
Title: Emily Wilde’s Encyclopaedia of Faeries
Author: Heather Fawcett
Genre: Adult Fantasy / Fae
Publication Date: Janaury 10th, 2023
Publisher: Del Rey Books
Rating: ⭐⭐⭐
Thank you to the publisher and netgalley for a complimentary earc to review! All opinions are my own.

“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.” (Goodreads)

This book wasn’t a bad book but there were just a couple of things that kept me from latching onto it. I do think that this book will invest other readers and I wish it had worked better for me.
The book is told from one point-of-view and it comes from Emily Wilde. She is studying faeries and has found herself in a small village to continue out her work. I liked this idea a lot. Usually we see a lot of scholarly people but they aren’t out in the field and it usually doesn’t have to deal with the fae folk. It makes for an interesting premise. Emily is a very secluded woman who knows what she wants. I liked that about her because she was usually ostracized for having poor social skills, ha. I feel like we could have gotten along because of that.
The other characters were fine but I feel like some were just one dimensional and when I thought they would have more to do with the plot they didn’t.
My biggest issue with the book was the writing style. It’s a great idea to write it like scholarly journal entries but it made it very dull and I found myself not wanting to pick the book up. This may not be an issue for some.
Another issue I had was that many of the exciting parts don’t happen until after the halfway point. If I am already dulled by the writing and the pace is slow it’s just a disasterly combo for my reading mood.
I do think that some of the things she learned about the fae folk were cool but some just felt very short with no continuation. I just wish there had been more.
Overall, this was a decent book. I didn’t dislike it but I didn’t love it either. I’m sure that it will find its readers though because it is very unique.
