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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.

4 star, YA

Review: House of Marionne by J. Elle

December 18, 2023December 18, 2023 Andge @ Down the Rabbit Hole

Series: House of Marionne #1

Rich is the blood of the chosen

17 year-old Quell has lived her entire life on the run. She and her mother have fled from city to city, in order to hide the deadly magic that flows through Quell’s veins.

Until someone discovers her dark secret.

To hide from the assassin hunting her, and keep her mother out of harm’s way, Quell reluctantly inducts into a debutante society of magical social elites called the Order that she never knew existed. If she can pass their three rites of membership, mastering their proper form of magic, she’ll be able to secretly bury her forbidden magic forever.

If caught, she will be killed.

But becoming the perfect debutante is a lot harder than Quell imagined, especially when there’s more than tutoring happening with Jordan, her brooding mentor and— assassin in training.

When Quell uncovers the deadly lengths the Order will go to defend its wealth and power, she’s forced to choose: embrace the dark magic she’s been running from her entire life or risk losing everything, and everyone, she’s grown to love.

Still, she fears the most formidable monster she’ll have to face is the one inside.

Overall Recommendation:

House of Marionne takes us to the exciting world of magical boarding schools where students learn more about their magic in order to integrate into their magical societies. So basically an older version of Harry Potter, right? I loved the introduction to the Houses and the various magic that can be learned. Quell’s overall journey to magic while hiding all of who she is kept the pace fast and tense. While the romance has yet to truly captivate my heart, time will only tell where it goes from here. This was a nice introductory book 1, but I really want book 2 now.

Set in the modern world where magic is hidden from the ordinary people with no magic in their blood, Quell is one of the unfortunate people born with dark magic, known as toushana, that only knows how to destroy, not create. I thought this overall arc tied the whole story together from the beginning when she was on the run with her mom to her journey to her grandmother’s House for magical training. Although the settings change and sometimes the outward focus of things in Quell’s life feels disjointed – I mean, she’s taking etiquette classes one moment and hiding from the Dragun on her tail the next – I do feel at least there’s an invisible connection between all things so nothing felt like weird and unnecessary filler.

The tension to hide Quell’s innate magic always gave me this sense of urgency and worry that kept the book pace elevated even during more mundane scenes. The info dump wasn’t too severe either as Quell was as unfamiliar to this world of magic as we were. I enjoyed learning alongside her the different trials she’d have to perform to bind fully with her magic, and the different Houses present in this magical society. I did wish in part that the learning aspect was both longer and more interesting. Etiquette classes just make me want to snooze, even with intriguing scenes with her mentor Jordan. I wouldn’t have minded more action packed magical learning instead.

Speaking of Jordan, the romance was okay. I know, not a solid raving about the romance? Am I feeling okay? I suppose I didn’t connect with Jordan enough to love him as a character yet. He’s the stereotypical brooding male love interest who is both wary of Quell initially but reluctantly falls in love with her over the course of mentoring because he somehow knows she’s different. He never did anything unpredictable. I knew what he’d feel or maybe even do when, not if, he found out about her magic. Quell’s own feelings towards him didn’t feel particularly strong in a way that made sense from their briefly intense/emotionally charged moments together. I will wait to see if my feelings about them grow in book 2.

However, a person who was more three-dimensional was Yagrin, this unknown individual who was off to the side of the story but had his own POV chapters here and there. His perspective of this society and his role was a fascinating insight into the overall direction the story and series is moving towards as well as giving more depth to the world. I would love to see more of his perspective in the future also.

For the things I did wish connected me more to the story, I overall loved the flow and direction of this book. Having read it as an audiobook probably also helped. My pickiness on minor things is surely based on my own feelings around reading at the moment and perhaps may change in the future if I were to reread this again. I do look forward to seeing where Quell’s journey moves next.

5 star, adult

Review: Emily Wilde’s Encyclopaedia of Faeries by Heather Fawcett

October 9, 2023October 9, 2023 Andge @ Down the Rabbit Hole

Series: Emily Wilde #1

A curmudgeonly professor journeys to a small town in the far north to study faerie folklore and discovers dark fae magic, friendship, and love in the start of a heartwarming and enchanting new fantasy series.

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, and the Fair Folk.

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, get in the middle of 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.

Overall Recommendation:

With Emily’s unique voice set in a beautifully imaginative historical world where faeries live among us, Emily Wilde’s Encyclopaedia of Faeries stands itself firmly out among the crowd. Perfect for an autumn or winter read, this book transports you to this alternative history in early 1900s through Emily’s eyes as a researcher of the fae. I loved the extensive world building and Emily’s grumpy character to Wendell’s bubbly nature. The romance was slow burn while the world takes centre stage, but this is everything I could ask for. This is how a cozy historical fantasy should be done!

The hype was real with this book when it first came out, and I’m never too certain if I want to jump on board the hype train while it’s still hot. However, my workplace book club voted to read this so I gladly decided to pick it up now, a little behind most others, and I’m so happy I did.

Emily Wilde’s Encyclopaedia of Faeries is the perfect blend of coziness for an autumn/winter read, intrigue into the world building full of all sorts of faeries, and slow burn romance that makes me want to giggle like a young schoolgirl swinging her feet happily. To describe everything that I feel for this book is not going to be easy, but I can describe the tropes I found I really enjoyed.

Starting with characterization, our protagonist Emily is a grumpy introvert with perhaps more than a dash of social anxiety and a huge love of rational thinking. Think Kathy Reich’s protagonist Temperance Brennan kind of awkwardness and love for scientific discovery. I rather enjoyed Emily’s character, from start to finish. She grew a lot in her experiences at Ljosland as she hoped to finish her encyclopedia with an entry on the Hidden Ones found in this sub-Arctic country.

To balance her character, her mysterious colleague and sometimes rival, Wendell Bambleby was an enigma from the start. Bubbly personality that could charm pretty much anyone once he got started, he was the complete opposite of Emily in pretty much most ways. While he enjoyed his work on faeries, he was noted to have many students help him with the “hard” work and may have fabricated data for a study or two (whoops). His teamwork with Emily, though, was one of my favourite things. This was the true definition of a grumpy and sunshine couple, and I loved seeing their banter that brought out Emily’s snarkiness and his teasing. For fans of romance, I will say this was a very slow burn romance that barely constituted much in this book, however, I wouldn’t want it to change a thing as it sets the stage for so much more we can expect in the next book.

The mystery surrounding Wendell, as hinted in the synopsis, doesn’t actually come at the end but gradually builds which was a delightful surprise. It’s not that we know everything, but it’s enough to draw us forward for what’s to come. I thought that was beautifully done by Heather, and she may be an author to love based on this alone.

Other tropes I loved that was featured heavily is the concept of found family. Emily never made ties with the villagers in the remote locations she did field work for her research. She did her thing and left, no emotions or strings attached. But in an isolated place like Ljosland, when things go awry (and oh boy, do they have some interesting misadventures), you need someone to count on besides yourself. I really enjoyed seeing these secondary characters blossom a little, and how they brought out Emily’s softer side that wasn’t so rigid in empirical thinking.

The pace and world building were excellently done as well, something I find can be quite hard in books. Written as a detailed journal with dated entries, it never quite felt like the story was too long or the author dumped a load of information about the world for the sake of knowledge alone. References were made, including little intriguing footnotes, that made me want to know more instead of reading paragraphs full of descriptions that made me yawn. I thoroughly enjoyed this method of giving us information while being true to Emily’s experiences and her voice. If you’re a fan of Piranesi, I would think this similar writing style would be of interest to you.

I’ve done all this talking and I haven’t even gotten to the faeries yet. Honestly, even if this wasn’t a faerie book, there are just so many things to love already. But as it is a faerie book, I will mention there is so much creativity and imaginative thought put into this story. From different faerie stories collected Emily has collected in her research travels to the different species and their unique attributes/weaknesses, even the randomest details in Emily’s notes she references could play a larger role in the overall story than we know. The faeries range from scary/violent to little common fae I would love to meet. Heather has put care into describing them and crafting this folklore feel around everything. If I had to absolutely pick my most favourite element of this book, I’d have to go with this.

I could go on and gush more, but I will end off saying this book more than meets the hype. You may not think of yourself as a historical fantasy kind of reader, but you wouldn’t know until you try. There are so many elements here to love. In a similar vein to Rebecca Ross’ A River Enchanted, there’s not only magic in the story, but there is magic in reading the book itself.