The Exception to the Rule by Christina Lauren | Book Review

Posted July 20, 2025 by Jana in Adult Fiction, Book Review / 0 Comments

The Exception to the Rule by Christina Lauren
Series: The Improbable Meet-Cute #1
Also in this series: Rosie and the Dreamboat, Drop, Cover, and Hold On, With Any Luck
Published by Amazon Original Stories on January 23, 2024
Genres: Contemporary Romance, Romantic Comedy
Pages: 96
Format: eBook
Source: Purchased
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On February 14, an accidental email to a stranger opens the door to an unexpected relationship in a captivating short story by the New York Times bestselling authors of The Unhoneymooners.

One typo, and a boy and girl connect by chance. Wishing each other a happy Valentine’s Day isn’t the end. In fact, it becomes a friendly annual tradition—with rules: no pics, no real names, nothing too personal. As years pass, the rules for their email “dates” are breaking, and they’re sharing more than they imagined—including the urge to ask…what if we actually met?

Christina Lauren’s The Exception to the Rule is part of The Improbable Meet-Cute, irresistibly romantic stories about finding love when and where you least expect it. They can be read or listened to in one sitting.

Even though The Exception to the Rule is the first book in the Improbable Meet-Cute series, I chose to read it last because I knew that all the others would pale in comparison. And I was right! This was my favorite of the series, and one I’d be happy to read again.

First off, I recommend you read the Kindle copy and not the audiobook. Most of this story is told through emails back and forth between the two love interests, and I knew within 5 minutes of listening that I could not continue hearing the narrator read the email addresses, dates, times, and subject lines at the top of each email for the next 2 hours. Switching to the Kindle copy was a very good choice, and I came away loving the story! Also, fair warning: this series of novellas focuses on the meet-cute and that’s it. You get that initial spark between two people, and then the story ends. If you go into these stories knowing that you will be getting an incomplete romance (although, this one is the most complete of them all), I think you’ll be happier.

I loved watching this relationship unfold over so many years. I’m a firm believer in falling in love without ever being with someone in person. You can do it without even meeting them. So a quick burst of emails once a year for over 10 years is a very strong foundation to build a relationship on. There was so much more substance to this story than the others in this series, and I loved watching Terra and Callum reach so many milestones in their lives over the course of the story. They grow up, go to college, have multiple relationships, and get careers during this time, and they catch each other up as vaguely as possible so as not to give away identifying information. There’s so much character development for such a short book, and I was so invested in them. It’s so cute, and I know you will love going on this journey with them. Who knew a simple typo in an email address could set off such a romantic chain of events? If you only pick one book from this series to try, please make it this one. I wish it was a full-length novel so we can see how life together goes for these two. I think a sequel is in order! And seriously, Hallmark needs to pick this up for a movie. It would be so cute!

Top Ten Books with Honorifics in the Title

Posted July 14, 2025 by Jana in Top Ten Tuesday / 19 Comments

Welcome to another TTT! Today’s topic is a fun one, submitted by Joanne @ Portobello Book Blog: Books with Honorifics in the title. “…an honorific is a form of address conveying esteem, courtesy or respect. These can be titles prefixing a person’s name, e.g.: Mr., Mrs., Miss, Ms., Mx., Sir, Dame, Dr., Cllr, Lady, or Lord, or other titles or positions that can appear as a form of address without the person’s name, as in Mr. President, General, Captain, Father, Doctor, or Earl.” For more info, click here. I have a lot of fun with topics like these because it feels like a scavenger hunt. It’s also a fun way to see what books I own, because there are a LOT. I decided to challenge myself further by not repeating any honorifics, and I actually found two new books to add to my TBR in the process of hunting!

Here are some fun facts about my Goodreads! I have shelved 33 books with “Mr.” in the title, 5 books with “Mrs.” in the title, and 16 books with “Miss” in the title. Who knew?

Miss Newbury’s List by Megan Walker
Mr. Knightsbridge by Louise Bay
To Sir, with Love by Lauren Layne
Mrs. Nash’s Ashes by Sarah Adler
Lady Derring Takes a Lover by Julie Anne Long
The Sins of Lord Lockwood by Meredith Duran
The Captain’s Cook by Victoria Vanransom
His Royal Highness by R.S. Grey
The Handbook to Handling His Lordship by Suzanne Enoch
Madam, Will You Talk? by Mary Stewart

I haven’t read any of these yet! Have you?

The Spellshop by Sarah Beth Durst | Book Review

Posted July 10, 2025 by Jana in Adult Fiction, Book Review / 5 Comments

The Spellshop by Sarah Beth Durst
Series: Spellshop #1
Narrator: Caitlin Davies
Published by Macmillan Audio on July 9, 2024
Genres: Fantasy, Fantasy Romance, Romance, Romantasy
Pages: 377
Length: 12 hours and 11 minutes
Format: Audiobook
Source: Audible
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The Spellshop is Sarah Beth Durst’s romantasy debut–a lush cottagecore tale full of stolen spellbooks, unexpected friendships, sweet jams, and even sweeter love.

Kiela has always had trouble dealing with people. Thankfully, as a librarian at the Great Library of Alyssium, she and her assistant, Caz—a magically sentient spider plant—have spent the last decade sequestered among the empire’s most precious spellbooks, preserving their magic for the city’s elite.

When a revolution begins and the library goes up in flames, she and Caz flee with all the spellbooks they can carry and head to a remote island Kiela never thought she’d see again: her childhood home. Taking refuge there, Kiela discovers, much to her dismay, a nosy—and very handsome—neighbor who can’t take a hint and keeps showing up day after day to make sure she’s fed and to help fix up her new home.

In need of income, Kiela identifies something that even the bakery in town doesn’t have: jam. With the help of an old recipe book her parents left her and a bit of illegal magic, her cottage garden is soon covered in ripe berries.

But magic can do more than make life a little sweeter, so Kiela risks the consequences of using unsanctioned spells and opens the island’s first-ever and much needed secret spellshop.

Like a Hallmark rom-com full of mythical creatures and fueled by cinnamon rolls and magic, The Spellshop will heal your heart and feed your soul.

Do you need a warm hug? How about a cozy evening by the fire with your pet, a snack, and your favorite blanket? Or maybe a kiss on the cheek from your favorite person in the world? That’s what The Spellshop is. This book is cozy and wholesome and sweet and magical, and it was just the balm my world-weary soul needed. I loved it so, so much that it’s taken me nearly a year to read it because I have no words. I loved everything about it, and I know that this is a book I will turn to again and again when there’s too much going on and I need an escape.

The heroine, Kiela, is a librarian who works with now outlawed spellbooks. The library is attacked by rebels and she takes her library assistant (Caz, a talking spider plant who I simply adored. He’s hilarious.) and the most valuable spellbooks and flees to the little island where she grew up, Caltrey. The island was once controlled by magic, so the crops flourished and there were magical animals (merhorses). But now since magic is banned, the place is falling apart. She and her plant start using magic to grow fruit so they can make jam to sell, plus home remedies (aka secret, illegal magical spells) to help people revive their plants. So there’s lots of magic, a cute little cottage with jams and herbs, magical beings (like a centaur baker), a merhorse farmer (baby merhorses!), forest sprites who come to Kiela for help and give cute gifts in return, and a love story blooming on the side. The secondary characters are all like family, and the entire island is peaceful and happy. Everyone knows everyone, and they take care of each other. The writing is really pretty, with lots of descriptions of the scenery and this place sounds stunning. Very low stakes (but there are stakes, so I was fully invested and eager to see how certain things played out), precious characters, and an absolute joy to read. The audiobook was wonderful! The narrator did a great job, especially with Caz’s voice. She made him even cuter than he was on the page!

All in all, I highly recommend this sweet little story. As soon as I finished listening to the audio, I ran and bought the beautiful hardcover with lavender sprayed edges so I can gaze at it and hug it like a silly person. I am just about the start the next book in this series, The Enchanted Greenhouse (I promised myself I would write this review before starting it), and am so excited to return to this world! The Spellshop is the perfect gateway book to the cozy fantasy genre, and I want to curl up here and stay a while.

Do you have any cozy fantasy book recommendations for me?

Top Ten Books I’d Like to Re-read Soon

Posted July 7, 2025 by Jana in Top Ten Tuesday / 14 Comments

Welcome to another TTT! This week’s topic was submitted through the topic request form by Becky @ Becky’s Book Blog and is Books I’d Like to Re-read! I’ve done this topic before so I added the “soon”, which means that I’m actually hoping to prioritize re-reading these books now. I’m in a book slump and I’m hoping that re-reading some favorites will help get me back in the groove! So here we go!

Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros (all three books, actually)
The Diamond Eye by Kate Quinn
Enemies Abroad by R.S. Grey
The Christmas Dress by Courtney Cole
Call Me Maybe by Cara Bastone
Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir
The Twelve Dates of Christmas by Jenny Bayliss
Cold-Hearted Rake by Lisa Kleypas (the entire Ravenels series)
You Deserve Each Other by Sarah Hogle
Desert Island Duke by Kate Bateman

What book have you been itching to re-read?

Are you a re-reader? I never used to be because I felt like I didn’t have time to re-read books when my TBR is a millennium long but I’ve come around to it because I’ve discovered the comfort reads exist and make me happy!