Notes from the Shelf

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Emily Wilde’s Encyclopedia of Faeries by Heather Fawcett is a 317-page cozy fantasy and is the first book in the Emily Wilde series. Cambridge professor Emily Wilde is the foremost expert on the study of faeries. She is a meticulous researcher who’s writing the world’s first encyclopedia of faerie lore. But Emily is not good at people, with their small talk and parties. She much prefers the company of her books, her dog, and the Fair Folk.

So when she arrives in the small village of Hrafnsvik in the far north, Emily has no intention of befriending anyone. She also doesn’t care to spend any time with another new arrival: her insufferably handsome academic rival Wendell Bambleby, who manages to charm the townsfolk, insert himself into Emily’s research, and utterly confound and frustrate her.

As Emily gets closer to uncovering the secrets of the Hidden Ones, the most elusive of faeries, she also finds herself on the trail of another mystery: Who is Wendell Bambleby really and what does he truly want?

Since this book is categorized as cozy fantasy, and I’ve found other cozy fantasies to be low stakes and therefore quite boring, I was worried that this would also be a dull read, but I was pleasantly surprised to find that was not the case with Emily Wilde’s Encyclopedia of Faeries. There was enough action and darkness interspersed with the cozy feel to keep me invested in the story.

I’m glad Wendell showed up fairly early into the book, and I’m also glad it was acknowledged early on that Wendell is a faerie. I think that added some tension right away to the plot since Emily could no longer just do as she pleased. Emily and Wendell balance each other out quite well. They both come to care quite a lot about the townsfolk, which wouldn’t have happened if Emily was on her own. I found both of them to be likeable in their own way. I appreciated Emily’s scholarly tendencies and loved that Wendell was the homemaker with his sewing and decorating the cottage.

This book balances the cozy vibe with the dark nature of faeries very well. There were definitely moments that felt jarring, like the description of Poe with his razor-sharp fingers, Wendell killing the faeries to protect Emily in the woods, and Emily cutting off her finger, but for me these moments added so much more interest to the story and made it feel like there were very real stakes. It was also the best read for winter, with the setting being in a small village with harsh winters, ice faeries and cozy little cottages.

So far, this is the only cozy fantasy that I’ve really liked, and I’m looking forward to reading the other two books in the series. I give Emily Wilde’s Encyclopedia of Faeries 5 stars.

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