A novella I loved: The Exception to the Rule by Christina Lauren

“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?”

―from the book.

It's so fascinating how some books instantly draw you in. I was reading the sample of this book on Kindle, and by the time I reached the ending of the sample, I knew I had to read this novella.

I keep talking about Love Virtually and Every Seventh Wave by Daniel Glattauer. They're my absolute QQfavourites, of course. I recently reread these books and loved them again (and I just learnt that there's a film called ‘The Space Between the Lines’, which is based on the novel ‘Love Virtually’ (my favourite), and I'm not going to watch it) because I fear it might ruin my imagination.

So, I mentioned these books on Twitter recently and Pratibha (who also loves Love Virtually) recommended a novella 'Exception to the Rules’ by Christina Lauren. The reason why she recommended this novella was that just like Love Virtually, it's written in an epistolary (emails) format. However, unlike Love Virtually and Every Seventh Wave, ‘Exception to the Rule' is not entirely epistolary, as the last couple of chapters are told from a dual point of view, along with the email exchanges. 

And I have this thing for texts/emails/notes exchanges. In books, I mean. I usually like such books.

'The Exception to the Rule' the first book in the 'Improbable Meet Cute Series', which I enjoyed thoroughly.

(Sadly, none of the other books in the series worked for me. So, I basically didn't read them).

Two teenagers accidentally get in touch via an email on Valentine's Day. And then they made a rule to write to each other every Valentine's Day, just once a year, without revealing any information about them (that's the main rule). They continue to do so for 10 years, and then finally they decide to meet up.

It's a 100 page book. And so adorable. The 10 year span is not tiring at all, in fact you see them becoming friends and then developing a crush on each and then eventually falling in love. Well, Love Virtually and Every Seventh Wave (its sequel) remains my favourite; that story is more mature, much deeper. But this novella, too, was a lovely, entertaining read!

Have you read it? Do you enjoy reading epistolary novels?

Written for Blogchatter's TBR Challenge