Christina Lauren’s newest novella length read, The Exception to the Rule, is a super cute and adorable story. Perfect for completing in an afternoon (with the length being at about 2 hours for listening or 100 e-reader pages), I found myself invested in the story very quickly. While the first half of the story is told in emails with short interactions over the course of years before the main characters even know each other’s names (let alone meet in person), I never found it jarring or off putting. In fact, I think the audiobook narrators Marli Watson and Andrew Gibson did a great job bringing Terra and Callum’s messages to life in a very authentic way. With the inevitable meeting taking years to come to fruition, there was a lot of delayed gratification (for both myself and T/C) but it was well worth the wait. I also want to note how much I appreciate the way the authors wrapped up the story (which doesn’t always happen with novellas); it felt complete and they even threw in an epilogue with a glimpse of life in the future for the two love birds which was a nice touch.
If you’re already a fan of Christina Lauren’s work or just a fan of swoon-worthy, meet-cute stories filled with tropes in general, I highly recommend this book. I’m looking forward to checking out the other stories in The Improbable Meet Cute series as soon as possible.
Yes, there are two of us! Christina (on the left) and Lauren (on the right).
Christina Lauren is the combined pen name of long-time writing partners and best friends Christina Hobbs and Lauren Billings. The #1 international bestselling coauthor duo writes both Young Adult and Adult Fiction, and together has produced eighteen New York Times bestselling novels. They are published in over 30 languages, have received multiple starred reviews, won both the Seal of Excellence and Book of the Year from RT Magazine, been inducted into the Library Reads Hall of Fame, named Amazon and Audible Romance of the Year, a Lambda Literary Award finalist and been nominated for several Goodreads Choice Awards. They have been featured in publications such as Forbes, The Atlantic, The Washington Post, Time, Entertainment Weekly, People, O Magazine and more. Their third YA novel, Autoboyography was released in 2017 to critical acclaim, followed by Roomies, Love and Other Words, Josh and Hazel’s Guide to Not Dating, The Unhoneymooners, In a Holidaze, and The Soulmate Equation and Something Wilder.
Lauren Billings (but everyone calls her Lo) has a Ph.D. in neuroscience and before she made writing her full-time job, would spend her days doing nerdy research-type things wearing a lab coat and goggles. She is silly Mommy to two littles, wife to one mountain biking homebrewing scientist, and an unabashed lover of YA and romance.
Christina Hobbs (but you’ll always hear Lo call her PQ) used to spend her days in a junior high counseling office surrounded by teenagers. These days you can find her at her desk, writing, or watching BTS videos. She lives in Utah with her husband and daughter, thinks she’s the luckiest person in the world to write books with her best friend, and is an unapologetic lover of boy bands and glitter.
Credit Brystan Studios/Lori Brystan.
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