Title: Emily Wilde’s Encyclopedia of Faeries (Emily Wilde #1)
Author: Heather Fawcett
Genre: Fantasy
Publisher: Random House Audio
Publication Date: Jan 10, 2023
Format: Audiobook
Length: 12 hours

Read if you like: cozy fantasy, mythical creatures, fae realms and politics, academia setting, social pressure, light romance 

Rating: 

I’ve seen so many people fall in love with Emily Wilde’s Encyclopedia of Faeries by Heather Fawcett that it’s been on my TBR since it was released. Once it came into my library on audiobook, I knew within the first five minutes that I was going to love this book too.

This story had so many elements that I love, executed perfectly. There was academia, magic, fae and fae lore, mythical creatures of different sorts, and this undercurrent of coziness to the whole thing that enveloped me as I listened. I loved seeing Wilde’s relationships with those around her, particularly as she struggled to navigate the social cues of both regular and foreign societies. It was so enjoyable to see her get swept up into a larger story that brought all her magical studies to life.

I whipped through this book in just a couple of days and am already eager to get my hands on the sequel. I can’t wait to see where Wilde’s academic curiosity takes her from here in this fun fantasy. 

The Book Synopsis: Emily Wilde’s Encylopedia of Faeries

 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 encyclopedia 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.

The Review

Let me start by saying that the premise of this book was so much fun. I loved the academics, and the study of faeries by a particularly meticulous scholar delivered as much intrigue and enjoyment as I hoped it would. 

I thought it was an enjoyable twist on academia to place Wilde exclusively in a field study setting and felt like the Slavic-style, rural community she finds herself in was the perfect vehicle for her navigation of faerie and human culture. The objective observations that Wilde makes as she explores these new relationships and, at times, magical beings add such an interesting perspective, and Fawcett does a good job of clearly highlighting the various instances where Wilde is a less-than-reliable narrator, despite her efforts at objectivity. 

Speaking of Wilde, she’s such a wonderfully layered character. I loved her ambition and the way that it coalesced with her social awkwardness, it helped you to understand her motivations and how it is that she sees and interacts with the world. I also loved that she was unapologetically in love with her work. It often seemed, even in the presence of actual, real relationships, to be her one true love. Throughout the book you see her grow and find room for more complex relationships, but it never detracts from the passion she has for what she does. 

The plot moved at a great pace and I loved how different fae and pieces of magic unfurled different plotlines. It initially felt like the story would be a relatively straightforward one of navigating human cultural differences and the magic that is simultaneously at play, but quickly a whole series of events unfolded that I wasn’t anticipating.  Most of the time I was completely unsure where it was headed, which I love in a book. 

I listened to this book on audio and it was an exceptionally strong narration. At any given moment, I felt completely immersed in the story and had a hard time focusing on anything else. I’m so glad that I finally knocked this book off my TBR because it’s probably my favourite cozy fantasy I’ve read. I’ll definitely be picking up the sequel as soon as it’s available at my library.