Down the Rabbit Hole

Top Ten Tuesday was created by The Broke and the Bookish in June of 2010 and was moved to That Artsy Reader Girl in January of 2018. It was born of a love of lists, a love of books, and a desire to bring bookish friends together.

We’re halfway through January and it’s time to put up some bookish goals for the year. I hope I’ll do better this year but I also don’t want to put that pressure on myself to absolutely meet them all. So here’s to putting this out there and seeing where 2024 takes me!

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4 star, adult

Review: Emily Wilde’s Map of the Otherlands

January 15, 2024January 15, 2024 Andge @ Down the Rabbit Hole

Series: Emily Wilde #2

When mysterious faeries from other realms appear at her university, curmudgeonly professor Emily Wilde must uncover their secrets before it’s too late in this heartwarming, enchanting second installment of the Emily Wilde series.

Emily Wilde is a genius scholar of faerie folklore—she just wrote the world’s first comprehensive of encylopaedia of faeries. She’s learned many of the secrets of the Hidden Folk 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. So 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 danger.

And she also has a new project to focus a map of the realms of faerie. While she is preparing her research, Bambleby lands her in trouble yet again, when assassins sent by Bambleby’s 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 Bambley’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.

Overall Recommendation:

Emily Wilde’s Map of the Otherlands dives straight back into the beautiful and whimsical world of Emily and her dryadology discoveries in the early 1900s. It’s everything I loved about book 1 but perhaps a little less loaded in everything. In this new setting in Austria, I liked how plot points left unresolved earlier are now coming into play. Overall, a masterful storytelling that leaves me wanting book 3 immediately.

I was so so lucky to have gotten my preorder copy of Emily Wilde’s Map of the Otherlands early to read it before it came out. The journey begins several months after book 1 concludes with Emily and Wendell on the hunt for hidden faerie doors so they can find a way into Wendell’s kingdom.

This book introduces new characters I adored like Ariadne, Emily’s niece who wants to be a dryadologist just like her. It also brought some characters I’m withholding judgment on so far, such as the old-fashioned, cantankerous Professor Rose, one of Emily and Wendell’s colleagues. On this new adventure, the stakes are still high as Wendell’s being tracked by his stepmother’s assassins.

In the mountains of Austria, Heather Fawcett continues to weave more legend and lore in Emily’s new journal dedicated to her research for a map of the faerie kingdoms and secret doors into them. I still love all the footnotes but I found there were less than its predecessor. In fact, that’s probably the one reason I couldn’t give this book a full 5 star rating. Everything felt just less than the first book. There were less character building interactions with the villagers, the pacing wasn’t quite as fast, and the worldbuilding wasn’t as heavy (though I suppose that’s a good thing for those who thought book 1 was an info dump).

Emily and Wendell’s connection continues to be strong as they face looming attacks from Faerie. The tension between them isn’t as present now that they’re not quite rivals anymore, but Wendell’s proposal still hangs over their heads with Emily sorting out her feelings. I do think the romance continues to be the perfect amount balanced with the fantastical elements of the story, with this book taking their romance further.

I will say my favourite part is the way Heather brings together plot lines from earlier that were left open and have now become important in this sequel. Emily’s knowledge of faeries and her fearlessness continues to help her in the varying situations she and her companions find themselves embroiled in. I wish there was a little more action in this book but I suppose it happens when it’s only book 2. I honestly can’t wait to see where this series takes us. It’s definitely an auto-buy series for me.

discussion

Let’s Talk Bookish – Are Reading Goals Worth it?

January 12, 2024 Fives @ Down The Rabbit Hole

Aria @ Book Nook Bits is the new host for Let’s Talk Bookish! If you aren’t following her yet, good check out her blog and give her a follow!

January 12: Are Reading Goals Worth It?

Prompts: Did you set reading goals for 2024? Have you set reading goals in past years? Do they motivate you to read more, or do they make reading more stressful? What kinds of goals, if any, are the most motivating to you? Have you noticed a change in your reading since you started blogging? How about goals you set?

Welcome back to another week of LTB here at DTRH, everyone! Today’s topic dives into reading goals, and whether they’re actually worth it or not. Also, do they even work? I’m sure there are differing opinions on this, though I feel like it’s very common in the bookish community to at least set a minimum number of books as a goal per year.

I didn’t set anything too concrete as a reading goal in 2024. I set a rather modest number of books as a goal, but nothing much beyond that. Between all the busy-ness of life, it’s really easy to plan too much and have a lot of things fall to the wayside as the schedule for the year actually shapes up. I think this year will be another year of just a vague number that I will probably reach. I think I will try and set little goals along the way if anything pops up, but I try not to be overly ambitious just because it’s January.

I think the goal can be both motivating and stressful. One the one hand it reminds me that I wanted to read a certain number of books. On the other hand, if I don’t want to read then it just reminds me of how much I haven’t read and still don’t want to read. I think I know my goals are generally reachable, so I don’t need to stress too much about it. Therefore for me, goals are mostly just motivational, and a small track record of my progress throughout the year. There are inevitably slower and faster months, and I think I have gotten used to that for the most part.

I usually just pick an arbitrary number as my bookish reading goal, but I think I will also slowly think of other small goals I may want to do in the near future, be it genre, author, or perhaps topic-related goals. I find that little short-term goals with a more specific objective in mind tends to help me to be focused on the goal, and to encourage me to continue. Often this will be set off by a particular book, and I think getting the ball rolling is important to timely completion of the goal.

I definitely have noticed a change since blogging. I often think of whether the book I read would be up for review on the blog, and if not, perhaps it may have to take the backburner sometimes. But most of the time I am into reading thrillers, and of course I just want to provide as comprehensive a library as possible (slowly!) for readers, and honestly, myself.

My goals haven’t changed too too much over the years, and I think I like it and will continue with it. It allows me to be flexible when things come up for better or for worse, and if I make it over my goal, that’s great! And even if not, it really isn’t a big deal. I mostly just want to make sure that I was able to enjoy my year of reading, and to not forget about it too often, which I think blogging has helped with significantly.

How about you all? Are goals more encouraging or more of a hinderance? Or does it depend on the kind of goal? Let me know what works for you all in the comments below!