November 6, 2023
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.
Starred review from March 1, 2024
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
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