The Unselected Journals of Emma M. Lion

If you are looking for a fun comfort read, you need to pick up The Unselected Journals of Emma M. Lion.

The Unselected Journals of Emma M. Lion is a series of books set in 1883 Victorian London.

They are the fictional journals of Emma M. Lion.

Emma M. Lion has returned to London to live in the house she inherited. However, her uncle drained her finances. He also still inhabits the house and refuses to leave.

Emma longs for freedom, knowledge, and more books, but these are hard to come by when she has no money and an uncle who is causing trouble.

The books are written as journals and each book covers two months in Emma’s life.

I am a little late to the Emma M. Lion party. Or at least it feels that way.

The Unselected Journals of Emma M. Lion have been all over the social media book world for the last couple of years. Many book influencers and book bloggers have been sharing their love for the Emma M. Lion books.

The problem is that I tend not to like over-hyped books. Books that are being pushed everywhere are usually just not for me.

I do not pay attention to celebrity book clubs for this reason. I find that most over hyped books are just that. They are over-talked about and over-pushed to readers.

I tend to read extremely popular books, several years after they have gained popularity. If a book has held the test of time, and people are still talking about it a few years later, I will give it a try.

I think that is what happened with the Unselected Journals of Emma M. Lion by Beth Brower. These books have been super popular, but they are also backlist books. Six years after the first one was published people are still talking about them.

The eighth book in the series was published in November 2024, but the series itself is not new. The first book was published back in 2019. For some reason, I am guessing social media, these books have taken off in the last couple of years.

It might have been an under-the-radar book back in 2019, but The Unselected Journals of Emma M. Lion Vol. 1 is now quite popular.

If you have never heard of Emma M. Lion or have not read the books, you might be wondering why they are so popular.

Emma M. Lion is a delight. I think these books are a breath of fresh air in the book world.

For me, they are comfort reading at its finest.

I would describe them as a cross between Jane Austen and the Mitford books. I know that sounds like a strange combination, but that is the best way that I know how to describe them.

The Unselected Journals of Emma M. Lion are quirky and fun. They are full of British wit and humor. To me that makes them similar to Jane Austen.

I think they are also bit like Mitford in that they are a slow paced comfort read. Not a lot happens in these books, but at the same time so much happens in them.

Like Mitford you also get to know and love the people around the main charater. We learn about the neighbors, the relatives, the church, and the stores in the area.

The banter back and forth between the characters in the Emma M. Lions books is so fun. I smile and I laugh out loud reading these books, just like I do with Jane Austen and the Mitford books.

The relationship between Emma and her cousin Archibald is both hilarious and relatable, yet also sad.

The neighborhood she lives in is both strange and fun.

The conversations back and forth between Emma and her Scottish maid are entertaining.

Her aunt, who makes her go to society events and teas, is actually how you would picture an aunt in Victorian England.

Then there is Emma’s neighbor, who rents half her house from her, the vicar of her church, and the Duke of Islington. All three of them have you wondering if they are just friends with Emma or if one or all three of them, have the desire to be more than friends.

All those characters and more give you a charming series of books that are witty and fun.

I may have used the word fun a few too many times, but that really is how I feel while reading them.

These books are not just fun, though. There is a depth to them as you get to know the characters and what makes them who they are.

There is a mystery behind several of the characters that keeps you guessing.

Even though the books are only over a short time period, you can see growth in Emma over the course of the books.

This summer, I was in a bit of a reading slump. Life was busy with some unexpected events, and as a result, my reading life suffered.

I needed something quick and fun to break me out of my reading slump, so I decided it was time to give the Emma M. Lion books a try.

I read volume one at the end of July, when I discovered it was available on Kindle Unlimited. I didn’t love it, but I liked it enough that I then picked up book two since it was also on Kindle Unlimited.

Book two is where I fell in love with this series. If you read book one and didn’t love it, I would say give book two a try. You might enjoy book two a lot more than book one. I know I did.

After reading book two, I quickly picked up book three.

I enjoyed those so much that I decided that I needed to have the books in print form, so I bought the first five books in the series.

I am not a huge rereader, but I can totally see myself reading these books multiple times over the years.

I have yet to pick up book five. Not because I don’t want to, but because I have other reading I need to complete for some projects. I am saving the following few books in the series for this fall and winter.

The audiobooks for the series were just released. If you enjoy audiobooks, it would be a great way to read them.

I think I will do a reread of them on audio at some point in the future.

If I had a complaint about the books, it is that they are too short. They get longer as the series goes on, but the first book is only one hundred and twenty-five pages long.

It almost feels like a serial novel that was popular years ago.

I think the first three books could have been easily combined into one, which would have spanned six months of Emma’s life. However, I can also see why they were published separately.

I will say that the paper copy of these books is not great quality. They are not going to hold up for years. I am not usually hard on books, but after reading book four in print, the binding and cover are already showing a ton of wear. It looks like someone has read it four or five times, but I only read it once. I hope they come up with better quality editions of the series.

If you are looking for some comfort reading this fall and winter, give this series a try.

Have I convinced you to give the Unselected Journals of Emma M. Lion a try? If you have already read them, I would love to hear your thoughts.