The most unexpected unbelievably magical and whimsical story. More people need to read this book because it deserves to get all the love in the world!!

Thank you to Netgalley and Little, Brown Book Group UK for an e-ARC of this book in exchange for my honest review.

Such a unique and original story! I've never read anything like this before, it felt like something in between a documentary and a dark fairytale, with an atmosphere so vividly described that it really brought the story to life (I couldn't imagine not reading this is the winter time!).

I was afraid that I would grow bored with the journal-style narration, but I must say that it worked really well with the plot, it's fantasy woven with folklore, legends and traditions, and I found the result to be enchanting in a kind of old-fashioned way, it has a distinct sense of "past times" that made me feel almost nostalgic.

I really appreciated the representation of Emily's social anxiety, it's something not often talked about in fantasy and it made me connect to her even more, especially because it was described in a very accurate way.
Wendell and his mannerism are so funny yet so charismatic, I'm still not sure if I really figured him out, but I'm obsessed and I need more of his quirkiness.

Fans of A Discovery of Witches and His Dark Materials will embrace this - from the mention of the Cambridge University Library of Dryadology, I knew I’d found my people (literally!). Professor Wilde is a refreshing character in the dark (light?) academia genre, and I enjoyed exploring the worlds of the Folk alongside her and Shadow. Perfect reading as the year closes.

I’m really sad to say that this book just wasn’t for me. It’s a super low-stakes, slow fantasy, chock full of world-building and I can absolutely understand its audience—it’s just not me.

Aesthetically, it was gorgeous. The atmosphere was spot on and described really well. Unfortunately, that’s where my enjoyment ended.

I think the main issue here is the plot. There are a few plots here and there that feel like side plots but I’m still not sure what the main plot was, and the side plots felt so low-stakes that I was just bored.

I didn’t particularly vibe with either Emily or Wendell and, though I enjoyed their dynamic at first, they began to grate on me by the end of the book and I didn’t enjoy the romance.

I understand why the book was told through Emily’s POV/journal entries, but her POV just dragged. I enjoyed the small taste of Wendell’s POV much more, but I think this book would have benefited from being in third person (and perhaps seeing some of the townsfolk’s POVs here and there.)

Overall, I really just didn’t like anything much about this book and I struggled to finish it. I would still recommend giving it a shot if you enjoy slower, low-stakes, cozier fantasy.

Content warnings: Blood, self-injury, violence, murder, kidnapping, mentions of suicide, mentions of torture, mentions of animal death/sacrifice.

Thank you to Orbit for the review copy. All reviews are 100% honest.

I was pleasantly surprised by Emily Wilde’s Encyclopaedia of Faeries. From the cover, I was expecting a historical tale and fairies akin to the Cottingley garden variety but this tale was modern day, set on a remote Nordic island of snow and ice with a tale that felt influenced by Susannah Clarke’s more sinister land of Fairie.
Emily Wilde was a sassy character who felt an equal match to the trickster other worldly creatures and whose love / hate relationship with her fellow academic Wendell Bambleby kept the story going amidst the tales of changelings and bogles.
I loved immersing myself in those veiled, mythical lands of natural decadence and fantasy. A brilliant winter read.

I received an e-arc from Netgalley and the Publishers in exchange for an honest review.

This book promises a world of faeries and academia, and it gives that, in a way. However, it wasn't entirely what I expected it to be. Don't get me wrong, it wasn't bad, it just wasn't entirely for me. Based on the first page I'm expecting a research journal where the main focus is the research that the Main Character is conducting and then it just... reads like the Main Character is writing a novel instead of a research journal. In the first chapter we have details of how a conversation went word-for-word. Which is fine, but it doesn't work when the reader is also told it's a research journal, at least not for me.

In the end it just wasn't really doing it for me, unfortunately. Not to say it's not a good story on it's own, it just didn't quite work for me with the way it was written. Or I might have enjoyed it better if I didn't think of it as a research journal the entire way through, as we're told it is on the first page. I'd definitely recommend reading an excerpt of the book before picking it up, which I didn't/couldn't do, to make sure it's really something you'll like.

I got this book as an e-arc via Netgalley and it was PERFECT for the cosy cold season!
While I am obsessed with Dark Academia, this book showed me the beauty of the other side: light academia.

We follow our main character Emily who is a Cambridge professor and expert on the study of faeries. Which totally works and feels 100% legit (and makes me question my career choices). She is currently working on the world's first encyclopedia of faerie lore. (Which again can we please get this in real life it sounds so cool😭).
In order to complete her work she needs to travel north to find the Hidden Ones and uncover their secrets. Which brings her to a lovely small grumpy town in the North called Hrafnsvik. Where she is super bad at making human connections, stumbles upon her academic rival and gets lost in the faerie world and their magic. And might even fall for one who was very close to her all along.
While normally I dont do romance this had the PERFECT vibes. The doggie companion made this book extra cosy. The footnotes made the faerie lore come to life. I loved the mythologie and explanations behind every finding. I loved that our main character is a ginormous bookworm who does not do well with human interactions, understand hospitality but in the ends becomes part of the small town family.
When this book comes out in January dont wait and dive in when you can because I will promise you it will make your year start with a smile.😊

What a perfectly lovely fairy tale of a novel!
I really loved everything about it: from the setting in a wintry, remote Scandinavian island with its fascinating villagers and their ways; to the faerie imagery; to the 2 main characters and their entertaining adventure and budding love. But what I loved the most was the writing. Gorgeous wit is my weakness and Emily Wilde's Encyclopaedia of Faeries abounds with it!

I enjoyed reading this whimsical, well written novel. It was intricately told and included lots of detail in regards to the setting and characters. I liked the premise and Emily as a character, however, for me, it was too slow moving and the plot didn't have enough in there to keep me fully invested.

I think the academia aspect of this story was great and showed a vast knowledge of the different types of fae and folklore. Emily is a great character - grumpy and stoic, dedicated to her work and good at what she does. She's introverted and introspective, which makes the first half of the book a bit tedious, as it's from her perspective through journal entries. Once we're properly introduced to Wendell, he brings more life into the story. He's the perfect balance to Emily, who comes out of her shell a bit more throughout their interactions.

The second half of the story moves faster, with a lot of things happening at once. The ending made me consider reading book 2 when it comes out.

Overall, enjoyable, but a bit hard to get through.

Firstly I’d like to thank the publisher and NetGalley for the eARC 😍❤️ I’m eternally grateful as this was one of my most anticipated reads of 2022 😍🥰

EQEoF tells the story of Emily Wilde, a Cambridge professor who is compiling the worlds first Encyclopaedia of faekind. She’s nearing the completion of the book and travels to Hrafnsvik to study the fae there. Though she has a sharp mind and is clever beyond compare Emily is slightly lacking in social skills and rubs the locals up the wrong way when she arrives at her destination, something that is not rectified until her colleague, the dashing academic rival, Wendell Bambleby arrives in town. He’s charming and everyone takes to him immediately and soon he settles in quite nicely. Emily is completely annoyed by his presence but wants to get the encyclopaedia finished. As she begins to venture further and further into the forest outside of town she begins to find fae, mystery and other things she’s been searching for…but there are other things closer to home that are troubling her as well…Just who is Wendell Bambleby?

This book is just fabulous 🥰❤️ For someone who loves fae it is perfect 😍😍 Emily and Wendell are my new favourites, they’re just fantastic together!! I love how magical the how feel of the book is, the setting makes the whole story feel so special as well!! Being so cold and icy makes me feel so urgent towards the end!! The ending was everything!! I just loved it, it was so perfect I felt like it was written for me 🥰😍

Emily Wilde's Encyclopedia of Faeries was so much more than what I expected it to be and I’m so excited for the next book!! ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

*thank you to the publisher and to Netgalley for an early copy of this book*

I enjoyed this so much. bit of a slow moving plot but rather enjoyable and entertaining read and I would definitely recommend it to everyone.

Emily Wilde's Encyclopaedia of Faeries was a very charming and cozy read which I absolutely adored. This book had a unique approach to faeries and was unlike every other faerie book I have read. When I saw that there was academic rivalry in this I knew that this was a must-read. Formatting the book as diary entries worked so well for this story and made me fall in love with the main character Emily almost immediately, especially since I could find myself in her quite a few times. The character development of not only her but also Wendell was incredible. Heather Fawcett writes characters so well that I found myself rooting for almost every one of them. I was honestly sad when the book ended as I didn't want to leave this beautiful world and its characters just yet but I'll definitely be back for book two!

«𝑶𝒉 𝑮𝒐𝒅. 𝑺𝒉𝒆 𝒘𝒂𝒏𝒕𝒔 𝒕𝒐 𝒅𝒊𝒔𝒄𝒖𝒔𝒔 𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒐𝒓𝒚 𝒂𝒕 𝒂 𝒎𝒐𝒎𝒆𝒏𝒕 𝒍𝒊𝒌𝒆 𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒔. 𝑰 𝒂𝒎 𝒅𝒐𝒐𝒎𝒆𝒅, 𝒂𝒓𝒆𝒏'𝒕 𝑰?»

I wasn't expecting to like this book as much as I did! Two of the key reasons for me to pick it up were: faeries and a Scandinavian setting. And since it was also my first contact with the light academia genre (with a diary/journal entries format), it picked my interest, and it ended up being quite refreshing.

The beginning of this book is a bit slow, as it introduces us to Emily and what she does and where she's heading to. I also think the use of old English threw me a bit off in the beginning as I had to stop a few times to understand some meanings, but that feeling quickly faded away as I kept progressing.

We get to see Emily heading towards her new expedition in Hrafnsvik and struggling with social interactions with the local townsfolk, as she's a character that places her discoveries and scientific explorations above everything else. Even though I'm a really empathetic person, I was really surprised by how much I liked reading and getting to know Emily and her slow but realistic development throughout the entire book.

There are romantic elements that I think were perfectly placed for this kind of book, and I cherished each one of them (I highlighted a lot of cute quotes!). I also really appreciate the banter between Emily and her academic rival, Wendell Bambleby (please keep it coming in the sequel, I need more).

I mentioned that the beginning of the book is rather slow, picking up at about 40%, however, I'm used to, and rather like, this kind of pace if done correctly since it reminded me a lot of Juliet Marillier's works, especially within her Sevenwaters trilogy.

Even though it didn't end with a cliffhanger, I'm pretty much invested as the author laid out some intriguing things around and left me with some questions, which, hopefully, will be answered in the sequel!

I had a really great time while reading this, and I highly encourage anyone to try and pick up this wonderful book by Heather Fawcett.

Thank you, NetGalley, for providing me with an e-ARC in exchange for an honest review!

Emily Wilde has arrived in the remote village of Hrafnsvik to carry out field research into the Hidden Ones – the most elusive of the faerie folk – for her encyclopaedia of faeries. Emily finds herself struggling to build relations with the locals, until the arrival of her friend and colleague, Wendell Bambleby, who charms the people of Hrafnsvik as he does everyone. But Bambleby is a mystery himself, and Emily already has a lot to discover.

I enjoyed the story and the characters. Emily is your typical antisocial academic, and Bambleby is a fabulous, sassy character. The story really picked up when he arrived. I also liked the residents of Hrafnsvik, and Emily’s fae friend, Poe.

Emily Wilde’s Encyclopaedia is whimsical and filled with folklore and magic, but I found the narration a little bit stilted. As often happens when an author is writing from the point of view of an academic, Emily’s narrative voice comes across as a little bit wooden. This kind of worked with Emily’s personality, but it kept the tone of the book pretty subdued and slow. I could have done with a bit less of Emily’s standoffishness, and a bit more fire.

Emily Wilde's Encyclopaedia of Faeries turned out to be a delightful fantasy scholarly adventure (even if I find it just slightly in the shadow of Marie Brennan's A Natural History of Dragons). The fae are suitably weird and creepy, and Emily makes for an endearing but unusual protagonist (she is not just another "not like other girls" figure but genuinely feels at odds with society), coded neurodivergent and with a good amount of voice in her narration. The relationship between her and Wendell is a highlight, and works as romance, although I think an aro Emily developing her unique friendship with him might have been even better given the themes of her making connections and developing empathy. I'm a little confused by why Ljósland is just an obvious stand-in for Iceland when the world seems mostly to match ours, but this doesn't ultimately matter much. One final but important note is that, with Emily investigating very obviously sentient beings, this book has distinct echoes of the kind of colonial anthropology which created racist stereotypes of certain cultures and their "natures" - I get why the fae are treated as alien, but it's always worth standing back from narratives that categorise whole groups of people-like beings as malevolent or similar and acknowledging the implications, however fun the book may be.

To be honest I did not expect to love this book as much as I do now. The cover's really charming, but as I'm not the world's greatest romance fan, I actually thought, "Of course this is going to end in a romance," with a slight roll of my eyes. I also wasn't too sure if the journal format would hold, especially because it seemed to slow the pace at first.

BUT — yes, caps for emphasis — I was so very wrong. The journal format was great for a protagonist like Emily; her voice easily reflected her awkwardness and quirks, and made for an interesting read despite the initial series of mundane events. At some point we got a surprise POV and I absolutely cackled at how enjoyable and distinct that character's voice was. I could practically hear both their voices in my head.

The plot also took a sudden turn about a third of the way through, and it remained unapologetically unexpected and interesting until the end. Though maybe my lack of exposure to fae-related stories added to my awe. (I certainly did not expect Emily to do that thing with her hand and I gasped. 😉)

I was wrong about the romance too. It was actually really good! I enjoyed Emily and Wendell's back and forth, there were many fun but unexpected elements to their relationship, and some of their scenes were just plain delightful. I'm definitely looking forward to their next adventure!

RECOMMENDED LISTENING: "Fairy Prince" by Brandon Flechter

Favorite character: Wendell
Three words: enchanting / whimsical / unique
Favorite quote: I'm an explorer, Wendell. I might call myself a scientist, but that is the heart of it. I wish to know the unknowable.

Emily Wilde's Encyclopedia of Faeries is set in the early 1900s in Scandinavia and follows Emily Wilde, a Cambridge professor and leading Dryadologist (an expert on faeries). She is writing the first encyclopedia about faeries that includes all of their species, and all she has left to do is to explore the elusive faeries on the small island Ljosland to finish her book.
As good as Emily is at her academic researches and her knowledge of the faeries, as bad she is at understanding people and doing small talk. She is content with her books, her dog and the faeries.
When she arrives in the small town Hrafnsvik and doesn't have an interest in befriending the locals, she instantly upsets them, which is a problem, as Emily needs them for their folklore about the faeries and their experience with them.
Fortunately, and to her displeasure, Wendell Bambleby, her academic rival and only friend, arrives shortly after Emily. As always, he charms his way into the hearts of the townspeople and annoys Emily. Now that he's already on the island, Emily curmudgeonly agrees to work with him, but as they get closer to uncover the secrets of the faeries, Emily begins to suspect that Wendell isn't entirely human himself.

I suppose most children fall in love with faeries at some point, but my fascination was never about magic or the granting of wishes. The Folk were of another world, with its own rules and customs - and to a child who always felt ill-suited to her own world, the lure was irresistible.

Emily Wilde's Encyclopedia of Faries is an amazing book with a quite unique world building and I loved it! At first, I was a bit overwhelmed by the magic system and the different types of faeries, because it's super complex and Emily is an absolute expert on the subject. You get different types of faeries, some more animal like ones and some that appear human. I especially enjoyed reading about the first ones, as they aren't the typical fae you find in most books. I feel like we only experience a small part of the faerie's world and that there is a lot more to come! For me, the worldbuilding is the perfect mix of whimsical and gruesome.
The story is written in a very unique way, as Emily's academic journal, and I sometimes felt, that important parts of Emily's experiences were missing because she just didn't write them down. That made it seem like some of the problems, she and Wendell have to deal with, are being solved too quickly. Additionally, Emily is a socially distant character, focused on her work rather than her feelings, and the writing style made her even more distant to me, as she never bothered to write her feelings down. It was harder for me to build a connection with her that way. On the other hand, I really love books that are written differently and not by default.
I absolutely can't wait to read the next book and I'm so excited for Emily's and Wendell's story to continue, and how it will be written as Emily's researches for her book seem to be finished.

I started reading this story on the 22nd of December 2022. Unfortunately, it is a DNF for me as it did not grab me at the beginning. However, this might appeal to readers who enjoy fairies and historical fiction.

My eyes were drawn initially to the gorgeous cover of the book. Enter the world of the hidden folk - and discover the most whimsical, enchanting and heart-warming tale you'll read this year, featuring the intrepid Emily Wilde. . .
Simply Devine ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

I wasn’t really sure what to expect from this book, but I liked it. I didn’t love it, and I’m not sure I completely enjoyed it. There were parts that I enjoyed, but other parts that felt dragged out. I also struggled with some of the descriptions as they went on for so long, I forgot what was being described. However there’s something about this book that kept me intrigued enough that I wanted to keep reading. I liked most of the characters, and some were very interesting and I wanted to know more about them. If there’s a book two to come then I will read it, but I’m not desperate to know what happens next.