By Mattie Lugar; Photo Credits to Mattie Lugar
Out of all eight books in this series, I think this one by far is my favorite for a number of reasons. This volume takes us through July and August and we get to see one of my favorite St. Crispian’s traditions. Every July, a scavenger hunt is put on for elusive tickets to the local production of Julius Caesar. You would think nothing crazy would happen right? Well, while on the search for her tickets, Emma once again finds herself in an odd predicament.
Like with both the Duke of Islington and Niall Pierce, we get to know a little bit more about Nigel Hawkes, commonly referred to as Young Hawkes, who is the vicar for St. Crispian’s. These three characters soon become part of Emma’s innermost circle of close friends, and many people are speculating that Emma will end up with one of the three when the series finally concludes, whenever that may be.
While these books are often fun and light-hearted, they also do a fantastic job of handling and dealing with heavy and complex emotions like grief. Emma’s first love tragically died in war and on the anniversary of his death, we see Emma walk through hard emotions. I think it was at this exact moment that truly made this series feel real to me. We are seeing characters with complicated pasts and characters going through heavy mental states, and it makes them feel so much more human to me and not just a series where silly and impossible things happen.
On a more personal note, there’s a piece of literature referenced in this volume that truly shocked me when I first saw it, as it’s something I had to read for a class. “Self-Reliance” by Ralph Waldo Emerson is referenced here and also in more volumes going forward, but when I saw I was assigned to read it for a class I fully thought I was somehow entering into St. Crispian’s myself.
The end of this book also introduces us to my absolute favorite group of characters, the Reprobrates Ten. I truly can only describe them as a ragtag group of misfits and harbingers of chaos; I truly adore them. They are all friends of Young Hawkes and throughout the rest of the series pop up at the most random of times and drag Emma into the silliest of adventures.
I don’t think I can recommend this series enough, especially because volume nine is coming out this February!