There are book series you enjoy, and then there are book series that consume you entirely…the kind that leave you staring at a wall after the final page, mourning that you have no more left to read. Beth Brower’s The Unselected Journals of Emma M. Lion is firmly, devastatingly in the second category.
Set in 1883 London in the charmingly peculiar neighborhood of St. Crispian’s, the series follows Emma M. Lion(sharp, witty, and quietly formidable) through the pages of her personal journals. Emma is an upper-middle-class Victorian woman navigating a very precarious position: her inheritance squandered by an eccentric cousin, her household under threat, her life overshadowed by a tyrannical aunt and a grief she carries with grace and complexity. The stakes are real, but Brower never lets them tip into misery…instead, the series is genuinely, consistently, laugh-out-loud funny.
What makes The Unselected Journals of Emma M. Lion exceptional is how much it holds at once. There’s the perfect ensemble at its heart. Islington the straight-laced duke, Hawkes the ethereal vicar, and Pierce the brooding photographer…whose golden-quartet dynamic with Emma feels rare and wonderful.
The Unselected Journals of Emma M. Lion are filled with literary references, magical evenings, and class dynamics handled with care. If you’re a fan of Jane Austen or L.M. Montgomery, you’ll love Emma and her quartet of alchemy.
Fun, witty, and irresistibly charming, The Unselected Journals of Emma M. Lion is the rare series where you fall in love (with Emma, with her world, and with every single character in it) almost instantly, and never quite fall back out.
5 Reasons you need to read the Unselected Journals of Emma M. Lion Right THis Moment
- Alchemy. If you know, you know.
- Emma’s self-education arc will send you straight to the classics. Watching Emma devour literature with fierce determination will have you dusting off every book you skipped in high school and vowing to finally, actually read them.
- The background characters are an absolute delight. Brower has built one of the most eclectic, surprising ensembles in recent fiction. You truly never know who’s going to turn up around the corner, and the unpredictability is half the fun.
- St. Crispian’s is the most wonderfully odd neighbourhood in all of literary London. Things go missing (but do turn up eventually), there’s a Medusa fountain, and the neighborhood ghost – The Roman – haunts the streets while Emma desperately tries to engineer an encounter.
- The slowest, most delicious burn of a romance. There is the tiniest, most tantalizing hint of something romantic simmering beneath the surface…and it will have you swooning, kicking your feet, and thanking your lucky stars that Beth Brower has many more volumes planned!
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Volume 1
London, 1883.
Emma M. Lion has returned to the familiar streets of St. Crispian’s, hoping to settle into a quiet, scholarly existence — a small victory after three turbulent years. But tranquility proves elusive. Her chaotic Cousin Archibald, iron-willed Aunt Eugenia, and the peculiar residents of the neighbourhood have other plans. What unfolds is captured in Emma’s own Unselected Journals: candid, self-incriminating, and laced with dry wit.
From her base at Lapis Lazuli House, Emma chronicles the absurdities of her daily life with sharp eyes and wry amusement.
Volume 2
London, 1883. Emma M. Lion is at her desk with a cup of tea and a book when she first becomes aware of the mysterious Tenant in the garret next door. It is not the quiet, studious life she had imagined returning to. Back in St. Crispian’s, Emma finds her plans cheerfully derailed by eccentric Cousin Archibald, formidable Aunt Eugenia, and a neighbourhood full of curious characters.
She records it all in her Unselected Journals — candid, witty, and occasionally self-incriminating — from the comfort, such as it is, of Lapis Lazuli House.
Volume 3
London, 1883. When fate ordains a wholly cursed chain of events, Emma M. Lion is there to document every excruciating detail. Returned to the neighbourhood of St. Crispian’s with hopes of a charmed and studious life, Emma instead finds herself at the mercy of eccentric Cousin Archibald, formidable Aunt Eugenia, and an assortment of slightly odd local residents.
She records it all — candidly, wryly, and with occasional damage to her own reputation — in her Unselected Journals, a series of volumes chronicling the curious realities of life at Lapis Lazuli House.
Volume 4
London, 1883. It all began very innocently — or so Emma M. Lion would have you believe. Returned to the neighbourhood of St. Crispian’s with every intention of living a charmed and studious life, Emma finds her plans thoroughly undermined by eccentric Cousin Archibald, formidable Aunt Eugenia, and the slightly peculiar residents who populate her corner of the city.
She documents the chaos faithfully in her Unselected Journals — a series of volumes that are candid, witty, and not entirely flattering to their author — written from the heart of Lapis Lazuli House.
Volume 5
London, 1883. Emma M. Lion attends church with Treasure Island tucked under her arm and the quiet confidence of someone with nothing to hide. Returned to the neighbourhood of St. Crispian’s with hopes of a charmed and studious life, Emma finds those hopes cheerfully sabotaged by eccentric Cousin Archibald, formidable Aunt Eugenia, and a cast of slightly odd local residents.
She records the resulting chaos in her Unselected Journals — a series of volumes that are sharp, sideways, and occasionally self-incriminating — dispatched from the curious world of Lapis Lazuli House.
Volume 6
London, 1884. Emma M. Lion has finally come of age, and the bedlam — she is pleased to report — is of the delightful variety. Buoyed by a golden circle of friends in Pierce, Islington, and Hawkes, Emma faces The Season with characteristic confidence. Her mission: help Arabella secure a husband. Her obstacles: the ever-looming Aunt Eugenia, the devoted and unstoppable Charles Goddard, and the cheerful unpredictability of St. Crispian’s.
But it is the hidden secrets of those she trusts most that threaten to unravel everything — faithfully documented, as always, in her Unselected Journals.
Volume 7
London, 1884. Emma M. Lion has come of age and arrived at the sobering realisation that she may be her own worst enemy. Newly confident and buoyed by a golden friendship with Pierce, Islington, and Hawkes, Emma throws herself into The Season with a clear purpose: securing a husband for Arabella. But Aunt Eugenia looms, Charles Goddard adores with exhausting persistence, and St. Crispian’s remains gloriously unpredictable.
Worse still, the secrets of her most trusted friends may prove the undoing of everything — all duly recorded in her Unselected Journals from Lapis Lazuli House.
Volume 8
London, 1884. Things that ought to come with warnings rarely do — a truth Emma M. Lion knows well. Newly of age and riding a golden wave of friendship with Pierce, Islington, and Hawkes, Emma faces The Season with easy confidence. Her task is to help Arabella secure a husband, while keeping Aunt Eugenia at bay, tolerating the devoted Charles Goddard, and weathering the unpredictability of St. Crispian’s.
What she does not see coming is the threat closest to home: the secrets of her most trusted friends, recorded faithfully in her Unselected Journals.
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