Emily Wilde's Encyclopaedia of Faeries

I love faeries and folklore, so the concept of a lady professor who studied faeries immediately piqued my interest.

In this tale, Emily, who has devoted her life to her academic studies, journeys to a remote region to document the faerie life there and discovers far more than she bargained for—changelings, faerie rulers, and all sorts of unnatural dangers.

Through it all, she’s accompanied by her dog—and of course, there’s more to his nature than is immediately apparent (I won’t say more to avoid spoilers). The use of folklore, the academic protagonist, and the adorable dog companion made the Encylopaedia… show more.

Like the fictional Emily Wilde, I’m a scholar who’s captivated by elves and faerie lore. I’ve visited out-of-the-way villages on icy islands in the far north, like Emily’s Ljosland, looking for the hidden folk. But Emily, unlike me, actually found them—or they found her—putting her and her friends in peril of their lives.

Author Heather Fawcett’s love and respect for the ancient lore of the north shines through in this wonderful exploration of friendship and belonging. I’ll be looking for the sequel.

OMG, this book is such fun! I love fantasy, but there's only so many times you can read about someone saving the world… sometimes it's good to have a smaller focus.

Emily Wilde is an intrepid Victorian academic, and the book is her research diary (complete with footnotes) of a field trip to the village of  Hrafnsvik to catalogue the local faeries.

I loved Emily's spiky character – she's not very good with normal people – and the slow development of her relationship with Wendell Bambleby, who she suspects of wanting to steal her research.

The writing is lovely, both… show more.

This was a captivating story about a professor who is an expert on all things faerie and her adventures to investigate the faeries who live in the harsh winter climate of Hrafnsvik.

Emily was such a relatable character and I personally felt that we had a lot in common with the way we think and navigate life. The world of faerie was mysterious and beautiful, and Emily and her companion from university are such a fun pair to follow on their adventures. I’d definitely recommend this to someone who loves fairy stories and scholarly adventures!

Heather Fawcett utterly enchanted me with this first novel in her Emily Wilde series.

Much like her protagonist, a brilliant yet fundamentally flawed professor of Dryadology, I felt like I fell through a portal into an imaginative and provocative land. 

Charming yet not twee, funny yet not without gravitas. From the setting description to the characters, the world became so real to me I didn’t want to leave it. Fortunately, there is a sequel coming!