The Unselected Journals of Emma M. Lion
Volume 1
by Beth Brower
Rhydon Press, 2019. 110 pages.
Review written July 16, 2024, from my own copy.
Starred Review
First, a great big thank you to my sister Becky for sending me the first three volumes of The Unselected Journals of Emma M. Lion to me for my birthday. At first I thought it was one story divided into three volumes, so I was going to wait until I finished it all to post a review. But no! There’s more! I went on Amazon and ordered the books through Volume 7, and then checked the back of it and Volume 8 supposedly will be published soon. So it’s an ongoing saga, and I am decisively hooked.
Emma M. Lion is a young lady of twenty years old who arrives in London on March 5th, 1883. She comes to the house that is her inheritance, which she will own outright when she turns twenty-one, but which is now occupied by her odious Cousin Archibald.
Both Archibald and Emma are glad their relationship is not by blood. Archibald had married Emma’s father’s cousin, and that cousin had died not long after – but left the house, Lapis Lazuli House in St. Crispian’s quarter of London, to Emma’s father, but the books in the library to Cousin Archibald. Emma’s father let Cousin Archibald stay there out of compassion, and wished Emma to do the same. But three years after her parents’ deaths, Emma arrives and the relationship between the two of them is strained. He has her stay in the rooms in the garret, and before long Emma discovers more ways he is working against her.
Some of the situations in these journal selections, which cover March 5th through April 30th, are that Emma is going to let the small subsection of the house – Lapis Lazuli Minor, which was long ago sectioned off from the main house – in order to help make ends meet. A tenant has been found, and he is a man of mystery. Also, as the volume ends, her Aunt Eugenia has just learned that Emma has come to London and is poised to begin interfering. But Aunt Eugenia doesn’t know that Emma has not, after all, engaged a chaperone. Meanwhile, speaking of chaperones, Emma’s school friend Mary is also in London and has hired a man named Jack to pose as her cousin to the owner of her boarding house. Emma is convinced he’s a scoundrel, but Mary is happy with her freedom.
Emma is not a very traditional young lady. This first volume pretty much sets up intriguing situations and characters, and I challenge anyone at all to be able to stop without learning more. When I finished this short volume, I dove right into the next one. So much fun!
Find this review on Sonderbooks at: www.sonderbooks.com/Fiction/emma_m_lion_1.html
Disclosure: I am an Amazon Affiliate, and will earn a small percentage if you order a book on Amazon after clicking through from my site.
Disclaimer: I am a professional librarian, but the views expressed are solely my own, and in no way represent the official views of my employer or of any committee or group of which I am part.
What did you think of this book?