Emily Wilde's Encyclopaedia of Faeries (Emily Wilde, 1); Heather Fawcett

This was such a cozy little period piece fantasy! Most of my friends with similar reading tastes loved this book so I went in with high expectations. The book definitely delivered on most of what I was expecting and looking for, too! You have a socially awkward professor, Emily, who often gave me second hand embarrassment with just how easily she bungles social niceties. The over-the top, charming Wendell who is exceptionally lazy. And a world that is more akin to traditional fae folklore than what you typically see in most romantic fantasies nowadays which I adored! But the “romance” aspect is where this book fumbled a bit.

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Emily has traveled to the cold, remote island of Ljosland in order to study the last piece of fae for her encyclopedia—the Hidden Ones. She’s not expecting her charming scholarly coworker to follow after her, but it’s a good thing Wendell does, because without his charm, Emily would have starved due to her angering a whole village. Bambleby and Emily have great banter, and I love how over the top Bambleby is; it’s such a nice contrast to Emily who will do the right thing, but only if it also suits her scholarly ambitions. The whole book is meant to be a type of journal that Emily keeps to help her maintain a record of the different fae and fae items she finds during her visit, and I thought that format worked beautifully given the time period this story takes place (the book is set in 1909 when journaling was a big part of daily life). The faeries in this book are often creepy, mischievous in a way that’s dangerous, and often times blood thirsty, and yet this book was delightfully cozy. The format helped with that a lot, as the tension of “will they be ok?” is immediately removed knowing another journal entry is waiting. The writing style can feel a bit overwritten at times, but I thought it fit very nicely with Emily’s personality and the time period. I just wish the “romance” side had been given the same attention as all the unnecessary footnotes (sorry, I am not a fan of footnotes unless there's a point, or they are exceptionally funny).

I won’t go much into the romance because I don’t want to spoil anything, but I will say it needed more build up before we get to the place the book ended. There was so little of actual romance that I’d even hesitate to call this book a romantic fantasy. That may come more strongly into play for later books but it just wasn’t much of a factor here, which is too bad because it feels like such a missed opportunity. Especially when it comes to showing some of the emotional growth that Emily has toward the end of the book. Because I was expecting so much more from the romance, I’m giving this 4 stars but still love the idea of very real but very ethereal faeries occupying our world like the old folktales. And also, Shadow is the goodest boy so that helps make up for the lack of romance, too. I can’t wait to continue this series!