Emily Wilde’s Map of the Otherlands by Heather Fawcett
Publication Date: January 16, 2023
Summary from NetGalley:
Emily Wilde is a genius scholar of faerie folklore who just wrote the world’s first comprehensive encyclopaedia of faeries. She’s learned many of the secrets of the Hidden Ones on her adventures . . . and also from her fellow scholar and former rival Wendell Bambleby.
Because Bambleby is more than infuriatingly charming. He’s an exiled faerie king on the run from his murderous mother and in search of a door back to his realm. And despite Emily’s feelings for Bambleby, she’s not ready to accept his proposal of marriage: Loving one of the Fair Folk comes with secrets and dangers.
She also has a new project to focus on: a map of the realms of faerie. While she is preparing her research, Bambleby lands her in trouble yet again, when assassins sent by his mother invade Cambridge. Now Bambleby and Emily are on another adventure, this time to the picturesque Austrian Alps, where Emily believes they may find the door to Bambleby’s realm and the key to freeing him from his family’s dark plans.
But with new relationships for the prickly Emily to navigate and dangerous Folk lurking in every forest and hollow, Emily must unravel the mysterious workings of faerie doors and of her own heart.
ARC provided by Random House via NetGalley for an honest review.
Confession:
This is the second book in the series. If you would like to read my review of the first book click here.
This was a very fun edition to this cozy fantasy series and I did enjoy it for the most part. There was lots of adventures and encounters with the fair folk and Emily and Wendell had lots of witty banter and intellectual jousting that I enjoyed. But I didn’t like this one quite as much as the first, and I can’t quite decide why.
Emily is still the same character that we all fell in love with in the first book, but she has shown some growth in this one. She is perhaps a tad less antisocial, as she does try to interact more with the villagers she encounters. But she mostly leaves it up to the other people she is with to charm and learn from the locals. She is also better at accepting help, not only from Wendell, but also others who she encounters along the way. Emily continues to look at the problems before her and to solve them in her own way. She is still headstrong and is more likely to run off without a plan, but she is learning that that maybe isn’t the best solution.
Wendell is still delightfully fun, even though he is having issues with his magic. He so flamboyant and enigmatic with his personality that he instantly charms almost everyone he meets. I love that he finds little ways to improve their surroundings with and without magic, although his insistence that everything is filthy, when it is perfectly clean, is a bit annoying. I love his relationship with Emily and how patient he is with her. The love they have for each other is evident even when they are at odds in the way to go about things.
We are introduced to two new characters that I also really like, Ariadna and Dr. Rose. Ariadna is Emily’s assistant and also her niece. Emily at times is not very nice to her, but I think she means well and only has her best interest at heart. Ariadna is young and still hasn’t learned that the fae are not to be trusted, but she is a delight in all of the scenes she is in. Their relationship improves over the course of the books. Dr. Rose is the head of Emily’s department and insists on coming with them on their adventures. He isn’t very likable, but he does end up being someone they can trust and depend on.
We meet lots of new creatures in this story and finally get a glimpse of Wendell’s home. Some of the new creatures are quite terrifying, but some soon become new allies. We also have an appearance from Poe, who was in the first book, which was wonderful. I also really like that Emily has kept in touch with the friends she made in the first book, and they help her out as well.
The story is again told through journal entries, which I still love as a way to tell this story. Hearing about Emily and Wendell’s encounters with the fae in this manner makes it more interesting and humorous. The author does a great job of describing the scenes and surroundings that the characters find themselves in. You almost feel like you are in the Swiss Alps yourself! I also really like her footnotes, although the formatting of those needs some work, which I’m sure will be fixed in the final product.
Overall, this was a great second installment to this series. Although I still love the first book more, this one does have its charms. I am looking forward to the next one and finding out what happens to Emily and Wendell as they embark on a new adventure.
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