Karoline’s Reviews > The Unselected Journals of Emma M. Lion: Vol. 1 > Status Update

Um, so a mysterious stranger has shown up amidst a riot of portents and I'm worried. Don't succumb to dark, mysterious, seaborne strangers with a limp Emma!!!! More than one god was tossed out of heaven and at least one of them limps!

Also, I see you Henry V.

Also, this book is thoroughly charming and a very short, quick read.

Ok how many mythologies can an author summon in 30 pages? because we've already met Milton's Satan, a Roman ghost, a Greek goddess, a Wodehousian aunt, a church built on a Celtic burial mound, a not-quite-unmagical neighborhood named after St. Crispian ("we band of brothers?") and a magician-vicar who commands the powers of Prospero's Ariel and reads aloud the Romantic poets. Waiting to see where all of this goes....

I've been doing that thing where I refuse to read a popular book because Kindle keeps shoving it in my face. But Cindy Rollins said it's good fun, and that's my cue. I concede.

And I'm already feeling reassured because it's page 3 and the heroine is in the attic and finds a copy of Milton and HELLO PARADISE LOST.

Any contemporary author who will invoke Milton almost on page one has my immediate attention.