Reviews provided by Syndetics
Library Journal Review
In the follow-up to Emily Wilde's Encyclopaedia of Faeries, Emily's new research project/adventure is more dangerous and action-packed than her last. While the work on that previous reference book almost compelled Emily to marry a cruel fairy king, research for her new atlas involves poison, assassins, and ravenous fox fairies. It may also require marriage to a different fairy king. Eli Potter and Michael Dodds return as audio narrators. Potter performs the bulk of the book, narrating the contents of Emily's journals, while Dodds narrates the portions of the novel where Emily is absent or incapacitated. Having one primary narrator adds extra depth to the audiobook, as Potter allows the careful portrait she's crafted of Emily to fray at the edges. Potter conveys that (no matter how measured and professional Emily believes herself to be) her relationship with academic rival Wendell Bambleby and her harrowing adventures are changing her, improving her ability to socialize and imparting a kind of cruel practicality that suggests Emily could be an excellent queen of the fairylands. VERDICT This excellent series installment will leave listeners desperate to find out what Emily's up to next.--Matthew Galloway
Publishers Weekly Review
Set in September 1910, seven months after the conclusion of Emily Wilde's Encyclopaedia of Faeries, the entrancing second volume in Fawcett's Emily Wilde series focuses on her protagonist's attempts to locate a faerie nexus in the alpine village of St. Liesl. Emily's interest in the cozy-yet-sinister village is not strictly professional: though she aspires to publish a map of Faerie kingdoms, she also wants to help her colleague and love interest, Wendell Bambleby, find the mystical door leading back to his home realm. Joining them are straitlaced Farris Rose, the head of Cambridge's dryadology department who is constantly threatening to fire them both, and Emily's enthusiastic but inexperienced niece, Ariadne. The presence of these characters helps contextualize Emily's personality, and her grumpiness plays better here than in the first installment. With Wendall's stepmother out for his blood, their search becomes even more urgent. Along the way, they must rescue two other dryadologists who have been trapped in time. Fawcett handily expands the scope of the series, building on all that worked in the first volume and largely doing away with anything that didn't. Upping the danger and the darkness while still retaining all the beauty of the prose, this takes Emily's story to new heights. Agent: Brianne Johnson, HG Literary. (Jan.)
Booklist Review
Emily Wilde is back (after Emily Wilde's Encyclopaedia of Faeries, 2023), and this time she is headed to the Austrian Alps, ostensibly to work on her map of Faerie. But she has an ulterior motive: Wendell Bambleby, fellow Cambridge professor, has been poisoned and Emily believes the cure lies in Silva Lupi, the faerie court where Wendell should be king. Plus, his stepmother keeps sending faerie creatures to campus in an attempt to assassinate him. A fellow scholar, Danielle de Gray, was lost trying to find the door to the kingdom, but Emily, along with Wendell, her niece, Ariadne, her dog, Shadow, and, unexpectedly, the Head of the Department of Dryadology, are determined. A mysterious man bedecked with ribbons appears to Emily, but that's nothing compared to the dangers she and her motley crew face, from killer fox-like faeries to otherworldly magic. Once again, the tale is told through Emily's journal, with scholarly asides in footnotes adding to the charm. Readers will be pleased that curmudgeonly Emily hasn't lost too much of her edge, but she's still susceptible to unexpected bonds of friendship. This utterly enchanting series will appeal to readers of Gail Carriger's Parasol Protectorate books.
Kirkus Book Review
The second in a series chronicling the adventures of an English dryadologist--an academic studying faeries--in an alternate Europe. Emily Wilde has refused the marriage proposal of her former academic rival, Wendell Bambleby, because she would be mad to marry a deposed faerie king disguised as a human. But she has devoted herself to finding a door into his kingdom, which would allow him to take back the realm stolen from him by his stepmother. Emily's quest takes her to the isolated Alpine village of St. Liesl, accompanied by Wendell and two unexpected companions: Emily's niece Ariadne, an aspiring dryadologist, and Farris Pole, the prickly head of the Dryadology Department, who blackmailed Emily into including him. Much of the plot follows the outline of the previous volume, Emily Wilde's Encyclopaedia of Faeries (2023): Emily and her cohort stay in a guesthouse; everyone but Emily manages to befriend the locals (she's hopeless at social niceties); Emily encourages hikes into the countryside, where they have perilous encounters with the local faeries; and Emily's determination leads her to behave rashly, endangering everyone's lives, until her cleverness and intuitive understanding of faerie behavior allow her to triumph. But Emily's adventures remain entertaining, thanks to the neurodivergent heroine whose blunt behavior and affinity for peculiar logic present a problem when interacting with humans but prove an asset with faeries. This book also offers new emotional depths for Emily, who struggles with her growing but potentially life-threatening love for Wendell, unexpected affection for her niece, and fraught relationship with Farris Pole. Now that she has people to care about, the previously solitary young woman has to reckon even more closely with the consequences of her behavior and how it affects those around her. Emily feels like a character worth following; hopefully the next installment shakes up the format a little. A strong second outing for a well-built world and an interesting, strangely well-matched pair of lovers. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.