Not Quite by the Book: A Novel
Family Life Fiction/Women’s Domestic Life Fiction/Contemporary Romance
Setting – Massachusetts
Publisher : Lake Union Publishing (March 1, 2025)
Paperback : 317 pages
ISBN-10 : 1662523467
ISBN-13 : 978-1662523465
Kindle ASIN : B0D4R9C5S5
A bookstore owner discovers that life as a recluse isn’t for everyone in this sharp yet sweet novel about how sometimes you need to abandon the quest for love to find your true passion.
Emma Rini is in a rut so deep she could shelve books there. While her sister awaits her first baby, and her parents kick off retirement with vow renewals and travel, Emma stays put among the stacks of the family bookshop.
In fact, she can’t remember the last time she took a vacation. Or had a romance that hovered above disappointing. When her parents assume she’ll take over the shop for them without a break, she realizes she needs to get away—back to the nineteenth century. Channeling her favorite poet recluse, Emily Dickinson, Emma rents a crumbling manor house outside Amherst where she can learn how to be quietly, blissfully alone.
But becoming a world-weary spinster isn’t easy. She can’t start a fire or reason with the bunnies that are destroying the garden. She finds herself sparring constantly with the grumpy-hot architect who is renovating the manor. And then there’s the secret admirer who keeps sending her complicated floral messages…
No matter what she does, the outside world keeps knocking, and Emma starts to dream about the future. Will she forgo love for the family legacy? And will she shrink away or become the sort of bold person fortune favors?
Dollycas’s Thoughts
Emma Rini has been left to run the family bookstore while her sister and her husband get ready for the birth of the first child and her parents celebrate another vow renewal and travel while planning to retire from the bookshop soon. These changes won’t change anything for Emma because her entire life has been the bookstore. No vacations, no romantic relationships, just shelving and selling books. After she sees her family all having fun without her and assumes she will keep the store going after their retirement Emma hits a breaking point. If she ever has a chance of any “me time”, it is now.
Emma’s favorite poet is Emily Dickinson and she has the chance to stay in a deteriorating manor house in Amherst, Dickinson’s hometown, and find her inner Emily. She quickly books a six-week stay. But living a reclusive life isn’t as easy as she thought. The manor is cold and can’t build a fire. She planted a garden but the rabbits decided it was planted as their lunch. The handyman’s visits to help her are contentious. Plus she keeps receiving flowers with unsigned cards. Did she have a secret admirer?
She finds herself pulled in several directions. She has some big decisions to make. Does she finally put herself first? or will she return to what she had hoped to leave behind?
I have read several of Emily Dickinson’s poems over the years so the theme of this story made me excited to read this book.
I immediately felt for Emma. Family businesses are hard when everyone is on the same page but horrendous when one person is left responsible for everything. Emma is just like I was, not wanting to make waves, so she holds everything in but I was still upset with her family for making assumptions and decisions and not including her in the conversations. The people she met in Amherst were interesting and felt true to life. She met several at a letter-writing class at the local bookstore and I love the whole idea of the class. Davis, first known as the “handyman” turned out to be her landlord and an architect with a plan to renovate the manor as soon as possible. He is also very easy on the eyes. Plus, he has an adorable dog.
Emma tries so hard to do things Emily Dickson did but she does start to open up slowly. She is unsure about a lot of things, putting more pressure on herself every day. Davis also deals with pressure and strife within these pages. I had fun watching them grow right up to the final page. One mystery in the story was evident to me quickly but that didn’t lessen my enjoyment of this story. Another was a mystery until it was revealed.
Not Quite by the Book is a fun entertaining read. I was drawn in more with each chapter. The pacing was perfect. The world-building created great imagery and loved that the wi-fi was nonexistent in the manor. For me, it was A Perfect Escape.
I voluntarily reviewed an Advance Reader Copy. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review. Thank you to Amazon for providing me with an ARC through their First Reads Program.
Your Escape Into A Good Book Travel Agent
About Julie Hatcher
Julie Hatcher is an award-winning and bestselling author of mystery and romantic suspense. She’s published more than sixty novels since her debut in 2013 and currently writes series as herself, as well as under multiple pen names, for Lake Union Publishing, Harlequin, Kensington, Sourcebooks, and Crooked Lane Books.
Julie is the 2022 Maggie Award Winner for romantic suspense, the 2020 Golden Quill Award Winner for Series Romance, a double finalist (and winner) of the 2020 National Readers Choice Award for Romance Adventure, a 2019 double-finalist (and winner) of the Daphne Du Maurier Award for Mystery & Suspense, the 2019 Stiletto Award for Romantic Suspense and the 2019 National Excellence in Romance Fiction Award for romantic suspense.
She is a member of national Sisters in Crime, as well as a local board member, a member of Romance Writers of America, International Thriller Writers, Independent Book Publishers Association, Midwest Book Publishers Association, Mystery Writers of America, Women’s Fiction Writing Association, and Novelists Inc.
She’s ghostwritten for NYT Bestselling authors and led classes and workshops for numerous writers conferences, libraries and groups on topics from plotting and outlining mysteries, to social media 101.
Julie’s recently expanded her industry knowledge and experience by taking the self-publishing plunge. She founded Cozy Queen Publishing LLC in 2020 and coordinated her efforts with a team of professionals from her traditional writing world to launch a new cozy mystery series in September 2021, with 12 titles available now.
When Julie’s not creating new worlds or fostering the epic love of fictional characters, she can be found in Kent, Ohio, enjoying her blessed Midwestern life. And probably plotting murder with her shamelessly enabling friends. Today she hopes to make someone smile. One day she plans to change the world.
Website Facebook Threads Instagram
Julie Hatcher
also writing as Julie Anne Lindsey, Jacqueline Frost, Bree Baker
Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from the publisher. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. Receiving a complimentary copy in no way reflected my review of this book. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.” “As an Amazon Associate, I earn a commission from qualifying purchases.” I am also an affiliate of Bookshop.org and I will earn a commission if you click through and make a purchase.”
, 
, and 
. In her previous life she was CEO/Creative Director of her own marketing firm and authored several screenplays. She is married to a professor of Chinese art history, loves to travel, rides horses, enjoys fundraising for various non-profits, and has two Chinese Shar-Pei dogs.
– set in the historic district of Charleston and featuring Theodosia Browning, owner of the Indigo Tea Shop. Theodosia is a savvy entrepreneur, and pet mom to service dog Earl Grey. She’s also an intelligent, focused amateur sleuth who doesn’t rely on coincidences or inept police work to solve crimes. This charming series is highly atmospheric and rife with the history and mystery that is Charleston.
– a slightly edgier series that takes place in New Orleans. The main character, Carmela, owns Memory Mine scrapbooking shop in the French Quarter and is forever getting into trouble with her friend, Ava, who owns the Juju Voodoo shop. New Orleans’ spooky above-ground cemeteries, jazz clubs, bayous, and Mardi Gras madness make their presence known here!
– set in Kindred, a fictional town in the Midwest. In a rehabbed Spur station, Suzanne, Toni, and Petra, three semi-desperate, forty-plus women have launched the Cackleberry Club. Eggs are the morning specialty here and this cozy cafe even offers a book nook and yarn shop. Business is good but murder could lead to the cafe’s undoing! This series offers recipes, knitting, cake decorating, and a dash of spirituality.
While Toni Lotempio does not commit – or solve – murders in real life, she has no trouble doing it on paper. Her lifelong love of mysteries began early on when she was introduced to her first Nancy Drew mystery at age 10 – The Secret in the Old Attic. She and her cat pen the Nick and Nora mystery series originally from Berkley Prime Crime and now with Beyond the Page Publishing. They also write the Urban Tails Pet Shop Mysteries and the Tiffany Austin Food Blogger Mysteries, also available from Beyond the Page. A new series, Cozy Bookshop Mysteries, debuts from Severn House in July. Catch up with them at ROCCO’s blog, 
