Synopsis:
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.
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?
Review:
My track record with these Amazon Original romance novellas isn’t great. I’ve enjoyed less than half of them but The Exception to the Rule was pretty good. I’ve owned books by Christina Lauren for so long but have never picked one up, this has convinced me that I need to read one soon.
One of the only real negatives I have to talk about is how the audiobook was narrated. Don’t get me wrong, the acting and narration was good but the constant reading out who the email was from, to and the subject was actually quite irritating. Especially when they were sending quick replies to each other. If I was reading the ebook, I would skip over those parts and just read the actual messages. I know who is emailing who, it’s the whole point of the book.
I think the reason why The Exception to the Rule worked so well was because you get to see their relationship build over almost a decade. Even though this book is very short, a lot of time is spent building their connection and it only got better once they’d met but didn’t realise. They’d actually (kind of) known each other for a while, which makes it even better.
There’s something about a character thinking they’re falling for two separate people (one who is anonymous) without realising they’re the same person. “Do you ever have a feeling about someone? Like they’re your safe space and, I don’t know, like someday it could be more?” I swallow, nodding. “Yeah. Of course.” I’m looking right at her. “I have a feeling about him.” But the thing is, when she looks up at me and our eyes lock, I’m pretty sure she has a feeling about me, too.” Imagine falling in love with the same person twice.
There’s not a whole lot you can say about such short books, but I did genuinely enjoy The Exception to the Rule. It’s definitely the best instalment in the Improbable Meet Cute series.
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