Book Review: Emily Wilde’s Compendium of Lost Tales (Emily Wilde, #3) by Heather Fawcett

Posted in Book Reviews by Lisa @ Bookshelf Fantasies

Title: Emily Wilde’s Compendium of Lost Tales
Series: Emily Wilde, #3
Author: Heather Fawcett
Publisher: Del Rey
Publication date: February 11, 2025
Length: 368 pages
Genre: Fantasy
Source: Review copy courtesy of the publisher via NetGalley
Rating:

The third installment in the heartwarming and enchanting Emily Wilde series, about a curmudgeonly scholar of folklore and the fae prince she loves.

Emily Wilde has spent her life studying faeries. A renowned dryadologist, she has documented hundreds of species of Folk in her Encyclopaedia of Faeries. Now she is about to embark on her most dangerous academic project studying the inner workings of a faerie realm—as its queen.

Along with her former academic rival—now fiancé—the dashing and mercurial Wendell Bambleby, Emily is immediately thrust into the deadly intrigues of Faerie as the two of them seize the throne of Wendell’s long-lost kingdom, which Emily finds a beautiful nightmare filled with scholarly treasures.

Emily has been obsessed with faerie stories her entire life, but at first she feels as ill-suited to Faerie as she did to the mortal How can an unassuming scholar such as herself pass for a queen? Yet there is little time to settle in, for Wendell’s murderous stepmother has placed a deadly curse upon the land before vanishing without a trace. It will take all of Wendell’s magic—and Emily’s knowledge of stories—to unravel the mystery before they lose everything they hold dear.

The 3rd book in the Emily Wilde series picks up right where the 2nd book leaves off, but lacks the forward momentum and much of the charm that infuses the earlier books.

In the 2nd book, Emily Wilde’s Map of the Otherlands, dryadologist Emily Wilde locates the door to her fiancé Wendell’s kingdom (he’s actually a King of Fairie), so that he can return from exile; thanks to Emily outwitting (and poisoning) his wicked stepmother who’d stolen the throne, the kingdom is Wendell’s once again. As Emily Wilde’s Compendium of Lost Tales opens, Emily and Wendell have reentered his kingdom and are making their way to his castle.

And they seem to spend a very long time making their way… we spend an awfully long time just hearing about them walking through the forest, picking up assorted companions as they march along.

Eventually, the action picks up, and the narrative focuses both on Emily’s adjustment to life in the Faerie world, where she’s quite out of place as a mortal Queen despite Wendell’s best efforts to make her happy, and their investigation of a curse that’s infecting the kingdom. The previous queen is still somewhere in the kingdom, and she’s poured her poison into the land itself. It will take a dramatic, dire action to save the kingdom, and Emily wants to make sure that the cure for the infection won’t end up dooming Wendell.

Emily is a scholar and lives for research, so when action is called for, she heads for the books. One of the lovely aspects of the Emily Wilde books is how Emily relies on her academic research into folklore to provide clues to how to actually survive and solve puzzles while amongst the fae. In this case, she finds an obscure tale of a forgotten fae king that provides clues as to how to beat the old queen — but she is dismayed to realize that there may be no saving Wendell himself. Of course, Emily isn’t someone who gives up in the face of a challenge, and dives deeper into the research and also undertakes a highly risky quest in order to find a solution that saves the kingdom and the man she loves.

As in the previous books, Emily interacts with fae and mortals, and we’re treated to her scholarly tangents about the history, mythology, and sources related to all the various types of fae she meets. While some fae are absolutely terrifying, Emily’s scholarly curiosity sees her through, despite her fear and the dangers of her quest.

The book is told via Emily’s journal entries, which is effective to an extent… and yet, also removes any question about whether Emily herself survives any given situation. She’s writing a record of what she’s experienced, so we also know that she made it through any given danger before we even read about it. Something about the writing style puts the reader at a distance: We’re hearing about events after the fact, and even when the narrative describes an action sequence, it’s action that’s happened to the character already, thus depriving the narrative of a true sense of suspense.

I do really enjoy the world of Emily Wilde, but this third book feels oddly flat. By the end, the stakes and the plot pick up quite a bit, but as a reader, it’s hard to feel the sense of investment or emotion provided by the other two. Obviously, this isn’t meant to be a standalone, but it’s still disconcerting to pick up the book and feel like we’ve started in the middle of something. There’s an assumption that we already know the characters… and yet, the lack of character development is striking. We don’t learn anything further about them, and while we see them in action as the plotlines move forward, they don’t particular feel like living, breathing characters the way they did in the previous books.

I loved the previous two Emily Wilde books, but sadly, this one was only… okay. The 3rd book does a nice job of wrapping up the story and provides a very good outcome for Emily and Wendell. The slow start was discouraging, and it really takes quite a while before it feels as thought there’s any sort of story momentum. Eventually, I felt more involved and enjoyed the last half of the book much more than the beginning.

Readers who’ve read the first two Emily Wilde books will certainly want to read Emily Wilde’s Compendium of Lost Tales. As the trilogy’s conclusion, this book provides a satisfyingly happy ending, even though the slow pacing means it takes a while for the story to really gain traction and feel likes it’s actually moving.

Taken as a whole, I enjoyed the Emily Wilde trilogy very much and recommend them for anyone who enjoys a good fantasy foray into the world of Faerie… especially when narrated by a grumpy scholar. There’s a lot to love here, and I suspect I might not have felt the slow pace of the third book if I’d read the trilogy straight through… so that’s my reading advice to anyone new to the world of Emily Wilde: Start with the first book, and if it captures your imagination (and I think it will), keep going right away with books two and three!

10Jan2024

Book Review: Emily Wilde’s Map of the Otherlands by Heather Fawcett

Posted in Book Reviews by Lisa @ Bookshelf Fantasies

Title: Emily Wilde’s Map of the Otherlands
Author: Heather Fawcett
Publisher: Del Rey Books
Publication date: January 16, 2024
Length: 342 pages
Genre: Fantasy
Source: Review copy courtesy of the publisher via NetGalley
Rating:

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.

Emily Wilde is back! Last year’s Emily Wilde’s Encyclopaedia of Faeries was a smash hit — it seemed like everyone was talking about it! Book #2 picks up relatively soon after the first book ended, with Emily and Wendell back in Cambridge, immersed in the world of scholarship and academic competition.

And while Emily is still herself, putting her studies above everything else, she now has Wendell to temper her scholarly obsessions. Her gorgeous Faerie king (and university colleague) is determine to keep Emily comfortable and do what he can to take care of her, even when she clearly doesn’t care much about being pampered. She does care about Wendell, though, and her qualms about accepting his marriage proposal have nothing to do with whether she loves him and everything to do with how dangerous she knows the Fae to be.

When Wendell’s life is threatened and Emily starts receiving mysterious visitations, they set off to the Alps to chase down a lead, hoping to finally locate Wendell’s missing door back to his own Faerie realm. Nothing is easy, though, and there are dangers galore… along with an interesting assortment of both adorable and hideous magical creatures.

This second book is a total delight, living up to the promise of the first and delivering a terrific mix of nerdy scholarship and enchanting magic. Emily is a wonderful main character, following her own path no matter where it takes her, never willing to compromise when a new discovery beckons. (Who knows, maybe she’ll even write a paper about it!)

The adventure is lots of fun, the writing is funny and fast-paced, and the overall atmosphere combines a throwback to Victorian times with a heaping dose of magical intrigue and dangers. I did feel that the climax and resolution of the quest came about almost too quickly, after a lengthy build-up, but I still felt satisfied and engaged when I got to the end, and will definitely be back for more.

The Emily Wilde books are oodles of fun, with terrific characters, a novel approach to storytelling, captivating magical worlds, and plenty of geeky delights. If you enjoy the fantasy genre, you’ll definitely want to check out these books.

31Jan2023

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

Posted in Book Reviews by Lisa @ Bookshelf Fantasies

Title: Emily Wilde’s Encyclopaedia of Faeries
Author: Heather Fawcett
Publisher: Del Rey Books
Publication date: January 10, 2023
Length: 336 pages
Genre: Fantasy
Source: Review copy courtesy of the publisher via NetGalley
Rating:

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 this heartwarming and enchanting fantasy.

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, 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.

In this tale of professors and faeries, Emily Wilde is an introverted scholar who’d much rather be left to her own devices than be forced to (gasp!) chitchat with the locals at the tavern. Much to her dismay, this is exactly the situation she’s forced into when she travels to the land of Ljosland to study the Hidden Ones – the final type of fae she needs to document in order to finish her masterpiece, an exhaustive encyclopaedia of all types of faerie.

Emily’s antisocial tendencies initially cause offense among the locals, but when her colleague Wendell arrives to join (or take credit for?) her studies, he immediately charms everyone and smooths over Emily’s blunders. He’s gorgeous and charming and sets Emily’s teeth on edge, but he soon transforms their rented hovel into a cozy cottage and gets access to people’s help and their stories which had previously been denied her.

While Emily’s goal is to study, not interfere, she soon becomes aware of trouble in the little village. A couple lives in torment, and Emily soon realizes it’s because their true child has been replaced by a faerie changeling. What’s more, abductions of village youth by the fae are on the rise, and the villagers have given up hope of ever seeing their loved ones again. As potential romance blooms between Emily and Wendell, Emily decides to set things right with the village by seeking out and confronting the dangerous Faerie King — but her chances of walking away from the encounter are very doubtful.

Told through Emily’s journal, we read about her arrival in Hrafnsvik, the initial enmity of the villagers, her first contact with a helpful brownie, and the complications that stem from Wendell’s arrival. As time passes, she documents her research success and challenges, her interactions with the people of Hrafnsvik, and the irritation (and secret attraction) she feels for Wendell. We also see her document her risky forays into the faerie kingdom, as well as the dismay she feels as she becomes ensnared by enchantments and loses track of time… and perhaps loses track of herself as well.

Although the beginning is a bit slow, eventually Emily’s story picks up steam. Her actions are very determined and brave, even while taking foolhardy risks. Although Emily depicts Wendell in her journal with a great sense of annoyance, it’s easy to see through her irritation and to find Wendell just as charming and delightful as she secretly sees him.

I enjoyed the inventiveness of the story, the setting, and the characters very much. I did feel that the device of telling the story through Emily’s journal became a hindrance in the latter half of the story. There’s a lack of suspense in the storytelling — if Emily is writing the story of a dangerous escape in her journal, then we know right away that she DID escape… so while the details may be exciting, there’s no question about the outcome. (I also felt confused after the big climactic moment — because Emily’s description of the event ends after she leaves the scene, yet I wanted to know what happened next in the scene she left! Sorry, being deliberately vague to avoid spoilers…)

Overall, Emily Wilde’s Encyclopaedia of Faeries is a captivating, entertaining read. I wished for a bit more in spots, but still enjoyed reading it. There’s a planned sequel, and since several plot points are left unresolved at the end of this book, I’ll be on the lookout for #2!

23Oct2019

Shelf Control #188: Firebird by Mercedes Lackey

Posted in Shelf Control by Lisa @ Bookshelf Fantasies

Welcome to Shelf Control — an original feature created and hosted by Bookshelf Fantasies.

Shelf Control is a weekly celebration of the unread books on our shelves. Pick a book you own but haven’t read, write a post about it (suggestions: include what it’s about, why you want to read it, and when you got it), and link up! For more info on what Shelf Control is all about, check out my introductory post, here.

Want to join in? Shelf Control posts go up every Wednesday. See the guidelines at the bottom of the post, and jump on board!

Title: Firebird
Author: Mercedes Lackey
Published: 1996
Length: 352 pages

What it’s about (synopsis via Goodreads):

In Mercedes Lackey’s Firebird, Ilya, son of a Russian prince, is largely ignored by his father and tormented by his larger, older brothers. His only friends are three old people: a priest, a magician, and a woman who toils in the palace dairy. From them Ilya learns faith, a smattering of magic, and the power of love–all of which he will need desperately, for his life is about to be turned upside-down.

The prince’s magnificent cherry orchard is visited at midnight by the legendary Firebird, whose wings are made of flame. Ilya’s brothers’ attempts to capture the magical creature fail. When Ilya tries to catch the Firebird, he sees her as a beautiful woman and earns a magical gift: the speech of animals.

Banished, the young man journeys through a fantastical Russia full of magical mazes, enchanted creatures, and untold dangers. As happens in the best fairy tales, Ilya falls in love with an enchanted princess, but to win her freedom will be no easy task.

How and when I got it:

Yet another find at a library book sale! No idea when — but probably in the last two years at some point.

Why I want to read it:

I’ve never read anything by Mercedes Lackey, and I know I should! She’s one of those authors whose books I’ve been wanting to read, yet there are so many that I never know where to start. Any suggestions? I grabbed Firebird when I saw it, and I do think it sounds great — but as someone new to this author, I wonder if this is representative of her works, or if there’s a different book (or set of books) that I should try first. Any recommendations?

What do you think? Would you read this book?

Please share your thoughts!

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Write a blog post about a book that you own that you haven’t read yet.
Add your link in the comments!
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Have fun!

11Jul2014

Flashback Friday: The Good Fairies of New York

Posted in Flashback Friday by Lisa @ Bookshelf Fantasies

Flashback Friday is a weekly tradition started here at Bookshelf Fantasies, focusing on showing some love for the older books in our lives and on our shelves. If you’d like to join in, just pick a book published at least five years ago, post your Flashback Friday pick on your blog, and let us all know about that special book from your reading past and why it matters to you. Don’t forget to link up!

This week on Flashback Friday:

The Good Fairies of New York by Martin Millar
(published 2006)

Synopsis (Goodreads):

When a pair of fugitive Scottish thistle fairies end up transplanted to Manhattan by mistake, both the Big Apple and the Little People have a lot of adjusting to do. Heather and Morag just want to start the first radical fairy punk rock band, but first they’ll have make a match between two highly unlikely sweethearts, start a street brawl between rival gangs of Italian, Chinese, and African fairies, help the ghost of a dead rocker track down his lost guitar, reclaim a rare triple-bloomed Welsh poppy from a bag lady with delusions of grandeur, disrupt a local community performance of A Midsummer Night’s Dream, and somehow manage to stay sober enough to save all of New York from an invasion of evil Cornish fairies.

If they can stop feuding with each other, that is.

A cute and cuddly fairy story… this is not. But it’s inventive as hell and lots of fun. How could it not be, with an opening like this:

Dinnie, an overweight enemy of humanity, was the worst violinist in New York, but was practicing gamely when two cute little fairies stumbled through his fourth-floor window and vomited on the carpet. . . .

The Good Fairies of New York is a fluffy, entertaining, silly read, but it really suited my mood on the day that I read it way back when. And it left me wanting to check out Lonely Werewolf Girl, Martin Millar’s next novel — which is apparently about a teenage werewolf in the Scottish Highlands. So this Flashback Friday also serves as a note to self: Read that werewolf book already!

What flashback book is on your mind this week?

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Check out other FF posts… and discover some terrific hidden gems to add to your TBR piles!

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