these books without much trouble, the talented narrator Genevieve Gaunt makes it an absolutely pleasurable experience. Three cheers all around!

Book Review: WHAT STALKS THE DEEP by T. Kingfisher

| Jessica Crawford

What Stalks the Deep by T. Kingfisher is a 179 page novella, the third in the Sworn Soldier series, published by Tor Nightfire in 2025.

Genre

Horror

The Blurb

The next installment in the New York Times bestselling Sworn Soldier series, featuring Alex Easton investigating the dark, mysterious depths of a coal mine in America.

Alex Easton does not want to visit America.

They particularly do not want to visit an abandoned coal mine in West Virginia with a reputation for being haunted.

But when their old friend Dr. Denton summons them to help find his lost cousin—who went missing in that very mine—well, sometimes a sworn soldier has to do what a sworn soldier has to do…

Opening Line

So this is America.

My Thoughts

“That is horrifying and I want to go home,” I said, although I pronounced it, “Ah, I see.”

Another absolutely delightful entry in the Sworn Soldier series!

As usual, Alex Easton finds themself enmeshed in the investigation of truly creepy happenings. This time, they’ve traveled to America at the request for help from their old friend, Denton. The doctor’s cousin has gone missing while exploring an old abandoned mine, where he wrote about hearing strange sounds and seeing the ominous glow of a red light deep underground, a light that winked out when he tried to approach it to investigate. Can Alex, Angus, Denton, and a couple of fresh faces find out what happened to the missing man before yet another nightmarish being finds them?

This third novella in the series is still creepy, hilarious, heartwarming in equal measure. You don’t necessarily have to read them in order to enjoy them, but this installment does reference things that happened in the first book, including spoilers. The Big Bad in this one relates to something relatively obscure I had been thinking about recently, which only further cements for me the conviction that Kingfisher writes these books specifically for me. I love them so much!

“Most of your muscles have to have your bones to anchor them and push against. Imagine…oh…trying to punch someone with your tongue…”

There was a pause while we gave this particularly vivid mental image the credit it deserved. I opened my mouth to mention a young lady of my acquaintance in Paris, but caught a glimpse of Denton’s expression and closed it again.

Goodreads

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Book Review: A NEW LEASE ON DEATH by Olivia Blacke

| Jessica Crawford

A New Lease on Death by Olivia Blacke is a 336 page novel, the first in a planned series called Supernatural Mysteries.

Genre:

Mystery, Paranormal, Cozy

Opening Line:

I didn’t know how long I sat cross-legged in the snow, waiting for the dead man crumples on the ground in front of my building to wake up.

Synopsis:

In this darkly funny supernatural mystery about an unlikely crime-solving duo that launches a commercial, unique, and genre-blending series, death is only the beginning.

Ruby Young’s new Boston apartment comes with all the usual perks. Windows facing the brick wall of the next-door building. Heat that barely works. A malfunctioning buzzer. Noisy neighbors. A dead body on the sidewalk outside. And of course, a ghost.

Since Cordelia Graves died in her apartment a few months ago, she’s kept up her residency, despite being bored out of her (non-tangible) skull and frustrated by her new roommate. When her across-the-hall neighbor, Jake Macintyre, is shot and killed in an apparent mugging gone wrong outside their building, Cordelia is convinced there’s more to it and is determined to bring his killer to justice.

Unfortunately, Cordelia, being dead herself, can’t solve the mystery alone. She has to enlist the help of the obnoxiously perky, living tenant of her apartment. Ruby is twenty, annoying, and has never met a houseplant she couldn’t kill. But she also can do everything Cordelia can’t, from interviewing suspects to researching Jake on the library computers that go up in a puff of smoke if Cordelia gets too close. The roommates form an unlikely friendship as they get closer to the truth about Jake’s death…and maybe other dangerous secrets as well.

My Thoughts:

This book features a murder mystery investigation by an unlikely duo: the ghost of recently deceased Cordelia Graves, and Ruby, the twenty year old who moved into her apartment after her death.

The writing was decent and there were fun elements to the story, but the pacing was not ideal. After the murder being investigated occurs and the initial evidence collected, there is zero advancement in this regard until very near to the end. What there is instead is learning a lot about Cordelia’s life before she ghosted, which was fine and relevant to the overall arc of the series, but also a whole lot of repeating the same information already provided over and over again. The characters comment on how strange it is that a mugger would not take their victim’s nice phone again and again, and I think the job duties of the front desk position at software startup TrendCelerate were listed for us at least three times. Cordelia’s limitations and bonus abilities as a ghost are also revisited many times, going over the same information. The attempted red herrings were not super successful either.

Overall I was mostly able to enjoy this paranormal story for it’s fun and quirky elements, but as a mystery it didn’t work as well as it might.

That being said, it definitely has its charms, and if the description tickles your fancy at all I do think you could consider giving it a shot yourself.

Thank you to NetGalley, St. Martin’s Press and Minotaur Books for this ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Bookshop.org

Goodreads

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Book Review: THE SECRET SERVICE OF TEA AND TREASON by India Holton

| Jessica Crawford

The Secret Service of Tea and Treason by India Holton is a 334 page novel published by Berkley in 2023. It is third in the Dangerous Damsels series, but can be read as a standalone.

Genre:

Historical Romance, Cozy Fantasy, Humor

Tropes:

Rivals to lovers, fake marriage

Opening Line:

It was the best of dress shops, it was the worst of dress shops.

Synopsis:

Two rival spies must brave pirates, witches, and fake matrimony to save the Queen.

Known as Agent A, Alice is the top operative within the Agency of Undercover Note Takers, a secret government intelligence group that is fortunately better at espionage than at naming itself. From managing deceptive witches to bored aristocratic ladies, nothing is beyond Alice’s capabilities. She has a steely composure and a plan always up her sleeve (alongside a dagger and an embroidered handkerchief). So when rumors of an assassination plot begin to circulate, she’s immediately assigned to the case.

But she’s not working alone. Daniel Bixby, otherwise known as Agent B and Alice’s greatest rival, is given the most challenging undercover assignment of his life— pretending to be Alice’s husband. Together they will assume the identity of a married couple, infiltrate a pirate house party, and foil their unpatriotic plans.

Determined to remain consummate professionals, Alice and Daniel must ignore the growing attraction between them, especially since acting on it might prove more dangerous than their target.

My Thoughts:

THE SECRET SERVICE OF TEA AND TREASON by India Holton 🫖☕️🕵️🏴‍☠️🧙‍♀️💗

A rivals to lovers, fake marriage historical romance with fantasy elements and neurodiverse main characters? Yes, please!

My Books on Tap group (we meet at a different brewery twice a month and go around the table taking turns discussing whatever book we’re reading at the time) recently had a mystery book swap night. We each brought a book wrapped up to hide its identity, then wrote a few descriptors on the front. This was the book I picked (actually, I wound up picking two because the host brought extra in case someone came empty handed). It is the third in the Dangerous Damsels series, but worked perfectly well as a standalone. I could tell which of the characters here had wound up together in previous books in the series.

Alice and Daniel are the two top agents in an underground agency that trains “the help” (maids, housekeepers, butlers, footmen, valets) in espionage. They must join a party of pirates (who, by the way, use incantations to make their houses fly) posing as a married couple in order to thwart a conspiracy to assassinate Queen Victoria. What follows is a fun and absurd romp that prioritizes humor over a sensible plot. Chapters begin with amusingly modified literary quotes from the likes of Austen.

There are pretty explicit open door love scenes, and mild comedic violence.

One complaint that is exceedingly minor in the grand scheme of things: I counted four instances of characters’ mouths shrugging. Wut?

I had been wanting to try this author and am glad the book swap gave me the opportunity. It was a fun story that managed to be fairly swoonworthy to boot.