AUTHOR: Heather Fawcett
SERIES: Emily Wilde #2
GENRE: fantasy
AGE: adult
BLURB: 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.
Thank you to Orbit for an e-ARC of this book!
I ADORED the first book in this series and I absolutely LOVED this one! This was such an amazing follow up to the first book, and I can’t even explain how much I adored it.
Things this book had that I adored:
➯ cozy fantasy vibes (all day long!!!)
➯ the best grumpy x sunshine duo!!
➯ Wendell (he gets his own line. I love him)
➯ Emily (she also gets her own line. I love her.)
➯ Shadow and Orga!
➯ Mummy/Indiana Jones like feeling
I actually adored every part of this book, it’s hard to pick one thing without being too spoilerish, but suffice to say there is no part of this book that was bad.
There was action and adventure, there was mystery, there was a tad bit of romance, and it was all just…so…warm. I can’t even explain how happy this book made me. It was like being wrapped in a warm snuggly blanket and being kissed by a cat. In other words, it was one of the most perfect books I’ve ever read.
This book also retained its atmospheric, and whimsical feeling the first book gave us, partially because it was written in an epistolary style. Once again, it worked so well for this story!
We did have a few additional characters in this book, and they definitely added a different type of humor and atmosphere to the book.
Speaking of atmosphere, I still love how the fairies are depicted in this book — because they feel like a more “old style” fairy rather than what we’ve come to associate with fantasy “fae”.
I REALLY REALLY need book three like now!
This really was an excellent continuation of the series!