Some spoilers abound for the second volume in the “Emily Wilde” series – a cozy and whimsical tale filled with fun and fright
Good day to you all! Hope everyone’s having a great week so far. This week I finished the second book in the Emily Wilde series, “Emily Wilde’s Map of the Otherlands.” I’ve been meaning to get back to the world of faeries, and I finally did! I really enjoyed the first of the series, “Emily Wilde’s Encyclopaedia of Faeries,” and I really hoped this one would have the same charm and delight.
Here’s a quick synopsis: the sequel follows our favorite scholar, Emily Wilde, as she’s continuing her job as a professor at Cambridge while also brainstorming on writing another book about the fae. Her fellow colleague, Wendell Bambleby, also continues to do his job – which seems to entail being extremely charming, wonderfully full of life, and vexing Miss Antisocial herself, Emily Wilde. However; this doesn’t stop her from stressing about her developing feelings for the exiled faerie king as well as his marriage proposal hanging over her head.
But trouble brews in Cambridge; faerie assassins show up to kill Wendell, and it’s only a matter of time before they succeed in their mission. To stop Wendell’s evil stepmother and finally take his place on the throne, Emily and company travel to Austria to find the faerie door that will lead them to Wendell’s home realm. But they must hurry, for death may come for one of our beloved scholars sooner than they think.
My star rating: a delightful 4 out of 5.
I can honestly say this is one of the few books where I love both main characters for their strengths and their faults. I love Emily’s passion and determination to study the faeries at almost any cost. I love Wendell’s laissez faire attitude and his ability to charm and make friends with complete strangers. I love how even though they are opposites in almost every which way (and professional “rivals”), Emily and Wendell have found common ground, and have grown to care for each other. Wendell has found a way into our reserved scholar’s heart and I’m all here for this particular grumpy/sunshine relationship.
Another aspect of Emily and Wendell’s relationship that interested me was how Wendell’s marriage proposal hung over Emily’s head throughout the book. Wendell proposed to Emily in “Encyclopaedia of Faeries”, but she never answered him. She didn’t say yes, but she didn’t say no either. Wendell would bring it up every once in a while, wanting her to say yes and put him out of his misery, but he would do so with a teasing tone. Emily would always push the topic aside and bring up another topic, usually something academic, which would bore Wendell.
The reason this intrigued me was because I could tell she was truly conflicted with the proposal. She really cares for him, but the fear was obvious. If she said yes, she would be betrothed to the rightful king of a faerie realm. A realm that would scare even the bravest of mortals. She would have to give up the life she knows to be with him in this realm, and that is a big conflict in her mind as well as her heart. I liked that added dimension of her indecisiveness.
But this doesn’t stop her from having feelings for Wendell, but of course she’s really bad at basic social cues and interacting with other people overall that when she finally decides to flirt with Wendell he has no idea she’s flirting. Adorable.
There were footnotes in the first book of the series, and this one is no exception. In the beginning I read each one, but after about halfway through the book I lost interest and just skipped them. They add extra context to certain things, but they’re not needed to understand what’s going on. Usually just notes about other scholars and academics in the field of dryadology. I found that when I read them it took me out of the story, so I stopped. However; I do understand why they’re there. This is written as an academic journal by Emily. I’m sure she puts those notes in there for when she’s finally home to write her latest paper or book and needs those extra pieces of information to flesh out her work. But when the “journal entries” got into the nitty gritty of the events she’s writing about, reading the footnotes took me out. It could be a bit jarring to be in the middle of a heated dialogue session, then see an asterisk and slide your eyes to the bottom margin. Meh, I’m good Emily, but thank you.
The climactic events near the end of the book are tense, and I felt Emily’s fear when she had to go through a faerie door to fulfill a life-saving mission. I didn’t feel like anyone would actually die, especially Emily. There’s something to be said about making the decision to write the story through Emily’s eyes, in her own journal. The stakes were just high enough, and I wasn’t stressing too hard about my favorite characters. However; that didn’t stop me from tensing up during some parts because of how eerie they were. The world of fae can be scary!
Overall, this book is a true treat, and I was excited to see that there will be another book in the series! I can’t wait to see what Emily and Wendell get up to next.
Have you read “Emily Wilde’s Map of the Otherlands” yet? How did you like it? Is it still in your TBR? Let me know down in the comments, I always love to hear from you.
Until next time, my lovelies!
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