Emily Wilde’s Encyclopedia of Faeries

Emily Wilde's Encyclopaedia of Faeries by Heather Fawcett
Series: Emily Wilde Series #1
Published by Random House Worlds on January 10, 2023
Genres: Fiction / Fantasy / Action & Adventure, Fiction / Fantasy / Romance
Pages: 352
Format: eBook
Source: Amazon

NATIONAL BESTSELLER • A curmudgeonly professor journeys to a small town in the far north in this “incredibly fun journey through fae lands and dark magic” (NPR), the start of a heartwarming and enchanting new fantasy series.

“A darkly gorgeous fantasy that sparkles with snow and magic.”—Sangu Mandanna, author of The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches

A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR: The New York Times Book Review, NPR, PopSugar, Polygon, The Globe and Mail, She Reads

Cambridge professor Emily Wilde is good at many things: She is the foremost expert on the study of faeries. She is a genius scholar and a meticulous researcher who is writing the world’s first encyclopaedia of faerie lore. But Emily Wilde is not good at people. She could never make small talk at a party—or even get invited to one. And she prefers the company of her books, her dog, Shadow, and the Fair Folk to other people.

So when she arrives in the hardscrabble village of Hrafnsvik, Emily has no intention of befriending the gruff townsfolk. Nor does she care to spend time with another new arrival: her dashing and insufferably handsome academic rival Wendell Bambleby, who manages to charm the townsfolk, muddle Emily’s research, and utterly confound and frustrate her.

But as Emily gets closer and closer to uncovering the secrets of the Hidden Ones—the most elusive of all faeries—lurking in the shadowy forest outside the town, she also finds herself on the trail of another mystery: Who is Wendell Bambleby, and what does he really want? To find the answer, she’ll have to unlock the greatest mystery of all—her own heart.

Book One of the Emily Wilde Series

My Review

I am afraid I might have figured out a bit of a problem with my book buying…I am highly influenced by Booktube. That is how this book came into my life. I must say, though, that I am not mad about it because I enjoyed reading this one. In fact, I appreciated it so much that I rushed out to get the next in this series, Emily Wilde’s Map of the Otherlands. I feel that the first book ended on a bit of a cliffhanger, like it left you wanting to know more about a couple of characters. Reader, I will be honest: I just can’t handle a cliffhanger, so the need for the next book was a strong one.

Enough of my ramblings on buying books and the need for the next in the series; let me get onto this review already. I went into this book thinking about faeries in the sense of Tinker Bell, and let me just tell you I was wrong. Tinker Bell is far from what the faeries were in this story, even though they were not all bad. Still, some of them were downright terrifying. No matter the type of faerie, Emily Wilde has a job to do, and that is to write her Encyclopedia.

Emily Wilde is the type of woman with no time for nonsense and tends to do better with books and research rather than people. This lack of people skills is really a problem when it comes to entering a small, close-knit village in search of fae for her book. Emily does not mean to seem rude or ungrateful; she is just lost in her own world and has no intentions of befriending the villagers. Her newest adventure has taken her to a small village near (or maybe in) Norway. There she is, searching for The Hidden Ones, a type of faerie that is not well known and would be perfect for her encyclopedia. This encyclopedia will be the first of its kind, and she intends to make it remarkable. She wants to create a name for herself in the academic world, much like her coworker and rival Wendell Brambleby.

Wendell Brambleby is everything that Emily Wilde is not. He is a very social individual who enjoys the company of anyone who will listen to his embellished stories and gaze upon his good looks. He is also unable to pass up others doing the work for him because he is a bit lazy. Emily finds him to be infuriating, especially once he arrives on the island not long after she has settled in herself. He has managed to make friends with the villagers in no time, unlike herself, who has only seemed to make enemies of them but has no understanding of how that happened.

Emily and Wendell soon fall into a rhythm of living together that allows them to work on her encyclopedia and, frankly, not drive Emily to kill him. Wendell has a way of driving Emily crazy, but she is not blind either and finds him to be attractive; however, something just isn’t right about Wendell, and she can’t quite put her finger on it. He is almost too good-looking and too good with people, kind of like he has some power over them. Could he be fae? Wendell is not as shallow and useless as he makes himself seem. He has a story about him that is a rather interesting one and a sad one. One that I enjoyed getting to know.

This book contains all the cozy vibes, mystery, adventure, friendship, love, and discovery. If you are looking for a cozy fantasy this winter season, then I absolutely recommend Emily Wilde’s Encyclopedia of Faeries to you. I do not think that you will be disappointed in this one, Reader. It ends on a cliffhanger, so just be prepared for that because I was not. I am so glad Booktube influenced me to pick this one up because I immensely enjoyed it. Please let me know if you decide to read this book because I am always excited to talk books. Until next time, Reader, Happy Reading.

Trigger Warnings:

• Kidnapping
• Murder
• Blood and Gore